Huguette Tourangeau

Huguette Tourangeau, CM (August 12, 1938 – April 21, 2018) was a French-Canadian operatic mezzo-soprano, particularly associated with the French and Italian repertories.

Huguette Tourangeau was born in Montreal, Quebec, and graduated in pedagogy and piano from the Montreal Marguerite-Bourgeoys College, before entering the Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montréal in 1958, where she was a pupil of Ruzena Herlinger (voice), Otto-Werner Mueller (repertory) and Roy Royal (declamation). In 1962, she was a soloist in Monteverdi's Vespro della Beata Vergine, in Montreal. She made her operatic debut as Mercédès in Carmen, under Zubin Mehta, in 1964, also in Montreal.

In 1964 Tourangeau won the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. The same year, she sang Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro at the Stratford Festival under Richard Bonynge. During the 1965–66 season, she appeared as Carmen in fifty-six cities throughout North America with the Metropolitan National Company. Around that time, she began a partnership with Dame Joan Sutherland and Bonynge, both on stage and on record. She was heard in Seattle as Malika in Lakmé; London as Urbain in Les Huguenots; and San Francisco as Elisabetta in Maria Stuarda, Adalgisa in Norma, and Prince Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus.

In 1967 and 1968, Tourangeau appeared with the New York City Opera, as Carmen. She made her formal Metropolitan Opera debut on November 28, 1973, as Nicklausse in The Tales of Hoffmann (with Plácido Domingo in the name part), and later sang Dorabella in Così fan tutte (1975–76), Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro (opposite Justino Díaz and Judith Blegen, 1976) and Parséïs in Esclarmonde (opposite Sutherland, 1976).