Cossira (real name, Coussival), Emil

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Cossira (real name, Coussival), Emil

Cossira (real name, Coussival), Emil , French

tenor; b. Orthez, 1854; d. Quebec, Feb. 1923. After training in Bordeaux, he made his operatic debut as Gretry’s Richard Coeur de Leon at the Paris OperaComique in 1883, where he was chosen to create the title role in Saint-Saens’s Ascanio (March 21, 1890). In 1891, 1894, and 1900 he appeared at London’s Covent Garden, where he sang Faust, Romeo, Raoul, and Don Jose. In addition to the French repertoire, he appeared as a Wagnerian. He was the first to sing Tristan in Brussels (1894) and Walther von Stolzing in Lyons (1896).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire

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