Delacôte, Jacques

Delacôte, Jacques , French conductor; b. Remire-mont, Aug. 16, 1942. He studied at the Nancy Cons. (1956–60) and at the Paris Cons. (1960–63) before pursuing training in conducting with Swarowsky at the Vienna Academy of Music (1965–70). In 1971 he took first prize at the Mitropoulos Competition in N.Y., which led to his appointment as an assistant to Leonard Bernstein at the N.Y. Phil., with which he appeared as a conductor in 1972. In 1973 he made an impressive debut with the London Sym. Orch. when he was engaged on short notice to conduct Mahler’s 3rd Sym. He subsequently appeared as a guest conductor with many of the major European orchs. In 1981 he conducted Massenet’s Cendrillon in Paris, and thereafter was regularly engaged as a conductor with leading Paris Opéra theaters. He conducted Carmen at London’s Earls Court, Samson et Dalila in Barcelona, and Faust in Montreal in 1989. In 1990 he returned to London to conduct Faust at the English National opéra, and in 1991 he returned once more to that city to conduct Samson et Dalila at Covent Garden and Tosca at Earls Court. He was engaged to conduct Romeo et Juliette in Toronto in 1992. After conducting Le Cid at the Lyric Opéra in Chicago in 1993, he returned to London in 1994 to conduct Carmen at Covent Garden. In 1996 he returned to Covent Garden to conduct Samson et Dalila. Delacote is particularly known for the refinement and elegance he brings to his interpretations of the French opératic and symphonic masterworks.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire