Monument Jean Noté - Tournai

The monument to the baritone Jean-Baptiste Noté was inaugurated in 1929.

It consists of a bronze bust of Fortuné Deroubaix topped by a blue stone structure with a symbolic figure playing music and a naked, plump child.

As the child of a single mother, Jean Noté rarely attended school, which he left at the age of ten to work as a servant in a hosiery workshop . On Sunday evening he sang in the Café du Porcelet on the Grand Place of Tournai. After conscription and the draw, he was enlisted for six years in the 2nd artillery regiment in Mechelen. He deserted to Lille after returning too late, but returned and was sentenced to 28 days in military prison after which he was transferred to the 1st artillery regiment in Ghent.

While singing at concerts organized by his regimental comrades, Jean Noté was noticed by an officer for the power and beauty of his voice. With the permission of his conductor , he enrolled at the Royal Conservatory of Ghent. In 1884 Noté won the first prizes for singing and lyrical declamation. In 1885 he made his debut at the Lille Opera in Lucia di Lammermoor and Hérodiade. He was hired as a major operatic baritone at the Royal Theater of Antwerp , where he excelled in all works of the repertoire from 1887 to 1889. He caught the attention of the directors of the National Academy of Music in Paris after enormous success in Marseille in his two favorite roles Guillaume Tell and L'Africaine. His creation of the role of Hamilcar in Salammbô decided his engagement with the Paris Opera, where he made his debut in Rigoletto on May 6, 1893. From then on, the name of the powerful baritone appeared continuously in the Opera's repertoire program. He sang the role of Alberich in the French premiere of Richard Wagner's Siegfried at the Paris Opera on January 3, 19022.

He is buried in the South Cemetery of Tournai.

Willem Vandenameele