Odette Le Fontenay

Odette Le Fontenay
Odette Le Fontenay, from a 1917 publication.
Born	Odette Le Flaguais October 6, 1885 Paris
Died	November 24, 1965 Broward County, Florida
Nationality	French, American
Other names	Odette le Fontenay, Odette le F. Coudert
Occupation	opera singer
Known for	sang with the Metropolitan Opera (1916–1917)

Odette Le Fontenay (October 6, 1885 – November 24, 1965), born Odette Le Flaguais, was a French soprano opera singer and music educator based in the United States after 1913. She sang with the Metropolitan Opera in its 1916–1917 season.

Odette Le Flaguais was born in Paris and raised in London, the daughter of Louis Adrien Georges Le Flaguais and Félicie McDougald Bouligny. Her parents divorced in 1895. She was a descendant of Spanish Louisiana governor Francisco Bouligny, and her grandfather was congressman John Edward Bouligny.^[1][2] She studied in Italy and Spain, in her youth.^[3]

Le Fontenay began her career at Covent Garden in London^[4] and with the Opéra-Comique in Paris, before moving to the United States. In 1914 she sang as a soloist with the John Philip Sousa band.^[5][6] In 1916 she sang in Melinda and her Sisters, a "suffrage operetta",^[7] with Frances Alda, Emmy Wehlen, Marie Dressler, Marie Doro, and other performers at the Waldorf Astoria's grand ballroom.^[8] In the 1916–1917 season, she sang with the Metropolitan Opera in New York,^[9] debuting in the same season as soprano Marie Sundelius.^[10] She had roles in The Magic Flute, The Marriage of Figaro, and Hansel and Gretel.

She toured across the United States, giving concerts and recitals, after her season with the Metropolitan Opera.^[3][11] A 1921 reviewer said that Le Fontenay gave a "rather unusual and altogether interesting" program and that she "displayed a voice of presentable quality and serviceable vocal equipment".^[12] She made recordings for the Edison Records and Victor companies, and even performed "duets" with recordings of her own voice in concerts, as a demonstration of Edison's "re-creation" technology.^[13][14]

Later, in the 1920s, Le Fontenay sang on radio programs,^[15][16] sometimes sharing the program with her husband.^[17] After a divorce, she taught voice at the Ethel Walker School in Simsbury, Connecticut, from 1935 to 1943.

In 1914, Odette Le Fontenay married fellow opera singer Philippe Gustave Coudert (1879–1944), a baritone, in New York.^[18] They had three children (Odette-Corinne, Marie Yolande, and Philippe Jr.) and divorced in 1932.^[19] She died in 1965, aged 80 years, in Florida.^[20]

• A 1918 Edison recording of Odette Le Fontenay, at the UCSB Cylinder Audio Archive.
• Four 1917 recordings of Odette Le Fontenay, from the National Jukebox, Library of Congress.
• "Odette Le Flaguais et Odette Le Fontenay sont la même personne" La généalogie d'Hervé (March 26, 2016). A blog post about Odette Le Fontenay, with documents and images; in French.
• Ashot Arakelyan, "Odette Le Fontenay" Forgotten Opera Singers (September 17, 2016). A blog post about Odette Le Fontenay, with images and timelines; in English.