Jacques Pottier was born in
Darnétal on 17 August 1930. He entered the
Paris Conservatory in 1954, in the class of
Ketty Lapeyrette, while taking lessons in
Rouen with Rose Pocidalo with whom he made his debut in Massenet's
Werther in 1957. He was also taught by Paul Cabanel, Jean Claverie and
Maurice Faure, and after winning a first prize in singing at the
Paris Conservatory in 1956, he was awarded a grant to study at the
Accademia Musicale Chigiana in
Siena, Italy. In 1961 Pottier appeared at the
Opéra de Lille as Calaf in Puccini's
Turandot. The following year he entered the
Opéra National de Paris as a principal tenor. He performed there the role of the Italian Singer in
Der Rosenkavalier by Richard Strauss, alongside
Elisabeth Schwarzkopf. By 1972 he had performed roles in Verdi's
Rigoletto,
Il trovatore,
Aïda and
Falstaff, Donizetti's
Lucia di Lammermoor, Gounod's
Faust, Offenbach's ''
Les Contes d'Hoffmann'', Bizet's
Carmen, Wagner's
Der fliegende Holländer,
Tannhäuser and
Tristan und Isolde, Puccini's
Tosca and
La Bohème, Leoncavallo's
I Pagliacci, Mascagni's
Cavalleria rusticana, and Fauré's
Prométhée, In concert, he sang in Verdi's
Requiem and Beethoven's
Ninth Symphony. Pottier taught voice in Paris music conservatories at
Longjumeau,
Viry-Châtillon,
Palaiseau and
La Celle-Saint-Cloud. In the 1970s he taught French musical artists
Dalida,
Nicole Croisille,
Sheila,
Mireille Mathieu, == Recordings ==