On Dec. 28, 2025, French tenor Gustave Botiaux died at the age of 99. Opéra de Marseille was the first to announce the news.

Born on July 14, 1926 in Puteaux, France, Botiaux went on to win the 1954 Cannes tenor competition. During the 1955-56 season, he went on to sing at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels and went on to sing at the Opéra Garnier, where starred in several major roles.

He would end up performing many of the major French theaters including the Chorégies d’Orange, Arena of Nîmes, Opéra-Comique, Salle Favart and Opéra de Marseille. He did have some international appearances in Japan and the USSR.

Botiaux went on to perform many of the great operatic roles including  the title roles of “Lohengrin,” Samson in “Samson et Dalila,” Roméo in “Roméo et Juliette,” “Faust,” and “Werther,” Don José in “Carmen”, Julien in “Louise,” Cavaradossi in “Tosca,” Radames in “Aida,” the Duke of Mantua in “Rigoletto,” Turiddu in “Cavalleria Rusticana” and Pinkerton in “Madama Butterfly”.

The tenor became associated with such roles as Vasco de Gama in “L’Africaine,” “Sigurd” in the opera by Reyer, and Jean in “Hérodiade.”

From 1964 to 1968 he took a break from singing due to health issues but returned in “Hérodiade” at the Festival Aix-en-Provence. In 1973, he retired from the stage.

Botiaux several recordings behind including “Faust” “Carmen,” and “Tosca.”