Quebec-born Jean-François Lapointe was quick to establish himself on the international opera scene, particularly in the French repertoire. His favourite roles include Pelléas from Pelléas et Mélisande, which he sang on numerous occasions (notably at La Scala in Milan) before tackling the role of Golaud. He has performed the title roles in Hamlet, Don Giovanni, Eugene Onegin, Bernstein’s Candide and Rabaud’s Mârouf. He has also appeared as Mercutio (Roméo et Juliette), Harlekin (Ariadne auf Naxos), Danilo (Die Lustige Witwe) Ford (Falstaff), Lescaut (Manon), Escamillo (Carmen), the Count (Le nozze di Figaro), Nevers (Les Huguenots) Zurga (Les pêcheurs de perles), Aeneas (Dido and Aeneas), Marc-Antoine (Massenet’s Cléopâtre), the Marquis de La Force (Dialogues des carmélites) and Germont (La Traviata). More recently he performed at the Paris Opera in Alceste (the High Priest) Werther (Albert), Faust (Valentin) and La Traviata, as well as at the Marseille Opera in La Favorite (Alphonse), Hérodiade (Hérode), Cléopâtre (Marc-Antoine), La Traviata, Moïse et Pharaon (Pharaon), Falstaff (Ford), Hamlet (title role), Don Carlo (Posa) and I Puritani (Riccardo). He also appeared in Dialogues des carmélites (the Marquis de La Force) at the Canadian Opera Company, the New York Metropolitan Opera, the Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse and in Amsterdam. He has performed at the Monte Carlo Opera in Tannhaüser (Wolfram), La Favorite and Falstaff (Ford); the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in La Favorite; Berlin’s Deutsche Oper in La Traviata; Hamlet in Avignon; Faust, Benvenuto Cellini (Saint-Saëns’ Ascanio) and the title role in Guillaume Tell in Geneva; Zurga (Les pêcheurs de perles) and Enrico (Lucia di Lammermoor) at the Lorraine Opera; Albert (Werther), at the Teatro Comunale in Bologna and Thoas (Iphigénie en Tauride) at the Zurich Opera. Jean-François Lapointe is a Knight of the National Order of Quebec.