Armand Potel

Armand Potel, born Pierre Armand Piau, was a French tenor who came up through the Paris singing rooms as "le bel Armand" and worked his way along the boulevard theatres in the 1850s. The Bouffes-Parisiens made his name: he had a great success there as Malatromba in Offenbach's Le Pont des soupirs, created Babylas in Monsieur Choufleuri and appeared in Les Bavards. From 1862 he spent fifteen years at the Opéra-Comique, singing in Vert-Vert and creating Marinoni in Offenbach's Fantasio, a part in Bizet's Djamileh, Le Dancaïre in Carmen and a role in Guiraud's Piccolino. He died at Montpellier aged forty-eight.