French tenor Jean-François Novelli, winner of the Concours Général, holder of a Master's degree in Musicology from the Sorbonne, First Prize in recorder, graduated of the CNSMD in Paris in singing and ADAMI young talent, turned quite naturally - from his first instrument - to early music, which he has practiced and continues to practise with great passion. This is borne out by some thirty recordings and DVDs with today's great conductors of early music. These include Silentium, a recital disc on the pruning voice that he recorded with Fabien Armengaud, and Tirannique Empire, a recital of cantatas by Jean-Baptiste Stuck with the ensemble Les Lunaisiens "première époque".

His recent operatic engagements include the roles of Remendado (Carmen) at the Teatro la Fenice in Venice, Torquemada (L'heure espagnole) on tour in Italy (Operas of Brescia, Como, Cremona and Pavia), the Héraut (Godard's Dante) at the Opéra de Saint-Etienne, and Telemaco and Pisandro (Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria), a project which has been touring the world for 10 years: Europe: Opéra Massimo in Palermo, Théâtre Royal in Versailles, Spain... Asia: Korea, Hong Kong, United States: New York...

His love of the stage led him to study clowning with Françoise Simon and Raphaël Almosni, and drama with Olivier Broche and Emeline Bayard. He has explored and exploited these skills with delight in his own projects, developed within the Compagnie de l'Autre Voix, which he founded:

Croustilleux la Fontaine, a theatrical song recital based on the licentious tales of Jean de La Fontaine, set to music by Antoine Sahler and directed by Juliette, is still touring and has already been performed over 80 times. An album of songs from the show was released in 2022.

Ma vie de ténor (my life as a tenor), based on a text by Hector Berlioz about the singer's ego, directed by Olivier Broche, performed at the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Michel as part of the Avignon Off Festival in July 24.

He also creates ‘pocket’ works combining poetry and music: Divine bouteille, a recital based on wine, a subject that could not be more present in baroque music with lute, or la boite à Joujoux, a fantasy revisited with piano based on the tale of Hellé and Claude Debussy's work of the same name.

He has just released a recital disc of French melodies, Vous souvenez vous? a tribute to the first rediscoverers of early music at the dawn of the twentieth century and beyond, with pianist Maude Gratton

Highlights of her 2024-2025 season include l'Aumônier du Carmel (Dialogues des Carmélites) at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice and Jean-Paul et Monsieur Victor (Ô Mon bel Inconnu by Reynaldo Hahn) at the Théâtre de l'Athénée.

Jean-François Novelli has been represented by RSB Artists since 2013.