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 engagements include roles like 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 Herald (Godard's Dante) at the Opéra de Saint-Etienne, or Telemaco and Pisandro (Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria) ; a project that 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...)

This year he will also be Jean-Paul and Monsieur Victor in Ô Mon bel Inconnu by Reynaldo Hahn, directed by Emeline Bayard, first performed at the Grand Théâtre in Tours, then at the Théâtre de l'Athénée in Dijon, the Grand Théâtre in Avignon, the Théâtre des Arts in Rouen and Massy.

His love of stage performance led him to study clowning with Françoise Simon and Raphaël Almosni and theatre with Olivier Broche. He explores and exploits these teachings with delight in his own projects developped with the Compagnie l’Autre Voix that he created : Croustilleux la Fontaine, a recital of theatrical songs based on the licentious tales of Jean de La Fontaine set in music by Antoine Sahler and directed by Juliette, is still touring and has already been performed more than 80 times. An album of songs from the show was released in 2022 Ma vie de ténor (a novel that interests me a lot) based on a text by Berlioz about the singer's ego, directed by Olivier Broche that will be performed at the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Michel for the « off »part of the Avignon Festival in July 2023.

He has also created a number of 'pocket' shows 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 20th century and beyond, with Maude Gratton at the piano.

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