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Beau Aleman
Opera singer pseudonym from the 1668 picaresque novel Simplicius Simplicissimus (German: Der abenteuerliche Simplicissimus Teutsch) by Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen.
Melchior Sternfels von Fuchshaim (aka "Simplicius"), while in Paris, learns to be an opera singer and becomes popular under this name given to him by his fans, which means "Handsome German."
Then the master of ceremonies said that in all his days he had not found such rare beauty, such a clear voice, and such skillful lute playing in a single person. He said that in the near future a comoedia was to be played in the Louvre for the king, and if he were able to use me in it, he hoped to reap great honor with me. Mons. Canard explained this to me. I answered: “If they will tell me what manner of person I am to represent and what melodies to play on my lute and sing, I could, of course, learn both the melodies and the words by heart and accompany myself on the lute, even if the songs were in French.” Certainly, I said, my mind was easily as good as that of schoolboys, whom they generally used for this purpose, despite the fact that they were obliged first to learn by heart the words and gestures. When the master of ceremonies saw how willing I was, I was obliged to promise him to come to the Louvre the next day to try out in order to see if I was suited to the task. So I appeared there at the appointed time.
The melodies of sundry songs that I was to sing I straightway played perfectly on the instrument, because I had the notes before me. After that, I received the French songs to learn by heart and with the correct pronunciation, which songs were at the same time rendered into German for me so that I could make the appropriate gestures while I sang. This was not difficult for me to do, so I was able to do it sooner than they expected and, in fact, in such fashion that when they heard me sing (as Mons. Canard said in praise of me) not one person in a thousand but would have sworn that I was a born Frenchman. And when we came together to rehearse the comoediam the first time, I was able to act so downcast with my songs, melodies, and gestures that they all thought that I must needs have played the role of Orpheus, whom I was then representing, many times and that I must needs be acting so sad because of my Eurydice. My entire life long I have never had as pleasant a day as the one on which this comoedia
was presented.
