Fournet, Jean (1914– )

French conductor. He made his debut at Rouen in 1936, and conducted there until 1944. He was musical director of the Paris Opéra-Comique 1944–57, led the first Japanese performance of Pelléas et Mélisande at Tokyo in 1958, and made his US debut with the Chicago Lyric Opera in 1965. He conducted the Netherlands Radio Orchestra 1961–68, and the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra 1968–73. In 1987 he made his debut at the New York Metropolitan Opera House, with Samson et Dalila, and he conducted Dialogues des Carmélites at Seattle in 1990.