Later Queens of the French Stage

Towards the end of June of that year, Sophie created a trio of small parts in an opera-ballet in three acts, entitled _Les Fêtes de Paphos_.[8] Collé, that most exacting of crit...

This strategy was attended with complete success. The performers recovered their spirits, which had been naturally much damped by having to sing to empty boxes, and rendered ful...

“He asked for and obtained it,” continues Marmontel, “and when Piccini went with me to thank him: ‘It is to the Queen,’ said he, ‘that you must show your gratitude, by composing...

The life of Antoinette Clavel had been a peculiarly sad one; one long course of privation, misfortunes, disappointments, and disillusions. Born at Strasburg, on December 15, 175...

“Ah, _mon bel ange_, my friend, you are always the same for goodness and generosity. What a good heart is yours! I would thank you sincerely, my poor friend, but what expression...

The writer of the above paragraph was, no doubt, actuated by personal hostility to the actress; but, at the same time, it was only too true that Sophie’s voice was failing rapid...

The marriage between Louise Lefèvre and Dugazon was celebrated at Saint-Eustache on August 20, 1776. It was not a happy one. The husband was bad-tempered, exacting, and jealous;...

Gaillard’s suggestions, which left untouched practically the whole of the sarcasms levelled at the Government, were readily agreed to by Beaumarchais, who lost no opportunity of...

“January 20, 1773.--Mlle. Raucourt continues to create the greatest sensation. It is reported that the other day a man entered her dressing-room, who informed her that she could...

Madeleine Guimard was not beautiful, she was not even pretty; her complexion was unpleasantly sallow; her thinness so extreme as to earn from her charitable colleagues of the Op...

The Duc de Bouillon became so enamoured of the charms of a young singer named Mlle. Laguerre that, in the course of three months, he was reported to have squandered upon her no...

At length, Madame Dugazon, wearying of London or of love--or of both--condescended to return, and, with her, came Fortune once more to the Comédie-Italienne. The empty boxes, th...

In March 1790, the Comte d’Antraigues openly accused of apostacy, denounced by the revolutionary Press to public vengeance, and the recipient, every day, of violent anonymous le...

Alarmed by these demonstrations, the Gentlemen of the Chamber decided to mitigate the punishment inflicted upon the elder Sainval, who was, accordingly, granted permission to le...

The action was supported by Saint-Huberty’s father, the Metz merchant, an honest man, who appears to have been genuinely distressed by the misery which his son had brought upon...

In those days it was the custom to attend the rehearsals of a piece which happened to be arousing an unusual amount of interest, and the demand for admission to those of _Iphigé...

That the players, or at any rate those of them who held the most pronounced counter-revolutionary opinions, were doomed, was the opinion of even their most sanguine friends. The...

In her unpublished _Mémoires_,[1] which she began, but never completed, and only a few pages of which--possibly all that she wrote--have been preserved, Sophie Arnould tells us...

François Joseph Bélanger, the architect in question, was a charming man. He was then about thirty years of age, handsome, good-tempered, witty, and one of the most rising member...

Mlle. Guimard’s life of gallantry and extravagance did not cause her to neglect her profession. No more assiduous student of her art ever pirouetted across a stage, and her care...

It is not altogether easy to determine the reasons which induced Mlle. Guimard to take this step; a step which, as we have mentioned, entailed the renunciation of her profession...

She accordingly talked the matter over with the author and Dezède, the result being that the piece, which was entitled _Auguste et Théodore, ou les Deux Pages_--it is known to f...

“David Hebditch, coachman to the Count and Countess, deposed that he received orders from Lawrence to have the carriage ready yesterday morning, July 22, at five minutes before...

Saint-Huberty, Madame, Gluck’s prediction concerning her, 265, 266; her birth and parentage, 267; her early years at Strasburg, 267; Lemoine’s kindness to her, 267, 268; meets S...

[34] He was the architect of Bagatelle, in the Bois de Boulogne, which he built for the Comte d’Artois, and designed the gardens of the Château de Meréville (Seine-et-Oise) and...

Dugazon, Louis (actor), marries Louise Lefèvre, 199; his singular character, 200; insults Marie Antoinette at an Opera-ball, 201; quarrels with his wife, 202; forces M. de Cazes...

[165] Ducis’s adaptation--or distortion--of _Othello_, first produced on November 26, 1772, differed materially from the original play. “Iago’s villainy,” says Mr. Hawkins, in h...