Anna Judic
Encyclopedia
Semur-en-Auxois
Semur-en-Auxois is a commune of the Côte-d'Or department in eastern France.Semur-en-Auxois has a medieval core, built on a pink granite bluff more than half-encircled by the River Armançon...
– 15 April 1911, Golfe-Juan
Golfe-Juan
Golfe-Juan is a seaside resort on France's Côte d'Azur. The distinct local character of Golfe-Juan is indicated by the existence of a demonym, "Golfe-Juanais," which is applied to its inhabitants.-Overview:...
) was a French comic actress. Her ménage à trois
Ménage à trois
Ménage à trois is a French term which originally described a domestic arrangement in which three people having sexual relations occupy the same household – the phrase literally translates as "household of three"...
proved the inspiration for that in the 1880 Émile Zola
Émile Zola
Émile François Zola was a French writer, the most important exemplar of the literary school of naturalism and an important contributor to the development of theatrical naturalism...
novel Nana
Nana (novel)
Nana is a novel by the French naturalist author Émile Zola. Completed in 1880, Nana is the ninth installment in the 20-volume Les Rougon-Macquart series, the object of which was to tell "The Natural and Social History of a Family under the Second Empire", the subtitle of the series.-Origins:A year...
.
Life
Niece of MontignyAdolphe Lemoine
Adolphe Lemoine, known as Lemoine-Montigny or Montigny, was a French comédien and playwright. He was also the director of the Théâtre du Gymnase....
(the director of Gymnase
Théâtre du Gymnase Marie Bell
The Théâtre du Gymnase or Théâtre du Gymnase Marie Bell, is a theatre in Paris, at 38, boulevard Bonne-Nouvelle in the 10th arrondissement .-History:...
) , in 1866 she entered the Conservatoire de Paris in the Régnier
Regnier
Regnier or Régnier may refer to:* Henri de Régnier , French symbolist poet* Mary Pius Regnier , American nun and former general superior of the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Indiana...
class, which she left the following year to make her debut at the Gymnase in Les Grandes Demoiselles, a one-act comedy by Edmond Gondinet
Edmond Gondinet
Edmond Gondinet was a French playwright and librettist. This author, nearly forgotten today, produced forty plays of which several were successful...
. However, it was at the Eldorado that she first really became known, in a répertoire of "chansons légères" in which her apparent innocence allowed her to make ruder double-entendres than she might otherwise have done. Over time, she adopted "Judic", the name of her husband whom she had married before she was 17.
After the Franco-Prussian War
Franco-Prussian War
The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the 1870 War was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia. Prussia was aided by the North German Confederation, of which it was a member, and the South German states of Baden, Württemberg and...
and a spell at the Gaîté
Théâtre de la Gaîté (rue Papin)
In 1862 during Haussmann's modernization of Paris the Théâtre de la Gaîté of the boulevard du Temple was relocated to the rue Papin across from the Square des Arts et Métiers....
, where she was the lead in Le Roi Carotte
Le roi Carotte
Le roi Carotte is a 4-act opéra-bouffe-féerie with music by Jacques Offenbach and libretto by Victorien Sardou, after E. T. A. Hoffmann. It premiered at the Théâtre de la Gaîté on 15 January 1872...
, an "opéra-féerie" by Jacques Offenbach
Jacques Offenbach
Jacques Offenbach was a Prussian-born French composer, cellist and impresario. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s–1870s and his uncompleted opera The Tales of Hoffmann. He was a powerful influence on later composers of the operetta genre, particularly Johann Strauss, Jr....
and Victorien Sardou
Victorien Sardou
Victorien Sardou was a French dramatist. He is best remembered today for his development, along with Eugène Scribe, of the well-made play...
, she entered the Bouffes-Parisiens where she had her first successes as a comic actress in the operettas of Léon Vasseur
Léon Vasseur
Félix Augustin Joseph Vasseur, known as Léon Vasseur , was a French composer, organist and conductor. While working as a cathedral organist, he turned to composing operettas and soon had a hit with La timbale d'argent . He wrote another thirty operettas but never repeated that early success...
(La Timbale d'argent) and Offenbach (Madame l'archiduc
Madame l'archiduc
Madame l’archiduc is an opéra bouffe, or operetta in three acts, by Jacques Offenbach, with a French libretto by Albert Millaud first performed in Paris in 1874....
, La Créole, Bagatelle
Bagatelle (opera)
Bagatelle is a one-act opéra-comique by Jacques Offenbach, with a French libretto by Hector Crémieux and Ernest Blum.It was first produced on 21 May 1874 at Théâtre des Bouffes Parisiens under the direction of the composer.-Roles:-Recordings:*...
, etc.). In 1876 she moved to the Théâtre des Variétés
Théâtre des Variétés
The Théâtre des Variétés is a theatre and "salle de spectacles" at 7, boulevard Montmartre, 2nd arrondissement, in Paris. It was declared a monument historique in 1975.-History:...
, whose star she would be for nearly 20 years. There she rediscovered Offenbach, playing the lead in his Le Docteur Ox and reprising the mythical roles of Hortense Schneider
Hortense Schneider
Hortense Catherine Schneider, La Snédèr, was a French soprano, one of the greatest operetta stars of the 19th century, particularly associated with the works of composer Jacques Offenbach.-Biography:...
: La Belle Hélène
La belle Hélène
La belle Hélène , opéra bouffe in three acts, is an operetta by Jacques Offenbach to an original French libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy...
, La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein
La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein
La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein is an opéra bouffe , in three acts and four tableaux by Jacques Offenbach to an original French libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy...
. In particular, she had a prolific collaboration with Hervé
Hervé (composer)
Hervé , real name Louis Auguste Florimond Ronger, was a French singer, composer, librettist, conductor and scene painter, whom Ernest Newman, following Reynaldo Hahn, credited with inventing the genre of operetta in Paris.-Life:Hervé was born in Houdain near Arras...
: Lili, Niniche, La Femme à papa, La Roussotte and his masterwork, Mam'zelle Nitouche
Mam'zelle Nitouche
Mam'zelle Nitouche is a vaudeville-opérette by Hervé. The libretto was by Henri Meilhac and Albert Millaud.-Performance history:It was first performed at the Théâtre des Variétés, Paris on 26 January 1883.- Roles :-Synopsis:...
.
After a failed production of La Cosaque, she began travelling, appearing at the Menus-Plaisirs, the Eldorado and the Alcazar d'Été
Alcazar d'Été
The Alcazar d'Été was a Café-concert which opened in 1860, located on the Champs-Élysées at 8 Avenue Gabriel in Paris, and closed in 1914.The old Café Morel behind the Élysée Palace was acquired in 1869 by Arsène Goubert who at the time was owner of the "Alcazar" at 10 Rue du Faubourg Poissonière. ...
but never regaining the immense success of her debut roles. She returned to the Gymnase in mother-figure roles in works such as Le Bourgeon, Le Secret de Polichinelle and L'Âge difficile, to which she brought "une tendresse, une douceur et une bonhomie touchantes" ("a tenderness, a softness and a touching affability") before retiring to her native Burgundy. She is buried at Montmartre
Montmartre Cemetery
Montmartre Cemetery is a cemetery in the 18th arrondissement of Paris, France.-History:Cemeteries had been banned from Paris since the shutting down of the Cimetière des Innocents in 1786, as they presented health hazards...
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