Marie Favart
Encyclopedia
Marie-Justine-Benoîte Favart (née Marie Duronceray) (June 15, 1727 – April 22, 1772) was an opera
singer, actress, and dancer, the wife of the dramatist, Charles Simon Favart
.
To her is largely due the beginnings of the change in this theatre to performances of a lyric type adapted from Italian models, which developed later into the genuine French comic opera. She was also a bold reformer in matters of stage costume, playing the peasant with bare arms, in wooden shoes and linen dress, and not, as heretofore, in court costume with enormous hoops, diamonds and long white kid gloves. With her husband, and other authors, she collaborated in a number of successful pieces, and one La fille mal gardée she produced alone.
Maurice, comte de Saxe
, a marshal of France
and her husband's patron, began to make advances to Mme Favart, and Favart was forced to flee. Mme Favart was established by the marshal in a house at Vaugirard; proving a fickle mistress, she was suddenly arrested and confined in a convent, where she was brought to unconditional surrender in the beginning of 1750. Before the year was out the marshal died, and Mme Favart reappeared at the Comédie Italienne, where for twenty years she was a great favourite. Among the roles created by Mme Favart was the heroine of Egidio Duni's La fée Urgèle
.
Madame Favart in fictionalised form is the title-character of Offenbach
's 1878 opéra comique
, Madame Favart
.
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
singer, actress, and dancer, the wife of the dramatist, Charles Simon Favart
Charles Simon Favart
Charles Simon Favart was a French dramatist.Born in Paris, the son of a pastry-cook, he was educated at the college of Louis-le-Grand, and after his father's death he carried on the business for a time...
.
To her is largely due the beginnings of the change in this theatre to performances of a lyric type adapted from Italian models, which developed later into the genuine French comic opera. She was also a bold reformer in matters of stage costume, playing the peasant with bare arms, in wooden shoes and linen dress, and not, as heretofore, in court costume with enormous hoops, diamonds and long white kid gloves. With her husband, and other authors, she collaborated in a number of successful pieces, and one La fille mal gardée she produced alone.
Maurice, comte de Saxe
Maurice, comte de Saxe
Maurice de Saxe was a German in French service who was Marshal and later also Marshal General of France.-Childhood:...
, a marshal of France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
and her husband's patron, began to make advances to Mme Favart, and Favart was forced to flee. Mme Favart was established by the marshal in a house at Vaugirard; proving a fickle mistress, she was suddenly arrested and confined in a convent, where she was brought to unconditional surrender in the beginning of 1750. Before the year was out the marshal died, and Mme Favart reappeared at the Comédie Italienne, where for twenty years she was a great favourite. Among the roles created by Mme Favart was the heroine of Egidio Duni's La fée Urgèle
La fée Urgèle
La fée Urgèle, ou Ce qui plaît aux dames is an opéra comique in four acts by the composer Egidio Duni...
.
Madame Favart in fictionalised form is the title-character of 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....
's 1878 opéra comique
Opéra comique
Opéra comique is a genre of French opera that contains spoken dialogue and arias. It emerged out of the popular opéra comiques en vaudevilles of the Fair Theatres of St Germain and St Laurent , which combined existing popular tunes with spoken sections...
, Madame Favart
Madame Favart
Madame Favart is an opéra comique, or operetta, in three acts by Jacques Offenbach. The French libretto was written by Alfred Duru and Henri Charles Chivot.-Performance history:...
.