Later Queens of the French Stage

by H. Noel Williams

[179] Edmond de Goncourt, Madame Saint-Huberty, p. 45.

[180] This multiplicity and exaggeration of gestures appears to have been Madame Saint-Huberty’s principal fault in the early part of her career. On another occasion, she was reproached with her resemblance to a woman “persecuted by internal convulsions.”

[181] Rosalie Levasseur had sung charmingly on the opening night; but on the second, she was so intoxicated as to be almost incapable of struggling through the part. At the conclusion of the performance she was arrested and conveyed to For l’Évêque.

[182] Adolphe Jullien, L’Opéra secret au XVIII^e siècle: Madame Saint-Huberty.

[183] Recherches sur les costumes et sur les théâtres de toutes les nations, i. 35.

[184] Ginguéné, Notice sur la vie et les ouvrages de Nicolas Piccini.

[185] L’Opéra secret au XVIII^e siècle: Madame Saint-Huberty.

[186] “Madame Saint-Huberty played the part of Rosette with an intelligence, a sensibility, and a fervour of expression, which proves the extent and the variety of her talent, equally well calculated to render every rôle and to sing all kinds of music.”—Mercure de France, December 1782.

[187] Adolphe Jullien, L’Opéra secret au XVIII^e siècle: Madame Saint-Huberty.

[188] Edmond de Goncourt, Madame Saint-Huberty, p. 5.