DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61284#0136
A BRILLIANT DEBUTANTE
57
the title role, and Vigee-Lebrun went about twenty times to see the piece,
being more affected each time by the pathetic performance of the principal
actress. She writes : “I was too great an admirer of Madame Dugazon
not to ask her often to come to supper with me. We used to notice that,
when she had been playing Nina, her eyes were still a little haggard—in
a word, that she remained Nina all the evening. It was assuredly to that
faculty of profoundly entering into her role that she owed the astonishing
perfection of her talent.” The artist made an admirable picture of the
actress in the character of Nina, and several other artists represented La
Dugazon in the same scene of the play, wherein she fancies she can hear
her lover’s voice in the garden.
At the Theatre Fran^ais Mole was highly successful in comedy parts,
but was a failure in tragedy, whereas his rival Monvel was admirable both
in tragedy and comedy. Vigee-Lebrun declares that on one occasion
when, in the course of his part, Monvel had to bow to the other characters
on the stage, she got up in her box and returned his bow, much to the
amusement of her companions ! Monvel’s far more famous daughter,
whose stage name was Mademoiselle Mars, was only ten years old when
Madame Lebrun left Paris for her long exile in Italy and Russia. But
it may conveniently be added here that some forty years afterwards she
wrote to the Princess Natalie Kourakin, who had seen Mars in Paris in
the days of Louis XVIII: “You will certainly not have forgotten her
pretty face, her charming figure, and her angelic voice. Happily that
face, that figure, that enchanting voice are so perfectly preserved, that
Mademoiselle Mars has no age, nor do I believe she ever will have ; and
every evening the public by its enthusiasm shows that it is of my opinion.”
The most brilliant stage debut that Madame Lebrun ever witnessed
during her long life occurred when she was seventeen. It was that of
Mademoiselle Raucourt as Dido. The debutante was about nineteen,
and “the beauty of her face, her figure, her voice, and” (one better than
La Mars) “ her diction, everything gave promise of a perfect actress. She
joined to so many advantages a remarkably modest air and a reputation
for austere morality which made her very much sought after in the highest
society ; people gave her jewels, stage costumes, and money for herself
and her father, who never left her. Later on, she changed her behaviour
very considerably. ... If Mademoiselle Raucourt did not remain sage,
she remained a great tragic actress ; but her voice became so rough and
hard that, when you shut your eyes, you might fancy a man was speaking.”
57
the title role, and Vigee-Lebrun went about twenty times to see the piece,
being more affected each time by the pathetic performance of the principal
actress. She writes : “I was too great an admirer of Madame Dugazon
not to ask her often to come to supper with me. We used to notice that,
when she had been playing Nina, her eyes were still a little haggard—in
a word, that she remained Nina all the evening. It was assuredly to that
faculty of profoundly entering into her role that she owed the astonishing
perfection of her talent.” The artist made an admirable picture of the
actress in the character of Nina, and several other artists represented La
Dugazon in the same scene of the play, wherein she fancies she can hear
her lover’s voice in the garden.
At the Theatre Fran^ais Mole was highly successful in comedy parts,
but was a failure in tragedy, whereas his rival Monvel was admirable both
in tragedy and comedy. Vigee-Lebrun declares that on one occasion
when, in the course of his part, Monvel had to bow to the other characters
on the stage, she got up in her box and returned his bow, much to the
amusement of her companions ! Monvel’s far more famous daughter,
whose stage name was Mademoiselle Mars, was only ten years old when
Madame Lebrun left Paris for her long exile in Italy and Russia. But
it may conveniently be added here that some forty years afterwards she
wrote to the Princess Natalie Kourakin, who had seen Mars in Paris in
the days of Louis XVIII: “You will certainly not have forgotten her
pretty face, her charming figure, and her angelic voice. Happily that
face, that figure, that enchanting voice are so perfectly preserved, that
Mademoiselle Mars has no age, nor do I believe she ever will have ; and
every evening the public by its enthusiasm shows that it is of my opinion.”
The most brilliant stage debut that Madame Lebrun ever witnessed
during her long life occurred when she was seventeen. It was that of
Mademoiselle Raucourt as Dido. The debutante was about nineteen,
and “the beauty of her face, her figure, her voice, and” (one better than
La Mars) “ her diction, everything gave promise of a perfect actress. She
joined to so many advantages a remarkably modest air and a reputation
for austere morality which made her very much sought after in the highest
society ; people gave her jewels, stage costumes, and money for herself
and her father, who never left her. Later on, she changed her behaviour
very considerably. ... If Mademoiselle Raucourt did not remain sage,
she remained a great tragic actress ; but her voice became so rough and
hard that, when you shut your eyes, you might fancy a man was speaking.”