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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 February 2016
Marie-Justine-Benoîte Duronceray was an extraordinary, multi-talented artist, described by Bruce Alan Brown as a singer, actor, dancer and dramatist. Her performances on the Paris stage between 1745 and 1771 met with general enthusiasm, and her pioneering of realistic stage costume was influential. Her mastery of the modern Italian aria, linked with Italianate acting style, was crucial to the development of modern opéra comique. Biographers and others have recounted her life, creatively linked with that of her husband, the dramatist Charles-Simon Favart, and images, sometimes capturing a role that she played, have been reproduced; a sculpted likeness can be found in the Louvre. Figure 1 celebrates Marie-Justine in 1753, an eventful year during which she even appeared at Fontainebleau opposite Marie Fel and Pierre Jélyotte, in La Coquette trompée (with music by Antoine Dauvergne and text by C.-S.
I should like to thank Michael O'Dea and Anne-Marie Mercier-Faivre for their hospitality in Lyons, and Michel Noiray for clarifiying linguistic details.
1 Bruce Alan Brown, ‘Marie-Justine-Benoîte Favart’, in Grove Music Online <www.oxfordmusiconline.com> (6 June 2015). Brown confirms her authorial involvement in the following works: Les Amours de Bastien et Bastienne (collaborating with C.-S. Favart and Harny de Guerville), 4 August 1753; La Fête d'amour, ou Lucas et Colinette (with C.-S. Favart and Chevalier), 5 December 1754; Les Ensorcelées, ou Jeannot et Jeannette (with C.-S. Favart, J. N. Guérin de Frémicourt and Harny de Guerville), 1 September 1757; La Fille mal gardée, ou Le pédant amoureux (with C.-S. Favart and Lourdet de Santerre), music by Egidio Duni, 4 March 1758; La Fortune au village (with C.-S. Favart and Bertrand), music by Paul-César Gibert, 8 October 1760; Annette et Lubin (with C.-S. Favart and Lourdet de Santerre), music by Adolphe-Benoît Blaise, 15 February 1762. Further information on these is found in Wild, Nicole and Charlton, David, Théâtre de l'Opéra-Comique, Paris: Répertoire 1762–1972 (Sprimont: Mardaga, 2005 Google Scholar).
2 She died on 21 April 1772, but had continued to perform until the end of 1771 (Les Spectacles de Paris 1772, cited in Pougin, Arthur, Madame Favart, Étude théâtrale 1727–1772 (Paris: Fischbacher, 1912), 55 Google Scholar). Thus her last performances would have been in her own Annette et Lubin (role of Annette, 28 November), in the parodie by Charles-Simon Favart of Mondonville's Titon et l'Aurore entitled Raton et Rosette (role of Rosette, 14 December) and in Favart's comédie mêlée d'ariettes, Isabelle et Gertrude (role of Mme Gertrude, 15 December). These dates derive from Brenner, Clarence D., The Theatre Italien: Its Repertory, 1716–1793. With a Historical Introduction (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1961)Google Scholar.
3 Kurz, Otto, ‘Pictorial Records of Favart's Comedy Les trois Sultanes ’, in Études d'art français offertes à Charles Sterling, ed. Châtelet, Albert and Reynaud, Nicole (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1975), 311–317.Google Scholar
4 Charlton, David, ‘Sodi's Opera for Mme Favart: Baiocco et Serpilla ’, in La ‘Querelle des Bouffons’ dans la vie culturelle française du XVIIIe siècle, ed. Fabiano, Andrea (Paris: CNRS Éditions, 2005), 205–218 Google Scholar.
5 See, for example, Letainturier-Fradin, Gabriel-Jules, Les amours de Madame Favart (Paris: Flammarion, 1906)Google Scholar. For an acidulous report that the public merely tolerated her at the end of her life see Mémoires secrets pour servir à l'histoire de la République des Lettres en France, ed. Christophe Cave and others, volume 4 (Paris: Honoré Champion, 2010), 59 (15 January 1772).
6 Dumoulin, Maurice, Favart et Madame Favart: un ménage d'artistes au XVIIIe siècle (Paris: Louis-Michaud[, 1902]Google Scholar). The Anecdotes dramatiques by Joseph de La Porte and Jean-Marie Clément (Paris: Veuve Duchesne, 1775), volume 3, 187–188, noted the creative role she played in C.-S. Favart's opéras comiques: in deciding the subject matter, general outline, choice of melodies, the new words to these, ‘& différens Vaudevilles dont elle faisoit la Musique’ (various songs whose music she composed), though her modesty determined that few people knew of this: ‘sa modestie l'empêchoit d'en tirer avantage. Isolée, retirée dans le sein de la famille . . . elle s'occupoit de sa profession’ (her modesty would not allow her to gain any further advantage from [these activities]. Hers was a professional life, lived privately within the family circle).
7 Paris, Musée du Louvre, no. RF 1555: Jean-Jacques Caffieri, Monument à la mémoire de Madame Favart, marble, dated 1774. An excellent pastel by Jean-Étienne Liotard is less well known (Winterthur, Museum Stiftung Oskar Reinhart).
8 Antoine-Pierre-Charles Favart, ed., Mémoires et correspondance littéraires, dramatiques et anecdotiques de C. S. Favart, publiés par A. P. C. Favart, son Petit-Fils; et précédés d'une notice historique, rédigée sur pièces authentiques et originales, par H[enri] F[rançois] Dumolard, three volumes (Paris: Léopold Collin, 1808), volume 1, lxxiv–lxxv. A convenient biographical website for King Stanislas, with sources and bibiography, is available at <stanislas.pagesperso-orange.fr>.
9 Vallas, Léon, Un siècle de musique et de théâtre à Lyon, 1688–1789 (Lyons: P. Masson, 1932), 205 Google Scholar. Rousseau's text is: ‘M. l'Abbé Blanchard m'a prié d'y chanter un Récit de Basse-taille, que ces Messieurs ont eu la complaisance d'applaudir; aussi bien qu'un Duo de Pyrame et Thisbé, que j'ai chanté avec M. Duroncel, fameux Haute-Contre de l'ancien Opéra de Lyon’ (The abbé Blanchard urged me to sing a bass solo, which the company kindly applauded; then a duet from Pyrame et Thisbé, which I sang with Mr Duroncel, at that time a celebrated haute-contre at the Lyons opera-house): letter to Françoise Louise Eléonor, baronne de Warens, Correspondance de Jean-Jacques Rousseau, ed. R. A. Leigh (Geneva: Institut et Musée Voltaire, 1965), consulted on Electronic Enlightenment <www.e-enlightenment.com> (1 February 2015). Avignon, Marie-Justine's city of origin, lies 230 kilometres due south of Lyons.
10 ‘Elle le prévint que, dans le cas où il accepteroit sa proposition, elle prendra le nom de Chantilly, par respect pour sa famille qui habite Paris’: Henri Dumolard, in Mémoires et correspondance, ed. Favart, volume 1, xix. But it is unclear what this really means. The same information appears in Font, Auguste, Favart, l'Opéra-Comique et la comédie-vaudeville aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles (Paris: Fischbacher, 1894), 126 Google Scholar.
11 Dumolard, in Mémoires et correspondance, ed. Favart, volume 1, xix: the mother is not mentioned at this point, or later, but the new evidence brought forward below corroborates the fact that Perrette-Claudine was a dancer of professional standard.
12 Vallas, Un siècle de musique et de théâtre, 223–237.
13 Mémoires de Jean Monnet, Directeur du Théâtre de la Foire, ed. with Introduction by Henri d'Alméras (Paris: Louis-Michaud[, 1908]), 37–39, 88, 93–95. François Berger, the Paris Opéra's new directeur, decided to run the Opéra Comique himself together with its intendant, C.-S. Favart, and save the money he should have owed to Monnet. The Lyons winter season, Monnet's first, opened on 15 December 1745, as he reports.
14 Vallas, Un siècle de musique et de théâtre, vi, 247. See also Bibliothèque Nationale de France, online Catalogue général: the Affiches de Lyon ran until 1801.
15 Lyons, Bibliothèque Municipale (hereafter F-Lbm) Rés. 360177 and Rés. 360178: Hippolyte et Aricie, tragédie Représentée . . . Par l'Académie royale de Musique de Lyon en Février 1743 (Lyons: Aimé Delaroche, 1743); Télémaque, tragédie Représentée . . . par l'Académie royale de Musique de Lyon, en Mai 1743 (Lyons: Delaroche, 1743).
16 F-Lbm, Rés. 360176. Jérôme de La Gorce has drawn attention to the great popularity of Ajax in Lyons, Nantes and Bordeaux: ‘Bertin de La Doué, Toussaint’, in Benoit, Marcelle, Dictionnaire de la musique en France aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles (Paris: Fayard, 1992), 69 Google Scholar. A copy of this Lyons edition found its way to Washington, D. C.: Oscar Sonneck, George Theodore, Library of Congress: Catalogue of Opera Librettos Printed before 1800, two volumes (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1914)Google Scholar, volume 1, 45.
17 F-Lbm, Rés. 373148: Les Caractères de La Folie, Ballet représenté par l'Académie royale de musique de Paris . . . et par celle de Lyon, le Vendredi 17 Janvier 1744 (Lyons: Aymé Delaroche, 1744); F-Lbm, Rés. 360179, Médée et Jason, tragédie représentée par l'Académie royale de musique de Paris . . . et par celle de Lyon en Mars 1744 (Lyons: Aymé Delaroche, 1744). Another copy of the former libretto is also in GB-Lbl, 11736.k.6 (3).
18 ‘Ce prince [Don Philippe] pendant les trois jours qu'il passa dans cette ville, assista aux représentations de l'Opéra, ainsi que le rapporte l’Almanach [astronomique et historique de la ville] de Lyon pour 1745’ (During the three days that he spent in this city, [Don Philippe] was present at performances by the Opéra, as reported in the Almanach of Lyons, 1745): Vallas, Un siècle de musique et de théâtre, 236. Between Ajax on 17 February and Thésée on 19 February, ‘actes tirés de différents opéras’ (separate acts drawn from various operas) were shown on 18 February. The wording of the report, reproduced by Vallas, suggests stage performances by reason of the five o'clock starting-time of Ajax, and the fact that Thésée came after a separate concert: with his accompanying grandees the prince then returned to the Opéra, ‘où l'on représenta celui de Thésée avec beaucoup de succès’ (where Thésée was given with great success).
19 Numerous searches within online library catalogues of various countries have proved fruitless. In a bound set of librettos at F-Lbm shelf-marked A.496028, 1744 examples of these two works prove to be of exclusively Parisian provenance. F-Lbm Rés. FM.133579 is a manuscript in two volumes of excerpts from Ajax bearing the date ‘1744’.
20 Bédarida, Henri, Parme et la France de 1748 à 1789 (Paris: Honoré Champion and Edouard Champion, 1928), 451 Google Scholar. The sources he gives are: (1) ‘Santa Cruz, majordome major de d. Philippe, à Villarias, premier ministre d'Espagne, 1er janv. 1744’, at Simancas: Archivio general, Est. 5149; (2) ‘Les comptes de la Comédie de l'Infant à Chambéry’, at Parma, Archivio di Stato, Teatri, I. ‘Provisional subjects’ refers to the fact that the prince's Chambéry court was a provisional one, while he waited on events that should eventually see him installed as Duke of Parma.
21 Premiere, Paris, 20 August 1743; Rousseau had, incidentally, lived in Lyons from spring 1740 until the end of 1741, but was engaged in Venice between September 1743 and August 1744. Some notes on this opéra-ballet can be found in Charlton, Opera in the Age of Rousseau (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013), 106–107, 119–121, 339–340.
22 McCleave, Sarah, ‘English and French Theatrical Sources: The Repertoire of Marie Sallé’, in Dance and Music in French Baroque Theatre: Sources and Interpretations, ed. McCleave (London: Institute of Advanced Musical Studies, King's College, 1998), 20 Google Scholar.
23 Antoine, Michel, Louis XV (Paris: Fayard, 1989), 372 Google Scholar.
24 Antoine, Louis XV, 372–379. Pougin thought that Marie-Justine ‘s'est fait une renommée à Nancy, à la cour de Stanislas’ (had made a reputation in Nancy, at the court of Stanislas): Madame Favart, 9.
25 Claude and François Parfaict, Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire des spectacles de la Foire, two volumes (Paris: Briasson, 1743), volume 2, 115–116; Antoine, Louis XV, 295.
26 No source was listed in Paul Salvatore, Favart's Unpublished Plays: The Rise of the Popular Comic Opera (New York: Institute of French Studies, 1935), or in Flora Mele, Le théâtre de Charles-Simon Favart: histoire et inventaire des manuscrits (Paris: H. Champion, 2010). Clarence D. Brenner, A Bibliographical List of Plays in the French Language, 1700–1789 (Berkeley, 1947; reprinted with new material by Michael A. Keller and Neal Zaslaw, New York: AMS Press, 1979), 66, suggests F-Po, Cartons Favart I. But Auguste Font found there only ‘three fragments’: Favart, 344.
27 Favart, ed., Mémoires et correspondance, volume 1, lxxiv–lxxv.
28 Dumoulin, Favart et Madame Favart, 27–28.
29 Pougin, Madame Favart, 9, 61.
30 F-Po MS Rés. 516, ‘Mémoires pour servir à l'Histoire de l'Académie Royale de Musique’ (the ‘Manuscrit Amelot’), f. 257, paragraph 503.
31 Lettre de Madame *** [Anne-Marie Du Bocage] à une de ses amies sur les spectacles, & principalement sur l'Opéra Comique (no place or publisher, 1745).
32 Not six, as is usually assumed: ‘La décision verbale du Conseil qui a suspendu la représentation de l'opéra-comique’: Paris, Archives Nationales, AJ13/3, Doss. III, ‘Extrait des moyens employés . . . pour le rétablissement de l'opéra-comique’, f. 1r.
33 ‘[le] tort que les Comédiens prétendent que leur fait l'Opéra Comique . . . a engagé à décider que les représentations de ce spectacle seroient sursises pendant trois ans, afin d'examiner si en effet les recettes des Comédiens seront plus considérables’ (the harm which the Comédie-Française claims has been done to it by the [success of the] Opéra Comique . . . has persuaded [the government] that the latter's performances should be suspended for three years, in order to determine whether indeed the receipts of the Comédie-Française shall have risen [accordingly]): A. de Boislisle, ed., Lettres de M. de Marville, lieutenant général de police, au Ministre Maurepas (1742–1747) three volumes (Paris: H. Champion, 1896–1905), volume 2, 90.
34 La Porte and Clément, Anecdotes dramatiques, volume 3, 185. ‘Mr Mathews’ was active between 1739 and 1771 as ‘dancer, tumbler, manager’: Philip H. Highfill, Jr, Kalman A. Burnim and Edward A. Langhans, eds, A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers and Other Stage Personnel in London, 1660–1800, sixteen volumes (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1984), volume 10, 135, giving the titles of Mathews's other pantomimes during this Paris season.
35 Claude and François Parfaict, Dictionnaire des théâtres de Paris, second edition, seven volumes (Paris: Rozet, 1767), volume 6, 69–82.
36 Claude and François Parfaict, Dictionnaire, volume 6, 70.
