Favart, Marie (née -Justine-Benoîte Duronceray)
Favart, Marie (née -Justine-Benoîte Duronceray)
Favart, Marie (née -Justine-Benoîte Duronceray), French soprano, actress, and dramatist; b. Avignon, June 15, 1727; d. Paris, April 21, 1772. Her father was André- Réné Duronceray, a musician in the Chapel Royal under Louis XV. In 1744 she bean her career under the name Mile, de Chantilly in Charles-Simon Favart’s Les Petes publiques at the Paris Opera-Comique, becoming his wife in 1745. They subsequently were active in Flanders until the unwanted advances of her patron, the Maréchal de Saxe, caused them to flee in 1747. In 1749 she appeared at the Paris ComedieItalienne, and then was notably successful in soubrette roles at the Théâtre-Italien there from 1751 to 1771. Her most famous role was Serpina in La Serva padrona. She also collaborated with her husband on several works, and often appeared in many of the works he wrote. Her career was marked by various theatrical intrigues, leading Offenbach to compose the operetta Mme. Favart (1878).
Bibliography
A. Pougin, Madame F (Paris, 1912).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire