Adrienne Lecouvreur

For the 1849 play, see Adrienne Lecouvreur (play). For the 1938 film, see Adrienne Lecouvreur (film). For the opera, see Adriana Lecouvreur. For the 1955 film, see Adriana Lecouvreur (film).

Adrienne Lecouvreur
Portrait of Lecouvreur (ca. 1725), by anonymous artist, based on her first appearance at the Comédie-Française, and located in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Châlons-en-Champagne
Born
Adrienne Couvreur

(1692-04-05)5 April 1692
Damery, Champagne, France
Died20 March 1730(1730-03-20) (aged 37)
Paris
NationalityFrench
EmployerComédie-Française
PartnerMaurice de Saxe

Adrienne Lecouvreur (5 April 1692 – 20 March 1730[1]), born Adrienne Couvreur, was a French actress, considered by many as the greatest of her time.[2] Born in Damery, she first appeared professionally on the stage in Lille. After her Paris debut at the Comédie-Française in 1717, she was immensely popular with the public. Together with Michel Baron, she was credited for having developed a more natural, less stylized, type of acting.[3]

Despite the fame she gained as an actress and her innovations in her acting style, she was widely remembered for her romance with Maurice de Saxe[4] and for her mysterious death.[5] Although there are different theories that suggest she was poisoned by her rival, the Duchess of Bouillon, scholars have not been able to confirm it.[1]

Her story was used as an inspiration for playwrights, composers and poets. The refusal of the Catholic Church to give her a Christian burial moved her friend Voltaire to write a poem on the subject.

  1. ^ a b Commire, Anne; Klezmer, Deborah. "Lecouvreur, Adrienne (1690–1730)". Dictionary of Women Worldwide: 25,000 Women Through the Ages. Detroit: Yorkin Publications. Retrieved 4 April 2014.
  2. ^ Richtman, Jack (1971). Adrienne Lecouvreur: the Actress and the Age. New Jersey: Englewood Cliffs. ISBN 978-0-13-008698-3. OCLC 1023756226.
  3. ^ "Adrienne Lecouvreur". Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th Edition. Columbia University Press. Retrieved 4 April 2014.
  4. ^ Scott, Virginia (2010). Women on the Stage in Early Modern France:1540-1750. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.
  5. ^ Probably from poison which was used almost in epidemic proportions during her era. See the chapter on the "Slow Poisoners" within Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Charles Mackay (pp. 565–592).