Thérésa (singer)

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Thérésa, photo by Carjat , 1870

Thérésa (born April 25, 1837 in La Bazoche-Gouet as Eugénie Emma Valladon , † May 14, 1913 in Neufchâtel-en-Saosnois ) ( Sarthe ) was a French singer a. a. funny songs. She was one of the most famous stars of the café concerts at the end of the 19th century.

biography

La chanson du chien . Portrait of Degas (around 1876).
Grave site on Père-Lachaise

She was the daughter of the popular musician Michel Valladon and the tailor Eugénie Cazon and grew up in the rural community of La Bazoche-Gouet under very poor conditions. At the age of 12 she began an apprenticeship as a milliner in the capital Paris . At the age of 19 she began performing in a few Parisian café concerts . She made her debut at the Café Moka on Rue de Lune. The magazine Tintamarre noted, alluding to their physiognomy and type of lecture: " A big mouth for such a small establishment ". A consideration of their external appearance, which was to be found in many later caricatures of his time. She also sang at Café Geant on Boulevard du Temple , albeit without much success.

During a Christmas performance in 1862 she discovered Arsène Goubert , who was running L'Alcazar d'hiver at the time . He offered her 300 francs a month to perform in his cafe. It was here that she first appeared under her stage name Thérésa . After just a month, she received a lot of praise from the press, especially through the voice of Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly , as well as the audience. She also performed in Rome and Saint Petersburg . She also appeared at European courts , so u. a. at the court of Napoléon III . She sang songs from operettas by Offenbach , as well as works by Gounod . Similar to her colleague Suzanne Lagier , she performed yodelling songs , the popular Tyroliennes, following a fashion that Gioachino Rossini had called life in Paris at the time . In addition, she occasionally wore alpine folk clothing and sang with an Alsatian or German accent. Along with her popularity, her presence in the satirical magazines of the time also grew. She was often caricatured , especially by André Gill in his magazine La Lune .

From 1867 she had to take a long break due to a disease of her larynx ( laryngitis ), during which she temporarily lost her voice. She returned to the stage two years later , in 1869, with her successful song Les canards tyroliens (Die Enten von Tirol). She also played in the theater, a. a. at the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin , where she stood out more by performing popular hits. She has been compared by some to Sarah Bernhardt , who made a name for herself at the same time. She was also one of the first artists to use her name for advertising purposes .

In 1870 Jacques Offenbach suggested to her that she should take over a part in a piece he had planned to make fun of the Prussians . It should depict a grotesque-looking German Kaiser who should sing lines like:

O fatherland! Sigmaringen, Osnabruck,
Baden-Baden, Hohenzollern, Hohenloh!
Two Bock beers, Kirschwasser, Offenbach,
Choucroutausen, Saucissonausen, Cervelag! (translated: Sauerkrauthausen, Wursthausen, Zervelat ! )
Laï-tou ... "

Due to the lost Franco-German War , however, this did not happen.

In 1893, at the age of 56 and very wealthy, she took leave of the stage at the Théâtre de la Gaîté , but sang one last time at Le Chat Noir the following year .

Emma Valladon died at the age of 76. Her grave is in the Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris (Division 35). She wrote her " Memoirs ", which were also published under this name, very early in 1865, at the height of her fame.

Description by contemporaries

“In addition to her originality, Theresa has the most valuable qualities: the voice is clear, rustic and perfect in its transmission. The pronunciation is a miracle of clarity and the artist's unifying cheerfulness is incomparable. What caused her detractors to roar is less due to Thérésa than to other reasons to consider: Theresa, with a few exceptions, has only a heartbreaking and deplorable repertoire of her own. Who's to blame? Public taste. This one was not in the best of health in an age when things were rotting at the top. Nothing could vibrate downstairs either. Theresa was just the popular artist as the taste of the day allowed. If, instead of dictating to her the uncleanliness that seeps into the lower classes, her auditorium had asked her to interpret only rustic and strong, clean works, she would be far more the great artist of the people [...]. "

“In terms of her physiognomy, Theresa is the woman who can easily be imagined with her eyes closed. The appearance is clear, radiant face, free from the liver, wide mouth. [...] Theresa goes to school. Many whores have tried to imitate them; but it happened, whatever happens, in such cases; they only managed to copy their mistakes and create the catastrophic era of the PRIMA-SCREAM (original: PRIMA-GUEULA) of the beer mug. "( Léon Bienvenu , known as Touchatout , in the satirical magazine Le Trombinoscope , Paris, January 1873)

“And finally, great Thérésa! Ah! the critics no longer call them, as they used to, Die Patti des Bierkrugs ('Patti de la chope'), Rigolboche ( Argot for: the loud, silly lecturer) of the chanson! She has expanded her repertoire and added a string to her happy lute. She sings and now performs delicate, patriotic, social and dramatic works with authority. It's a new revelation, but it hasn't given up on the fun songs of the past. [...] It proves once again that a concert café is a school of good speech, which no one likes to openly admit. [...] (Edmond) Got, the well-known French comedy actor and professor at his conservatory, said to his students one day: 'If you want to learn how to pronounce and phrase well, look in the face.' The face, that was L'Alcazar d'hiver, and Thérésa sang there. ”(Her colleague Paulus in his memoir)

Caricatures on Thérésa

  • by André Gill (1866)

  • by André Gill (1867)

  • by André Gill (1869)

  • by André Gill (1873)

  • by André Gill (1874)

  • published in Le Trombinoscope by Touchatout (1873)

  • by Hector Moloch (1874)

literature

  • Édouard Dentu (Ed.): Mémoires de Thérésa, écrits par elle-même (written by herself ), Paris 1865. ( online on Gallica )
  • Thérésa et ses chansons , Paris, Le Bailly (ed.), 1866 online
  • Jacqueline Blanche, Thérésa, première idole de la chanson française (1837-1913) , La Fresnay-sur-Chedouet, 1981.
  • Pierre-Robert Leclercq, Thérésa, la diva du ruisseau , Paris, A. Carrière, 2006. ISBN 978-2843373442 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Thérésa, la première vedette de café-concert (French)
  2. ↑ Tyrolienne & Tyroliennistes (French)
  3. ↑ a b in Cimetières de France (French)
  4. ↑ Livre Anciens (French)
  5. ↑ Biography on the website of the Père Lachaise cemetery (French)
  6. ^ Memoirs of Paul, Chapter XXVII (French)

Web links

Commons : Emma Valadon  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Thérésa
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Valladon, Eugénie Emma (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION french singer
DATE OF BIRTH April 25, 1837
PLACE OF BIRTH La Bazoche-Gouet
DATE OF DEATH May 14, 1913
Place of death Neufchâtel-en-Saosnois