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Anne-Antoinette-Cécile Clavel, better known by her stage name Madame Saint-Huberty or Saint-Huberti (Strasbourg, 15 December 1756 - 22 July 1812, Barnes, London) was a celebrated French operatic soprano whose career extended from c.1774 until 1790. After her retirement from the stage and the publicising of her second marriage, she was also known as the Comtesse d'Antraigues〔 from around 1797. She was murdered in England at the same time as her second husband. ==Early life and musical career== Antoinette Clavel (later known professionally as Madame Saint-Huberty) was the daughter of Jean-Pierre Clavel, a musician employed as a répétiteur in the private opera troupe of Charles IV Theodore, Elector Palatine. Clavel's wife was Claude-Antoinette Pariset, who was the daughter of a grocer from Sélestat.〔Dorlan (1932), p. 25.〕 Over the years her biographers have often been at variance regarding Saint-Huberty's actual place of birth. Renwick, for example, found instances of it being indicated as Toul, Thionville, or Mannheim,〔Marmontel (ed. Renwick) (1974), p. 32, footnote 4.〕 and Clayton gives it as Toulouse - presumably after having interpreted "Toul" as an abbreviation.〔Clayton (1863), p. 129.〕 However, after discovering her baptismal certificate in the Archives nationales, de Goncourt was able to establish that she was born in Strasbourg, where she was baptized Anne-Antoinette (or Anna-Antonia on the certificate, which is written in Latin) at the church of Saint-Pierre-le-Jeune on the day after her birth.〔de Goncourt (1885), p. 7, footnote 1.〕 There is no mention of the name "Cécile" on her baptismal certificate, and de Goncourt suggests that this is a name which she adopted only in the latter part of her life.〔de Goncourt (1885), p. 305, footnote 2.〕 Dorlan, whose career included considerable work on the history of Alsace, traced her birthplace to 131 Grand'rue (modern spelling Grande Rue), Strasbourg (near the junction with rue Sainte-Barbe), and his article is accompanied by a photograph of the house, which, he maintains, was once owned by Pierre Clavel.〔Dorlan (1932), pp. 25, 27. The photograph, by , probably dates from around 1900.〕 Antoinette had at least three siblings: a brother named Jean-Pierre (after his father) who became a gilder and a seller of prints from a shop beneath the house in the Grand'rue;〔Dorlan (1932), p. 25.〕 Pierre-Étienne, who became a pork butcher;〔Dorlan (1932), p. 25.〕 and a sister who appears to have been living in or near Paris during the early 1790s. Antoinette began the study of singing and the harpsichord under her father's direction at a very young age, and quickly displayed an extraordinary musical talent. Whilst her voice was still maturing, she met the composer Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne in Warsaw in 1770, and it was Lemoyne who then supervised her musical education for the next four years. She became a protégée of a Princess Lubomirska (whom it is difficult to identify with absolute precision, since there was more than one princess of that name in Warsaw at that time〔Comte D'Antraigues (Saint-Huberty's second husband) met several Lubomirska princesses in Warsaw in the summer of 1779. He mentions them on a number of occasions in his ''Mémoires'', and later made further literary use of them. See Duckworth (1986), p. 124.〕), and she eventually obtained a contract in Berlin, where she sang with some success. On 10 September 1775, at St. Hedwig's, in the Opernplatz, Berlin,〔Dorlan (1932), p. 26.〕 Antoinette married Claude-Philippe Croisilles de Saint-Huberty, who claimed to be Prince Henry of Prussia's chargé d'affaires and the recruiter of new talent for the Prince's private opera company.〔Edwards (1889), pp. 154-155. (Edwards maintains that far from being a member of French nobility, Croisilles was in fact the son of a Metz merchant, and that the "de Saint-Huberty" title was false.)〕 The marriage immediately ran into difficulties. Croisilles was an incorrigible gambler; he was also a wife-beater. On a number of occasions he lost more money than he could afford, and they had to sell valuable items of clothing and jewellery in order to meet his debts. Before long, he was one of the combatants in a duel, after which it became necessary for them to flee Berlin. Aiming to reach Paris, the couple had run out of money by the time they arrived at Strasbourg, and so it was there that they had to stop for a while.〔Jullien (1880b), p. 125.〕〔The nucleus of this account is to be found in Clayton (1863), p. 129; also in Gaboriau (1863) pp. 206-209. It was later repeated by Jullien (1880) p 125 and is followed, in its essentials, by Pitou (1985) p. 483 and by Julian Rushton for his ''Saint-Huberty'' contribution in ''Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, accessed 10 October 2013. http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/16390〕 An alternative account of Antoinette's early years as a singer, which appears to have its roots in Edmond de Goncourt's ''Saint-Huberty'' and was subsequently taken up unquestioningly by a number of other writers, runs as follows. By the age of twelve she had mastered everything her father was able to teach her, and her vocal tuition was therefore entrusted to other masters; these might possibly have been attached to Strasbourg Cathedral. At fifteen she was a star performer at the local opera house in Strasbourg. Contract offers arrived from other cities in France such as Lyon and Bordeaux, but her parents were concerned that living away from home might lead her into temptations of an undesirable sort, and the offers were therefore declined. Croisilles ''dit'' Saint-Huberty arrived in Strasbourg, and, after convincing the inexperienced and naïve girl that he could immediately launch her into the most glittering of all operatic careers, she eloped with him to Berlin. There they married, but his duplicity quickly became apparent. He left her, but she followed him to Warsaw, where he abandoned her again after stealing all her goods. She was rescued by one of the Lubomirska princesses and began singing in Warsaw with some success. Croisilles then lured her (by letter) to Vienna, with more false promises; he stole from her and abandoned her yet again, after which she repaired alone to Paris.〔de Goncourt (1882), pp. 11-21. For similar accounts of this story see, for example, Dorlan (1932), pp. 26-27; Duckworth (1986), pp. 97-98.〕 To return to the earlier account: Antoinette sang at the theatre in Strasbourg until 1777, taking whatever roles she was allocated, but her quickly-growing reputation soon led to her being engaged by the Paris Opera, where, on 23 September 1777, she made her début at the première of Gluck's ''Armide'' in the minor roles of Mélisse and a Pleasure.〔According to the cast reported in ''Armide. Tragédie Lyrique de Quinault'' (Partition Piano et Chant Réduite et Annotée par F.-A. Gevaert), Paris/Bruxelles, Lemoine, 1902, p. XVII ((copy ) at Internet Archive).〕 This particular performance brought her no more than a modest personal success. All too often her acting was impaired by her extreme nervousness,〔Clayton (1863), p. 130.〕 and Gossec recalled that even though she was a good musician when she arrived, her repeated failure to enthuse the Parisian public during this early part of her career led to her being dismissed by the Opéra at one point, although later readmitted her.〔Letter from François-Joseph Gossec to D.-P.-J. Papillon de la Ferté, 8 November 1786, reproduced in Fétis (1829), p. 512.〕 Encouraged by Gluck, she worked hard to improve her singing and acting skills and to correct her slightly German accent, and eventually she was rewarded by being allotted major parts, beginning with Angelique in Piccinni's ''Roland'' in 1780.〔Pitou (1985), p. 483.〕 The award of this role was an important step in Saint-Huberty's career, and it came about largely as a result of Dauvergne's confidence in her abilities and her potential.〔Duckworth (1986), p. 99.〕 In the meantime, the problems with her marriage continued. Crosilles de Saint-Huberty, who had obtained employment as a storekeeper at the Paris Opéra, still appropriated Antoinette's jewellery and other personal effects, which he then sold or pawned, and by the summer of 1778 it is evident that the couple were living apart - he in rue des Orties, Saint-Rioch, and she in rue de l'Arbre-Sec. On 31 July 1778, Antoinette sought an injunction for the return of some papers, effects and sheet-music which, she alleged, Crosilles de Saint-Huberty had stolen from her apartment whilst she had been at the Opéra the previous day. Crosilles de Saint-Huberty's defence was that, being married, their goods were held jointly, and that Antoinette, acting on bad advice, had illegally abandoned their family home and gone to live elsewhere. On that basis, he applied to be accompanied by Antoinette's lawyer, Chénon ''fils'', when he went to her apartment in the early morning of 31 August (his wife was still in bed) to seize items of furniture and a parcel of twenty-two letters (which, it appeared, were ''lettres de galanterie''). That occasion resulted in a most unpleasant scene, and Antoinette had fought and screamed so loudly that she feared she might have damaged her voice. Chénon later considered it appropriate to submit a detailed report of the incident to the Lieutenant of Police.〔''Archives nationales Y, 11.411'' and ''Y, 11.412'', as transcribed in Campardon (1884) pp. 281-284.〕 Nevertheless, in January 1781 Antoinette was able to obtain an annulment of her marriage: for a woman to be victorious after legal proceedings of this sort was extremely rare in France at that time. Edwards holds that the judges' decision to declare the marriage void was chiefly on the grounds that it had been contracted when she was a minor and without her parents' consent,〔Edwards (1889), p. 176.〕 as her mother, who by that time was a widow and was the main plaintiff in the case, confirmed. The fact that no children had been born from the marriage could well have been another factor in Antoinette's favour. Antoinette also obtained official permission to retain her married name for professional purposes after the annulment, which is why she is commonly referred to as Madame Saint-Huberty. With regard to the orthography - Huberty or Huberti, it should be noted that she herself invariably used a "y" in her signature.〔Jullien (1880b), p. 125 (footnote).〕 Once she had established herself as one of the leading singers at the Opéra following her successes of the early 1780s, Madame Saint-Huberty became more and more demanding and difficult for the management to deal with. At a time when professional indiscipline and petulance amongst the artists of the Opéra was all too common, she soon became known as the worst of the troublemakers.〔Duckworth (1986), pp. 99-100.〕 However, as a result of the early death of Marie-Joséphine Laguerre on 14 February 1783 and the retirement around that time of the two other principal sopranos, first Rosalie Duplant,〔de Goncourt (1885), p. 88; Pitou (1985) p. 174.〕 and then Rosalie Levasseur not long afterwards, she was able to cement her position as leading ''premier sujet du chant'' of the Paris Opéra. Indeed, by 1782 - a year in which Madame Saint-Huberty earned 5,500 livres, which, in comparison with the remuneration offered by the leading Italian theatres, was not a particularly large amount for an artist with her appeal at the box-office, although it was certainly high by Paris Opéra standards〔See Carbonnier (2003), p. 193, tab. 2.〕 - she was considered indispensable by the Opéra administration, who decided to renegotiate her contract by offering her a further 1,500 livres from Court funds: an amount which had originally been destined for M.lle Laguerre. Antoinette's reply was that she was quite unsure about that: she would have to think the matter over. Soon afterwards she made her own demands known to the Opéra management: (i) 3,000 livres for major roles each time she sang them; (ii) an additional "gratification" fee to be paid to her whenever she appeared; (iii) an immediate one-off payment of 3,000 livres; (iv) a further 1,500 livres annually from the King's music fund; (v) two months' holiday every year, this to include the Easter closure; (vi) no role of hers could be assigned to any other singer without her consent. On 22 March 1783 she settled for an eight-year contract worth a guaranteed minimum of 9,000 livres per annum, along with compliance with all her other demands, although the Minister expressed his confidence that Madame Saint-Huberty would, from time to time, allow others to sing the roles which she had created. She was required, on her word of honour, never to disclose her new salary arrangements to any of her colleagues for fear that it might cause unrest.〔Jullien (1880b), pp. 133-137〕 Madame Saint-Huberty's financial position improved further after the enormous success she obtained in the role of Didon in Piccinni's opera of the same name in 1783. Louis XVI, who was never a great lover of opera, insisted on hearing it three times.〔Jullien (1878), p. 64〕 Declaring that the work "had given him as much pleasure as a fine tragedy," he also gave instructions that Madame Saint-Huberty be paid a further pension of 1,500 livres ''per annum''.〔Edwards (1889), p. 185〕 Her biographers appear unanimous in their view that Didon was the greatest success of Saint-Huberty's career, and, given her qualities as an outstanding tragedienne,〔Jullien (1880a), p. 250, described her as "the greatest lyric tragedienne that France has ever had."〕 a role to which she was particularly well suited. Some evidence of the enormous popularity which she enjoyed among opera enthusiasts is provided by the triumphal reception she received on visiting Marseille in 1785,〔see Clayton (1863), pp. 135-136,〕 and throughout the 1780s she was recognised as one of the most famous and most celebrated singers in Europe. Her holiday months were spent touring the French provincial theatres, sometimes appearing in two performances on the same day, and it has been estimated that her earnings from each of these tours was possibly as high as 16,000 livres, which is substantially more than she would receive in an entire year from the Opéra.〔Carbonnier (2003), pp. 198-199.〕 Some of the primary sources maintain that, from around 1786, Madame Saint-Huberty's voice had begun to deteriorate alarmingly. One of these was Dauvergne, the director of the Opéra, who, long before that time, had become completely exasperated by Saint-Huberty's erratic and volatile behaviour. He mentions this deterioration in a memorandum dated 21 July 1787,〔Cited in de Goncourt (1882), pp. 200 footnote 1; 201.〕 where he complains that she had had to withdraw from several important roles which she no longer felt capable of singing. He points to the fact that whilst she was happy to perform twice a day when on tour, she insisted on limiting her performances at the Opéra to one (or occasionally two) per week. In conclusion, he predicts that her singing career would be over within two years - or less than that, if she were to undertake another provincial tour. Another was Gossec, who, in a letter of 8 November 1786, comments that Madame Saint-Huberty was rushing inexorably towards her own destruction.〔Letter from Gossec to Papillon de la Ferté, 8 November 1786, reproduced in Fétis (1829), p. 515.〕 However, both Dauvergne and Gossec express their concern that no obvious candidate to take Saint-Huberty's place was in sight - thus indicating that, in 1786/87, Saint-Huberty was still regarded, by the director and the head of the ''École de chant'', as the pre-eminent soprano at the Opéra, and one whom they considered was some way ahead of M.lle Maillard (''premier sujet'') and M.lle Dozon (''premier remplacement''). De Goncourt compiled a list of the number of appearances made by Madame Saint-Huberty at the Opéra in each of the years from 1780 to 1789. The results are shown in the following table:〔This table is based on the statistics provided by de Goncourt (1882), p. 210.〕 Provided that de Goncourt's figures are reasonably accurate, it will be seen that Saint-Huberty appeared less frequently at the Opéra as soon as she had consolidated her position there. Furthermore, in the final three years of her career, she created only one new role, which is in marked contrast with what was happening previously. By 1787, however, her motivation appears to have almost entirely evaporated, and to the management she had become a thorough nuisance. In the spring of that year she wrote to Dauvergne to express her "disgust and vexation" brought about by the theatre administration's "continual complaints". She claimed that her health was being adversely affected, and she was seriously considering retirement.〔See letter from Mme Saint-Huberty to Antoine Dauvergne, quoted in Williams (1906), p. 315.〕 This situation, unsatisfactory for both parties, dragged on until 1790. She became the mistress of , a rich Italian music-lover who owned a magnificent villa (the ) near Mendrisio on the Swiss-Italian border. However, at the same time, she was also the mistress of Louis-Alexandre de Launay, comte d'Antraigues, whom she first met in 1783 and took as a lover during the latter half of 1784.〔Pingaud (1893) pp. 36-37.〕 This double liaison is explained as follows: Turconi served as "the man who was willing to pay the bills," whereas d'Antraigues was more of a gallant-adventurer; d'Antrigues was the man she preferred, but he lacked Turconi's very considerable financial resources.〔Du Bled (1893), p. 338.〕 Both men were well aware of the situation, but they appear to have been ready to accept it. Turconi paid 50,000 francs in order to purchase a small château at Groslay in the vale of Montmorency as a gift for Antoinette, yet d'Antraigues was able to have his own room there.〔Letter from Saint-Huberty to d'Antraigues, 25 (November 1787), in de Goncourt (1882), pp.172-177. (The terms "le petit comte" and "mon ''Seigneur''" both refer to Turconi.)〕 D'Antraigues was hardly the most faithful of lovers: Duckworth maintains that he was conducting a simultaneous affair with at least one of the ladies at court.〔Duckworth (1986), p. 189.〕 Prior to the French Revolution, d'Antraigues had been broadly in sympathy with many of the ideas which, in 1789, were to become revolutionary ideals. On 4 April 1789 he was elected to the Estates General as a representative of the ''noblesse'' of the province of Vivarais.〔Pingaud (1893), p. 63.〕 However, later in 1789, his attitude underwent a profound change, and he became a counter-revolutionary.〔Du Bled (1893), p. 338.〕 On 27 February 1790, after becoming implicated in a plot which had sought to help the royal family escape from the Tuileries Palace in which they were confined, he fled France and made for Lausanne in Switzerland.〔Pingaud (1893), p. 79.〕 On or around 3 April 1790, having obtained a passport, Antoinette left Paris in order to share d'Antrigues's fate as an émigré. She would never sing at the Opéra again. She was accompanied by her chamber-maid and by two other servants.〔de Goncourt (1882), p. 216.〕 The property at Groslay was seized a few months after her departure, and some of its contents were subsequently sold by order of the district authorities at Gonesse, despite the formal protests of her sister.〔de Goncourt (1882), pp. 181-182〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Antoinette Saint-Huberty」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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