Marie-Adeline Plunkett (31 March 1824 – 8 November 1910) was a star of the Paris Opera Ballet from 1845 to 1857. She had earlier performed at the King's Theatre in London and was also engaged by

La Fenice Teatro La Fenice (, "The Phoenix") is an opera house in Venice, Italy. It is one of "the most famous and renowned landmarks in the history of Italian theatre" and in the history of opera as a whole. Especially in the 19th century, La Fenice beca ...

in Venice. She left Paris in 1857, appearing for a time in Rome before returning to Paris where she married the newspaper publisher in 1874.

Biography

Born on 31 March 1824 in Brussels, Marie-Adeline Plunkett was possibly of Irish and Flemish ethnicity. She was trained in Paris by the ballet master Jean-Baptiste Barrez (1792–1868). In 1841, she made her début in Trieste before moving to London where she joined the ballet company at the King's Theatre in 1843. While dancing in the ballet '' Odine'', she caused a scandal when she kicked Elisa Scheffer, her rival for the favours of the Earl of Pembroke. She also made brief appearances at

Covent Garden Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist si ...

, including a performance with

Marius Petipa Marius Ivanovich Petipa (russian: Мариус Иванович Петипа), born Victor Marius Alphonse Petipa (11 March 1818), was a French ballet dancer, pedagogue and choreographer. Petipa is one of the most influential ballet masters an ...

in '' Les amazones''. In June 1845, she appeared at Covent Garden with the Grand Opera of Brussels as Helena in '' Robert le diable''. She became a principal in the Paris Opera Ballet in 1845, first dancing in '' La péri''. She went on to perform in the premières of ''Ozaï'' (1847), ''Nisida ou les Amazones des Açores'' (1848) and ''Vert-vert'' (1851). She also appeared with Sofia Fuoco in ballet sequence in the opera ''

La Juive ''La Juive'' () (''The Jewess'') is a grand opera in five acts by Fromental Halévy to an original French libretto by Eugène Scribe; it was first performed at the Opéra, Paris, on 23 February 1835. Composition history ''La Juive'' was one of t ...

'' and in ''La Filleule des fées'' (1850). From 1856 to 1857, she appeared with at La Fenice in

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

before moving to Rome where she performed for a few years. Plunkett returned to Paris where she married the newspaper publisher Paul Dalloz in 1874. She died in Paris on 8 November 1910.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Plunkett, Adeline 1824 births 1910 deaths Entertainers from Brussels Belgian ballerinas 19th-century French ballet dancers Paris Opera Ballet étoiles