Flore (or Flora) Revalles (January 25, 1889 – August 29, 1966) was a Swiss entertainer active over the early decades of the twentieth century. Revalles began as a singer in Switzerland, danced with the Ballets Russes in Europe and America and appeared in Broadway and Hollywood productions before resuming her singing career in Europe. She is also remembered for being an aunt of the French film star
Guy Tréjan (1921–2001).
Life and career
Emily Flora Treichler was born in
Rolle, Switzerland
Rolle () is a municipality in the Canton of Vaud in Switzerland. It was the seat of the district of Rolle until 2006, when it became part of the district of Nyon. It is located on the northwestern shore of Lake Geneva (''Lac Léman'') between N ...
, a small town nestled along the northwestern banks of
Lake Geneva
, image = Lake Geneva by Sentinel-2.jpg
, caption = Satellite image
, image_bathymetry =
, caption_bathymetry =
, location = Switzerland, France
, coords =
, lake_type = Glacial lak ...
. By her mid-twenties Revalles was a singer at the
Grand Théâtre de Genève
Grand Théâtre de Genève is an opera house in Geneva, Switzerland.
As with many other opera houses, the Grand Théâtre de Genève is both a venue and an institution. The venue is a majestic building, towering over Place Neuve, official ...
until the set and costume designer
Léon Bakst
Léon Bakst (russian: Леон (Лев) Николаевич Бакст, Leon (Lev) Nikolaevich Bakst) – born as Leyb-Khaim Izrailevich (later Samoylovich) Rosenberg, Лейб-Хаим Израилевич (Самойлович) Розенбе ...
enticed her to join the European tour of
Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes
The Ballets Russes () was an itinerant ballet company begun in Paris that performed between 1909 and 1929 throughout Europe and on tours to North and South America. The company never performed in Russia, where the Revolution disrupted society. A ...
in productions such as ''Cleopatra'', ''Thamar'' and ''Scheherazade ''.
[Davier, Anne Flore Revalles, in: Kotte, Andreas (Ed.): ''Dictionary of the Theater in Switzerland'', Zurich 2005 Chronos Verlag, vol. 3, p. 1484.](_blank)
accessed October 17, 2012
In January 1916, Diaghilev brought his troupe to New York for a two-week engagement at the
Century Theatre and a four-week run at the
Metropolitan Opera House. At the Met that April, Revalles danced with
Vaslav Nijinsky
Vaslav (or Vatslav) Nijinsky (; rus, Вацлав Фомич Нижинский, Vatslav Fomich Nizhinsky, p=ˈvatsləf fɐˈmʲitɕ nʲɪˈʐɨnskʲɪj; pl, Wacław Niżyński, ; 12 March 1889/18908 April 1950) was a ballet dancer and choreog ...
in the final dance of ''Till Eulenspiegel.'' Nijinsky, the star of the Ballets Russes, debut had been delayed for several weeks while negotiations were afoot to release him from an Austrian
prisoner of war
A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610.
Belligerents hold prisoners of wa ...
camp. Over her time in America, Revalles took part in a number of patriotic events in New York to benefit Allied soldiers. Soon after their New York engagements, the Ballets Russes embarked on an extensive tour of America.
Flore Revalles is her name and she plays in most of the ballets, among them in the ancient story of the snake lady of the Nile, Cleopatra. Flore Revalles is a person all soft curves and long sinuous lines with dark Egyptian coloring and all the attributes of a well regulated vampire. In the story from which the ballet is taken a humble slave dares to love Cleopatra. At first the whole court with the queen stand aghast and astounded at the presumption of the slave; but, swayed by a whim, yields to him for a brief and delirious hour and then kills him with a strange and terrible poison. Galveston Daily News, November 26, 1916''
Revalles made headlines in the United States in October 1916 after revealing she had adopted a cobra to help perfect her Cleopatra dance, stating “the cobra is the most graceful of all snakes.”
During her stay in America Revalles appeared in two Broadway productions, ''Miss 1917'', a musical revue that had a fair run at the
Century Theatre before the theatre fell into bankruptcy, and the Shubert Brothers’ 1919 hit musical extravaganza ''
Monte Cristo Jr.
''Monte Cristo Jr.'' was a Victorian burlesque with a libretto written by Richard Henry, a pseudonym for the writers Richard Butler and Henry Chance Newton. The score was composed by Meyer Lutz, Ivan Caryll, Hamilton Clarke, Tito Mattei, G. ...
'', playing the multiple roles of Yvonne, Haydee and Diamonda, over its near year-long run at the
Winter Garden Theatre
The Winter Garden Theatre is a Broadway theatre at 1634 Broadway in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. It opened in 1911 under designs by architect William Albert Swasey. The Winter Garden's current design dates to 1922, when ...
.
She also played in at least two American motion pictures, playing
Messalina
Valeria Messalina (; ) was the third wife of Roman emperor Claudius. She was a paternal cousin of Emperor Nero, a second cousin of Emperor Caligula, and a great-grandniece of Emperor Augustus. A powerful and influential woman with a reputation ...
in ''
Woman
A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female humans regardl ...
''—a 1918 film that attempts to tell the story of womankind from
Eve
Eve (; ; ar, حَوَّاء, Ḥawwāʾ; el, Εὕα, Heúa; la, Eva, Heva; Syriac: romanized: ) is a figure in the Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible. According to the origin story, "Creation myths are symbolic stories describing how the ...
to the present day, a story some found risqué—and Daisy Rittenshaw in the 1920 picture ''
Earthbound
''EarthBound'', released in Japan as is a role-playing video game developed by Creatures (company), Ape Inc. and HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The second entry in the Mother (video game s ...
'', in which her husband murders his best friend after discovering their affair. Later her lover returns as a ghost unable to move on until he helps those he’d wronged.
''Earthbound'', Photoplay, November, 1920, p. 38
accessed October 15, 2012
In the early 1920s Revalles decided to return to Europe to resume her singing career. She eventually chose to retire in the mid-1930s to Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...
, where she died in 1966 at the age of 77.
Gallery
File:Harvard Theatre Collection - Cecchetti and Revalles, MS Thr 495 (153).jpg, Photograph for ''Schéhérazade'', 1916: Enrico Cecchetti
Enrico Cecchetti (; 21 June 1850 – 13 November 1928) was an Italian ballet dancer, mime, and founder of the Cecchetti method. The son of two dancers from Civitanova Marche, he was born in the costuming room of the ''Teatro Tordinona'' in Ro ...
and Flore Revalles as Eunuch
A eunuch ( ) is a male who has been castrated. Throughout history, castration often served a specific social function.
The earliest records for intentional castration to produce eunuchs are from the Sumerian city of Lagash in the 2nd millennium ...
and Zobeide
File:Flore Revalles o3.JPG, Revalles circa 1916
File:FloraRevalles1916.png, Flora Revalles as Cleopatra, from a 1916 publication
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Revalles, Flore
1889 births
1966 deaths
Swiss stage actresses
Swiss film actresses
Swiss silent film actresses
People from the canton of Vaud
People from Vau i Dejës
20th-century Swiss women singers
People from Rolle
Swiss expatriates in the United States