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Lucy Arbell (''née'' Georgette Gall, Georgette Wallace) (8 June 1878 – 21 May 1947) was a French
Georgette's father was Edmond Richard Wallace (1840–1887), son of 
She had a close association with the late operas of Massenet, creating roles in '' Ariane'' (Perséphone), ''Thérèse'' (title role), ''
mezzo-soprano
A mezzo-soprano or mezzo (; ; meaning "half soprano") is a type of classical female singing voice whose vocal range lies between the soprano and the contralto voice types. The mezzo-soprano's vocal range usually extends from the A below middle C ...
whose operatic career was mainly centred in Paris and who was particularly associated with the composer Jules Massenet
Jules Émile Frédéric Massenet (; 12 May 1842 – 13 August 1912) was a French composer of the Romantic era best known for his operas, of which he wrote more than thirty. The two most frequently staged are '' Manon'' (1884) and ''Werther' ...
.
Life and career
Georgette's father was Edmond Richard Wallace (1840–1887), son of Sir Richard Wallace
Sir Richard Wallace, 1st Baronet (21 June 1818 – 20 July 1890), of Sudbourne, Sudbourne Hall in Suffolk, Hertford House in London, and of the Château de Bagatelle in Paris, was a British art collector and Francophile.
Origins and youth
Ric ...
, the renowned art collector and philanthropist.
Arbell made her stage debut as Dalila at the Paris Opéra on 23 October 1903. She also sang there as Amneris in ''Aida
''Aida'' (or ''Aïda'', ) is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni. Set in the Old Kingdom of Egypt, it was commissioned by Cairo's Khedivial Opera House and had its première there on 24 December ...
'', Madalena in ''Rigoletto
''Rigoletto'' is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on the 1832 play ''Le roi s'amuse'' by Victor Hugo. Despite serious initial problems with the Austrian censors who had cont ...
'', Uta in ''Sigurd
Sigurd ( non, Sigurðr ) or Siegfried (Middle High German: ''Sîvrit'') is a legendary hero of Germanic heroic legend, who killed a dragon and was later murdered. It is possible he was inspired by one or more figures from the Frankish Meroving ...
'', Fricka in ''Die Walküre
(; ''The Valkyrie''), WWV 86B, is the second of the four music dramas that constitute Richard Wagner's ''Der Ring des Nibelungen'' (English: ''The Ring of the Nibelung''). It was performed, as a single opera, at the National Theatre Munich on ...
'' and '' Thérèse''.
She had a close association with the late operas of Massenet, creating roles in '' Ariane'' (Perséphone), ''Thérèse'' (title role), ''Bacchus
In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, myth, Dionysus (; grc, wikt:Διόνυσος, Διόνυσος ) is the god of the grape-harvest, winemaking, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstas ...
'' (Queen Amahelli), ''Don Quichotte
''Don Quichotte'' (''Don Quixote'') is an opera in five acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Henri Caïn. It was first performed on 19 February 1910 at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo.
Massenet's ''comédie-héroïque'', like many dramatize ...
'' (Dulcinée) in Monte-Carlo and Paris, ''Roma
Roma or ROMA may refer to:
Places Australia
* Roma, Queensland, a town
** Roma Airport
** Roma Courthouse
** Electoral district of Roma, defunct
** Town of Roma, defunct town, now part of the Maranoa Regional Council
*Roma Street, Brisbane, a ...
'' (Postumia), and '' Panurge'' (Colombe). She had a close relationship with Massenet as well; the critic Rodney Milnes
Rodney Milnes Blumer OBE (26 July 1936 – 5 December 2015) was an English music critic, musicologist, writer, translator and broadcaster, with a particular interest in opera.Rodney Milnes. ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera''. Macmillan, ...
describes Arbell as "gold-digging", charging that her blatant exploitation of the composer's honourable affections caused his wife considerable distress and even strained Massenet's devotion (or infatuation as Milnes characterises it). After the composer's death in 1912, Arbell pursued his widow and publishers through the law courts, seeking to secure a monopoly of the leading roles in several of his late operas.
As a singer she is described as having a strong, vibrant 'mezzo-contralto' and a vivacious personality. She may have been a talented actor, but her voice was considered by some critics to be mediocre; the roles created for her included extensive passages of declamation, something not usually seen in the operas of the period.
At the Opéra-Comique she sang Charlotte (''Werther
''Werther'' is an opera (''drame lyrique'') in four acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Édouard Blau, Paul Milliet and Georges Hartmann (who used the pseudonym Henri Grémont). It is loosely based on Goethe's epistolary novel ''The S ...
'') up to the 1920s,
but largely fell into oblivion after Massenet's death in 1912.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Arbell, Lucy 1870s births 1947 deaths People from Le Vésinet French operatic mezzo-sopranos Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery 20th-century French women opera singers