Thérésa (born Désirée Emma Valladon but cited simply as Emma Valladon; 7 September 1836 — 14 May 1913) was a French singer. She often worked with Suzanne Lagier and had cartoons ( caricatures) drawn by

André Gill André Gill (17 October 1840 – 1 May 1885) was a French caricaturist. Born Louis-Alexandre Gosset de Guînes at Paris, the son of the Comte de Guînes and Sylvie-Adeline Gosset, Gill studied at the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture. H ...

of her for the newspaper '' La Lune''.

Biography

Désirée Emma Valladon (but often cited simply as Emma Valladon) was born the daughter of a musician in

La Bazoche-Gouet La Bazoche-Gouet () is a commune in the Eure-et-Loir department in northern France. Population See also *Communes of the Eure-et-Loir department The following is a list of the 365 communes of the Eure-et-Loir department of France. The co ...

in the

Eure-et-Loir Eure-et-Loir (, locally: ) is a French department, named after the Eure and Loir rivers. It is located in the region of Centre-Val de Loire. In 2019, Eure-et-Loir had a population of 431,575.department of France In the administrative divisions of France, the department (french: département, ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level (" territorial collectivities"), between the administrative regions and the communes. Ninety ...

on 7 september 1836. As a child, Valladon dreamt of being a singer but began her career working in fashion studios. She began her singing career by performing in small café chantants (cafe concerts) in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

, such as in the Café Moka,

Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin The Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin is a venerable theatre and opera house at 18, Boulevard Saint-Martin in the 10th arrondissement of Paris. History It was first built very rapidly in 1781 under the direction of (1726–1810) to house th ...

and the Café des Giants, enjoying modest success. During a Christmas show, Valladon was noticed by Arsène Goubert, the director of the café chantant Alcazar, who offered her three hundred

franc The franc is any of various units of currency. One franc is typically divided into 100 centimes. The name is said to derive from the Latin inscription ''francorum rex'' (King of the Franks) used on early French coins and until the 18th centu ...

s to sing there; at this she began to use the stage name Thérésa. Within a month of her arrival at the Alcazar, Thérésa enjoyed great success both with the public and critics, and also later went to perform in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

, Italy, and

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

, Russia. She often worked with Suzanne Lagier and in the case of "El", they were appreciated by the public but not the critics. Increasing her popularity, Thérésa was depicted in several cartoons (caricatures) by

in the newspaper '' La Lune''. From 1867 to 1869, she took a break from singing as a result of laryngitis, which made her lose her voice, but then returned with the "popular" ''Les canards tyroliens''. Some of her most successful songs' choruses were sung by many people, including ''La gardeuse d'ours del'' (1863), ''Rien n'est sacré pour un sapeur!'' (1864) and ''La femme à barbe del'' (1865). She was "admired" by Alexandre Dumas,

Théodore de Banville Théodore Faullain de Banville (14 March 1823 – 13 March 1891) was a French poet and writer. His work was influential on the Symbolist movement in French literature in the late 19th century. Biography Banville was born in Moulins in Allier, A ...

Pauline von Metternich Pauline Clémentine Marie Walburga, Princess of Metternich-Winneburg zu Beilstein ('' née'' Countess Pauline Sándor de Szlavnicza; 25 February 1836 – 28 September 1921) was a famous Austrian socialite, mainly active in Vienna and Paris. Known ...

and

Napoleon III Napoleon III (Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was the first President of France (as Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte) from 1848 to 1852 and the last monarch of France as Emperor of the French from 1852 to 1870. A nephew ...

. She was financially very successful; earning around 100,000 francs a year. She retired in 1893, but returned to the stage for an evening to perform

Le Chat Noir Le Chat Noir (; French for "The Black Cat") was a nineteenth-century entertainment establishment, in the bohemian Montmartre district of Paris. It was opened on 18 November 1881 at 84 Boulevard de Rochechouart by the impresario Rodolphe Salis, ...

the following year. She retired for good in 1895 when she went to live in

Sarthe Sarthe () is a department of the French region of Pays de la Loire, and the province of Maine, situated in the '' Grand-Ouest'' of the country. It is named after the river Sarthe, which flows from east of Le Mans to just north of Angers. It ha ...

, where she died in 1913. She was buried at

Père Lachaise Cemetery Père Lachaise Cemetery (french: Cimetière du Père-Lachaise ; formerly , "East Cemetery") is the largest cemetery in Paris, France (). With more than 3.5 million visitors annually, it is the most visited necropolis in the world. Notable figure ...

Caricatures

Thérésa Gill 1866.jpg, Caricature by

(1866). Thérésa Gill 1867.jpg, Caricature by André Gill (1867). Thérésa Gill 1869.jpg, Caricature by André Gill (1869). Thérésa Gill 1873.jpg, Caricature by André Gill (1873). Thérésa 1874.jpg, Caricature by André Gill (1874). Touchatout - Le Trombinoscope, Num. 73 (portrait).jpg, Caricature dans ''Le Trombinoscope'' de Touchatout (1873). Thérésa Moloch 1874.jpg, Caricature par

Moloch Moloch (; ''Mōleḵ'' or הַמֹּלֶךְ‎ ''hamMōleḵ''; grc, Μόλοχ, la, Moloch; also Molech or Molek) is a name or a term which appears in the Hebrew Bible several times, primarily in the book of Leviticus. The Bible strongly co ...

(1874)

References

Sources

de Thérésa, écrits par elle-même'', Paris, E. Dentu éditeur, 1865 (sur Gallica)
*''Thérésa et ses chansons'', Paris, Le Bailly éditeur, 1866 * 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, impr., 2006.

External links

Documents iconographiques sur Gallica

Caricatures de Thérésa (Banque d'images de l'université de Heidelberg)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Theresa People from Eure-et-Loir French women singers 1836 births 1913 deaths Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery