Anna Thibaud

Anna Thibaud
Born Marie-Louise Thibaudot
(1861-12-14)14 December 1861
Saint-Aubin, Jura, France
Died 18 April 1948(1948-04-18) (aged 86)
Paris, France
Nationality French
Occupation Singer

Anna Thibaud (14 December 1861 – 18 April 1948) was a French singer. She had a wide repertoire, attractive stage presence and excellent voice. She performed at important venues in Paris during a lengthy career.

Life

Marie-Louise Thibaudot was born in Saint-Aubin, Jura, on 14 December 1861.[1][lower-alpha 1] Her parents were François Thibaudot, shoemaker, and Anne Renaud. She took the stage name Anna Thibaud.[2] She was an attractive stage performer, and had a long career.[1]

She began performing in Metz, then moved to Paris and performed at the Bouffes-Parisiens, at the Eden-Concert and as a diseuse at the Concert Parisien.[3] In the 1880s Mistinguett, the future star of the music halls, visited Anna Thibaud to ask for advice. Thibaud told her, "To succeed in the theatre ... you must be pretty. You must excite men." Mistinguett asked if she meant that she had to excite the crowds. Thibaud repeated, "No, the men!"[4]

In 1886 she sang at the Alcazar d'Eté on the same program as Paulus (Jean-Paulin Habans). In 1890 she appeared at the Scala[lower-alpha 2] where she created her greatest hit, Quand les lilas refleuriront (When the lilacs bloom again), written by Georges Auriol and Désiré Dihau. She sang at the Scala until World War I (1914–18). A drawing by Albert Guillaume (1873–1942) published in Le Courrier français on 15 December 1895 depicted several performers at an unnamed revue at La Scala. It included a drawing of Anna Thibaud as "Le Courrier Français" signed by Adolphe Willette (1857–1926).[5] An 1895 reviewer wrote that Anna Thibaud

is the leading lady exponent of la chansonette among Paris artists at the Café Concert. Of late years there has been a marked return of the semi-sentimental and semi-gouailleur kind of ditty invented by Béranger and his school. Mdlle. Thibaud has made a speciality of the songs of 1830, and sings them in a costume which, while avoiding the grotesque peculiarities of the fashion in vogue when Charles the Tenth was King, is sufficiently rococo to give a touch of local colour to the words which accompany the tunes once so familiar on the left bank of the Seine.

... Mdlle Thibaude possesses to a rare extent l'art de dire, she has a pretty voice, and every word of her song tells. She also takes a special delight in the kind of songs she has made popular, and has taken great pains in each case to discover the original air. In addition to her engagement at La Scala, she is often asked to sing at private patties, where her repertoire is very much appreciated by the hiy lif.[6]

In the early 1930s Anna Thibaud was still performing at the Palace.[3] In May 1932, describing an evening at the well-known goguette Lice chansonnière, Charles de Bussy wrote, "In a halo of glory the beautiful artist Anna Thibaut, queen of the song, happy to have come here tonight, interpreting in her tender and spiritual voice Étoile d'amour, Ce qu'une femme n'oublie pas and Cinq heures du matin. Desaugiers offers to neophytes, with the most exquisite modesty, the salutary example of great art."[7]

Anna Thibaud died in Paris on 18 April 1948.[2]

Work

Poster for the Alcazar d'Eté

Anna Thibaud had a varied repertoire, including songs created by Yvette Guilbert, ribald songs and romances. The few recordings that have survived show that she was a fine singer. She was one of the creators of the famous song Quand les lilas refleuriront (1890). She recorded this song in 1899 and again in 1904.[1] Other songs include Rose d'amour (Léon Durocher/Paul Delmet), Vous êtes jolie (Léon Suès/Paul Delmet), Le voyage circulaire (Villemer-Delormel/Emile Bouillon), Si vous la rencontrez (Eugène Riffey/Rémi Aube) and A présent qu't'es vieux (Paul Marinier).[3]

Publications

Music sheets often credited Anna Thibaud as the performer of the works.

  • Toquée des militaires : chanson, performed by Anna Thibaud, Paris: Ed. Dax.
  • Restons chez nous : romance, performed by Anna Thibaud, lyrics by Félix Mortreuil, illustrated by Henri-Gabriel Ibels, composed by Gaston Maquis, Paris: A la chanson moderne, retrieved 2017-11-09
  • Si vous le vouliez, O Mademoiselle : chanson, performed by Anna Thibaud, composed by Gaston Maquis, illustrated by Henri-Gabriel Ibels, lyrics by Gaston Maquis, Eugène Riffey, Paris: A. Fouquet, retrieved 2017-11-09
  • L'amoureuse du régiment : chansonnette, performed by Anna Thibaud, lyrics by Lucien Delormel, Villemer, illustrated by Ernest Buval, composed by Lucien Collin, Paris: F. Guillemain, 1888, retrieved 2017-11-09
  • Au café du rond-point : chansonnette, performed by Anna Thibaud, composed by Henri Chatau, illustrated by Cândido de Faria, lyrics by Lucien Delormel, Paris: Bassereau, 1888
  • L'amoureux de la rue de Ponthieu : chansonnette, performed by Eloi Ouvrard, Anna Thibaud, composed by Eloi Ouvrard, illustrated by Gustave Donjean, lyrics by Eloi Ouvrard, Paris: Emile Benoît, 1892
  • L'arrivée du tzar : chansonnette, performed by Félix Mayol, Anna Thibaud, composed by Paul Marinier, lyrics by Paul Marinier, Paris: Georges Ondet, 1901
  • Le jeune homme et le trottin (1903) : chanson, performed by Anna Thibaud, lyrics by Henri Christiné et Léo Lelièvre, Paris, 1903
  • Les leçons de piano ou les joies de la méthode Le Carpentier, performed by Anna Thibaud, lyrics by Lucien Boyer, Paris, 1911, retrieved 2017-11-08

Notes

  1. ↑ The birthdate of Marie-Louise Thibaudot's is often given as 1867.[2][3] However, her birth certificate and Legion of Honour record give the earlier date in 1861.[1]
  2. ↑ She appeared at the Scala in Paris, a café-concert, not the famous opera house in Milan.

References

Sources

  • "A Singer of Songs of 1830", The Sketch: A Journal of Art and Actuality, Ingram brothers, 1895, retrieved 2017-11-09
  • Anna Thibaud (1867?-1948) (in French), BnF: Bibliotheque nationale de France, retrieved 2017-11-09
  • Berlanstein, Lenard R. (2009-06-30), Daughters of Eve: A Cultural History of French Theater Women from the Old Regime to the Fin de Siècle, Harvard University Press, ISBN 978-0-674-02081-8, retrieved 2017-11-09
  • Brooker, Peter; Thacker, Andrew (2013), The Oxford Critical and Cultural History of Modernist Magazines: Europe 1880 - 1940, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-965958-6, retrieved 2017-11-09
  • Bussy, Charles de (1932-05-29), "Les goguettes de la lice", Les Dimanches de la femme : supplément de la Mode du jour (in French), Paris, retrieved 2017-11-09
  • Dubé, Paul; Marchioro, Jacques (eds.), Anna Thibaud (in French), retrieved 2017-11-09
  • Thibaud, Anna (in French), Centre National du Patrimoine de la Chanson, des Variétés et des Musiques Actuelles, 23 May 2012, retrieved 2017-11-09
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