Marie-Françoise Desbrosses (8 March 1764 – 3 March 1856), was a French operatic mezzo-soprano. She made her stage debut at the Comédie-Italienne in 1776, at age 13, and remained with the company for almost five decades, creating several roles.[1]
Life
Desbrosses was born in Paris, the daughter of the actor and composer Robert Desbrosses[2] and Marie-Françoise Petitjean, and the elder sister of Eulalie Desbrosses [fr].
At the age of six she performed couplets in front of Louis XV, accompanied by Madame Dugazon's brother, Joseph Lefebvre, a violinist.[3][4] In 1776, Desbrosses began her dramatic career, at age 13,[1] at the Comédie-Italienne, rue Mauconseil [fr], in the role of Justine in Le Sorcier[1][3][5] and Colinette in the operetta Clochette.[3] She successively appeared in roles of girls, trousers roles, lovers, mothers and old women.[4][5]
Desbrosses gave her "final" performance in 1823; but at the urging of the authorities, and encouraged by the solicitations of her comrades, she determined to prolong her dramatic career for another six years, until 1829, when she definitively left the theatre,[3][4] and turned to voice teaching.[3]
Marie Debrosses died in Paris on 3 March 1856 at the age of 91.[3]
Desbrosses had a relationship with a banker, Alexandre-Henri Tassin de Moulaine,[18] with whom she had a daughter, Adéle-Charlotte-Henriette Tassin de Moulaine, born in 1790.
In 1791, she became the godmother of the son of Joseph Fiévée and his colleague at the Comédie italienne, Adélaïde Françoise Guignard, known as Mademoiselle Lescot[19]
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