Born: 15 January 1805, France
Died: 26 April 1877
Country most active: France
Also known as: Louise-Angélique Bertin
The following is excerpted from Famous Women: An Outline of Feminine Achievement Through the Ages With Life Stories of Five Hundred Noted Women, written by Joseph Adelman, published 1926 by Ellis M Lonow Company.
Louise Angelique Bertin, a French poet and composer. She cultivated successfully painting, poetry and music.
She wrote the operas Guy Manning (Opera Comique, 1827), Faust (Italiens, 1831), and Esmeralda, text by Victor Hugo (Grand Opera, 2836).
According to Halévy, she had “an abundance of ideas and often revealed a rare power of expression.”
Her volume of poems, entitled Las Glanes 1842) received the prize of the Academy.
The following is excerpted from A Dictionary of Music and Musicians, published in 1900 and edited by George Grove.
BERTIN, Louise Angelique, born near Paris 1805, contralto singer, pianist, and composer. ‘Le Loup Garou’ (Paris, 1827) and ‘Faust’ (1831) were her most successful operas, though Victor Hugo himself adapted the libretto for her ‘La Esmeralda’ (1836). Mlle. Bertin’s imperfect studies account for the crudities and irregularities to be found in her writings among many evidences of genius. She died Ap. 26, 1877.
IW note: Bertin also had a physical condition that severely limited her mobility; as it was difficult for her to stand or walk, she was largely chair-bound.