Anne-Antoinette-Cécile Clavel, better known by her stage name Madame Saint-Huberty or Saint-Huberti (15 December 1756 in Strasbourg – 22 July 1812 in Barnes, London), was a celebrated French operatic soprano whose career extended from until 1790. After her retirement from the stage and the publicising of her second marriage, she was also known as the Comtesse d'Antraigues from around 1797. She and her husband were murdered in England.
Early life and musical career
Antoinette Clavel (later known professionally as Madame Saint-Huberty) was the daughter of Jean-Pierre Clavel, a musician employed as a répétiteur in the private opera troupe of Charles IV Theodore, Elector Palatine. Her mother was Claude-Antoinette Pariset, the daughter of a grocer from Sélestat.Dorlan (1932), p. 25.
Her biographers have often disagreed about her place of birth. Renwick, for example, found instances of it being indicated as Toul, Thionville, or Mannheim,Marmontel (ed. Renwick) (1974), p. 32, footnote 4. and Clayton gives it as Toulouse – presumably after having interpreted "Toul" as an abbreviation.Clayton (1863), p. 129. However, after discovering her baptismal certificate in the Archives nationales, de Goncourt established that she was born in Strasbourg, where she was baptized Anne-Antoinette (or Anna-Antonia on the certificate) at the church of Saint-Pierre-le-Jeune on the day after her birth.de Goncourt (1885), p. 7, footnote 1. There is no mention of the name "Cécile" on her baptismal certificate, and de Goncourt suggests that she adopted this name only in later life.de Goncourt (1885), p. 305, footnote 2. Dorlan traced her birthplace to 131 Grand'rue (modern spelling Grande Rue), Strasbourg (near the junction with rue Sainte-Barbe), and his article is accompanied by a photograph of a house that he maintains was once owned by Pierre Clavel.Dorlan (1932), pp. 25, 27. The photograph, by , probably dates from around 1900. Antoinette had at least three siblings: a brother named Jean-Pierre, who became a gilder and a seller of prints from a shop beneath the house in the Grand'rue;Dorlan (1932), p. 25. Pierre-Étienne, who became a pork butcher;Dorlan (1932), p. 25. and a sister who appears to have been living in or near Paris during the early 1790s.
Antoinette began the study of singing and the harpsichord under her father's direction at a very young age, and quickly displayed an extraordinary musical talent. Whilst her voice was still maturing, she met the composer Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne in Warsaw in 1770, and he supervised her musical education for the next four years. She became a protégée of a Princess Lubomirska (whom it is difficult to identify with absolute precision, since there was more than one princess of that name in Warsaw at that timeComte D'Antraigues (Saint-Huberty's second husband) met several Lubomirska princesses in Warsaw in the summer of 1779. He mentions them on a number of occasions in his Mémoires, and later made further literary use of them. See Duckworth (1986), p. 124.), and eventually obtained a contract in Berlin, where she sang with some success.
On 10 September 1775, at St. Hedwig's, in the Opernplatz, Berlin,Dorlan (1932), p. 26. Antoinette married Claude-Philippe Croisilles de Saint-Huberty, who claimed to be Prince Henry of Prussia's chargé d'affaires and the recruiter of new talent for the Prince's private opera company.Edwards (1889), pp. 154–155. (Edwards maintains that far from being a member of French nobility, Croisilles was in fact the son of a Metz merchant, and that the "de Saint-Huberty" title was false.) The marriage immediately ran into difficulties. Croisilles was an incorrigible gambler; he was also a wife-beater. On a number of occasions they had to sell items of clothing and jewellery in order to meet his debts. Before long, he was one of the combatants in a duel, after which it became necessary for them to flee Berlin. The couple aimed to reach Paris, but had to stop for a time in Strasbourg after running out of money.Jullien (1880b), p. 125.The nucleus of this account is to be found in Clayton (1863), p. 129; also in Gaboriau (1863) pp. 206–209. It was later repeated by Jullien (1880) p. 125, and is followed, in its essentials, by Pitou (1985) p. 483, and by Julian Rushton for his Saint-Huberty contribution in Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Oxford: Oxford University Press, accessed 10 October 2013. http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/16390
An alternative account of Antoinette's early years as a singer, which appears to have its roots in Edmond de Goncourt's Saint-Huberty and was subsequently taken up unquestioningly by a number of other writers, runs as follows. By the age of twelve she had mastered everything her father was able to teach her, and her vocal tuition was therefore entrusted to other masters, possibly attached to Strasbourg Cathedral. At fifteen she was a star performer at the local opera house in Strasbourg. Contract offers arrived from other cities such as Lyon and Bordeaux, but her parents were concerned that living away from home might lead her into temptation, and the offers were declined. Croisilles dit Saint-Huberty arrived in Strasbourg, and convinced her that he could launch her into a glittering operatic career. She eloped with him to Berlin, where they married, but his duplicity quickly became apparent. He left her, but she followed him to Warsaw, where he stole her goods and abandoned her again. She was rescued by one of the Lubomirska princesses and began singing in Warsaw with some success. Croisilles then lured her (by letter) to Vienna, with more false promises; he stole from and abandoned her yet again, after which she repaired alone to Paris.de Goncourt (1882), pp. 11–21. For similar accounts of this story see, for example, Dorlan (1932), pp. 26–27; Duckworth (1986), pp. 97–98.
Career at the Paris Opera Antoinette sang at the theatre in Strasbourg until 1777, but her quickly-growing reputation soon led to her being engaged by the Paris Opera. On 23 September 1777, she made her début at the première of Gluck's Armide in the minor roles of Mélisse and a Pleasure.According to the cast reported in Armide. Tragédie Lyrique de Quinault (Partition Piano et Chant Réduite et Annotée par F.-A. Gevaert), Paris/Bruxelles, Lemoine, 1902, p. XVII (copy at Internet Archive). This performance brought her only modest success. All too often her acting was impaired by her extreme nervousness,Clayton (1863), p. 130. and Gossec recalled that even though she was a good musician, her repeated failure to enthuse the Parisian public led to her being dismissed by the Opéra at one point, although Jacques de Vismes later readmitted her.Letter from François-Joseph Gossec to D.-P.-J. Papillon de la Ferté, 8 November 1786, reproduced in Fétis (1829), p. 512. Encouraged by Gluck, she worked hard to improve her singing and acting skills and to amend her slightly German accent, and eventually was allotted major parts, beginning with Angelique in Piccinni's Roland in 1780.Pitou (1985), p. 483. The award of this role was an important step in Saint-Huberty's career, and reflects Dauvergne's confidence in her abilities and her potential.Duckworth (1986), p. 99.
In the meantime, the problems with her marriage continued. Crosilles de Saint-Huberty, who was now a storekeeper at the Paris Opéra, still appropriated Antoinette's jewellery and other personal effects, which he then sold or pawned, and it is evident that by summer 1778 the couple were living apart – he in rue des Orties, Saint-Rioch, and she in rue de l'Arbre-Sec. On 31 July 1778, Antoinette sought an injunction for the return of some papers, effects and sheet-music which, she alleged, he had stolen from her apartment whilst she had been at the Opéra. Her husband's defence was that, being married, their goods were held jointly, and that Antoinette, acting on bad advice, had illegally abandoned their family home to live elsewhere. On that basis, he applied to be accompanied by Antoinette's lawyer, Chénon fils, when he went to her apartment in the early morning of 31 August (his wife was still in bed) to seize items of furniture and a parcel of twenty-two letters (which, it appeared, were lettres de galanterie). Antoinette fought and screamed so loudly during this visit that she feared she might have damaged her voice. Chénon later considered it appropriate to submit a detailed report of the incident to the Lieutenant of Police.Archives nationales Y, 11.411 and Y, 11.412, as transcribed in Campardon (1884) pp. 281–284. Nevertheless, in January 1781 Antoinette was able to obtain an annulment of her marriage: for a woman to be victorious after legal proceedings of this sort was extremely rare in France at that time. Edwards holds that the judges' decision was chiefly made on the grounds that it had been contracted when she was a minor and without her parents' consent,Edwards (1889), p. 176. as her widowed mother, who was the main plaintiff in the case, confirmed. The fact that no children had been born from the marriage could well have been another factor in Antoinette's favour. Antoinette obtained official permission to retain her married name, Madame Saint-Huberty, for professional purposes after the annulment. With regard to the orthography – Huberty or Huberti, she herself invariably used a "y" in her signature.Jullien (1880b), p. 125 (footnote).
Once she had established herself as one of the leading singers at the Opéra following her successes of the early 1780s, Saint-Huberty became increasingly demanding and difficult for the management to deal with. At a time when professional indiscipline and petulance amongst the artists of the Opéra was all too common, she soon became known as the worst of the troublemakers.Duckworth (1986), pp. 99–100. However, the early death of Marie-Joséphine Laguerre on 14 February 1783 and the retirement around that time of the two other principal sopranos, Rosalie Duplantde Goncourt (1885), p. 88; Pitou (1985) p. 174. and Rosalie Levasseur, enabled her to cement her position as leading premier sujet du chant of the Paris Opéra. By 1782 – a year in which Saint-Huberty earned 5,500 livres, which was high by Paris Opéra standards, although when compared with the leading Italian theatres, not a particularly large amount for an artist with her appeal at the box-officeSee Carbonnier (2003), p. 193, tab. 2. – she was considered indispensable by the Opéra administration, who decided to renegotiate her contract by offering her a further 1,500 livres from Court funds: an amount originally destined for M.lle Laguerre. Antoinette responded that she would have to think the matter over. Soon afterwards she issued her demands: (i) 3,000 livres for major roles each time she sang them; (ii) an additional "gratification" fee to be paid whenever she appeared; (iii) an immediate one-off payment of 3,000 livres; (iv) a further 1,500 livres annually from the King's music fund; (v) two months' holiday every year, to include the Easter closure; (vi) no role of hers could be assigned to any other singer without her consent. On 22 March 1783 she settled for an eight-year contract worth a guaranteed minimum of 9,000 livres per annum, and compliance with her other demands, although the Minister expressed his confidence that she would, from time to time, allow others to sing the roles which she had created. She was required, on her word of honour, never to disclose her new salary arrangements to any of her colleagues for fear that it might cause unrest.Jullien (1880b), pp. 133–137