Adrienne Lecouvreur was a French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 actress.

Born in Damery

Damery

Damery may refer to placesin England*Damery, Gloucestershirein France* Damery, Marne* Damery, Somme...

, she first appeared professionally on the stage in Lille

Lille

Lille is a city in northern France . It is the principal city of the Lille Métropole, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the country behind those of Paris, Lyon and Marseille. Lille is situated on the Deûle River, near France's border with Belgium...

. After her Paris debut at the Comédie-Française

Comédie-Française

The Comédie-Française or Théâtre-Français is one of the few state theaters in France. It is the only state theater to have its own troupe of actors. It is located in the 1st arrondissement of Paris....

 in 1717, she was immensely popular with the public, until her mysterious death.

She was credited with having developed a more natural, less stylized, type of acting.

She had a romance with Maurice de Saxe

Maurice, comte de Saxe

Maurice de Saxe was a German in French service who was Marshal and later also Marshal General of France.-Childhood:...

, which ended in tragedy when she was apparently poisoned by her rival, Maria Karolina Sobieska

Maria Karolina Sobieska

Maria Karolina Sobieska was a Polish noble lady, daughter of Jakub Ludwik Sobieski. Known as Marie Charlotte or just Charlotte, she was the Princess of Turenne and later Duchess of Bouillon by marriage...

, Duchess of Bouillon

Duchess of Bouillon

-Ardennes-Bouillon dynasty, ?-1100:-House of La Marck, ?-1588 :-House of La Tour d'Auvergne, 1594-1794 :-House of La Tour d'Auvergne, 1794-1802 :-House of Rohan, since 1816 :...

. The refusal of the Catholic Church to give her a Christian burial moved her friend Voltaire

Voltaire

François-Marie Arouet , better known by the pen name Voltaire , was a French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher famous for his wit and for his advocacy of civil liberties, including freedom of religion, free trade and separation of church and state...

 to write a bitter poem on the subject.

Her life became the inspiration for a tragic drama by Scribe

Eugène Scribe

Augustin Eugène Scribe , was a French dramatist and librettist. He is best known for the perfection of the so-called "well-made play" . This dramatic formula was a mainstay of popular theater for over 100 years.-Biography:...

 and Legouvé

Ernest Legouvé

Gabriel Jean Baptiste Ernest Wilfrid Legouvé was a French dramatist.-Biography:Son of the poet Gabriel-Marie Legouvé , he was born in Paris. His mother died in 1810, and almost immediately afterwards his father was removed to a lunatic asylum. The child, however, inherited a considerable fortune,...

 on which Francesco Cilea

Francesco Cilea

Francesco Cilea was an Italian composer. Today he is particularly known for his operas L'arlesiana and Adriana Lecouvreur.-Biography:...

's opera Adriana Lecouvreur

Adriana Lecouvreur

Adriana Lecouvreur is an opera in four acts by Francesco Cilea to an Italian libretto by Arturo Colautti, based on the play by Eugène Scribe and Ernest Legouvé...

and the operetta

Operetta

Operetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre.-Origins:...

 Adrienne (1926) by Walter Goetze

Walter Goetze

Walter Wilhelm Goetze [sometimes Götze] was a German composer of operettas and revues.Goetze began as composer of songs; the first of his many works for the stage was the revue Nur nicht drängeln in 1912, followed by his first operetta Der liebe Pepi in 1913...

 are based. Before them, however, in 1856, Edoardo Vera premiered his "dramma lirico" Adriana Lecouvreur e la duchessa di Bouillon. In 1913 Sarah Bernhardt

Sarah Bernhardt

Sarah Bernhardt was a French stage and early film actress, and has been referred to as "the most famous actress the world has ever known". Bernhardt made her fame on the stages of France in the 1870s, and was soon in demand in Europe and the Americas...

 played her in the silent movie Adrienne Lecouvreur. In 1928, MGM Studios filmed Dream of Love

Dream of Love

Dream of Love is a 1928 MGM silent film, directed by Fred Niblo, and starring Joan Crawford and Nils Asther. The film is based on the play Adrienne Lecouvreur by Eugène Scribe and Ernest Legouvé. In the film, Asther plays Prince Maurice de Saxe and Crawford plays Adrienne Lecouvreur, a Gypsy...

, based on the Scribe and Legouvé play

Play (theatre)

A play is a form of literature written by a playwright, usually consisting of scripted dialogue between characters, intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. There are rare dramatists, notably George Bernard Shaw, who have had little preference whether their plays were performed...

, Adrienne Lecouvreur, starring Joan Crawford

Joan Crawford

Joan Crawford , born Lucille Fay LeSueur, was an American actress in film, television and theatre....

 and Nils Asther

Nils Asther

Nils Anton Alfhild Asther was a Danish-born Swedish actor active in Hollywood from 1926 to the mid 1950s, known for his beautiful face and often called "the male Greta Garbo"...

. At least six further films were made based on her life.