Madeleine Sibille was a French operatic soprano

Soprano

A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...

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Sibille was born in Paris. She spent much of her career performing at the Opéra-Comique

Opéra-Comique

The Opéra-Comique is a Parisian opera company, which was founded around 1714 by some of the popular theatres of the Parisian fairs. In 1762 the company was merged with, and for a time took the name of its chief rival the Comédie-Italienne at the Hôtel de Bourgogne, and was also called the...

, making her debut there as Mercédès in Carmen

Carmen

Carmen is a French opéra comique by Georges Bizet. The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée, first published in 1845, itself possibly influenced by the narrative poem The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin...

on 11 January 1920. She created the roles of Milena in Félix Fourdrain

Félix Fourdrain

Félix Fourdrain was a French organist and composer. He is chiefly known for his operas. Many of them were written in collaboration with librettists and poets Arthur Bernède and Paul de Choudens; the best of which are La Glaneuse , Madame Roland , and Vercingétorix Félix Fourdrain (3 February 1880...

's opera La Griffe at the premiere on November 5, 1923, Vatleen in Rabaud's

Henri Rabaud

Henri Rabaud was a French conductor and composer, who held important posts in the French musical establishment and upheld mainly conservative trends in French music in the first half of the twentieth century....

 opera L'appel de la mer (1924), Béatrice in Rousel's

Albert Roussel

Albert Charles Paul Marie Roussel was a French composer. He spent seven years as a midshipman, turned to music as an adult, and became one of the most prominent French composers of the interwar period...

 operetta Le testament de la tante Caroline

Le testament de la tante Caroline

Le testament de la tante Caroline is an opéra bouffe or operetta by composer Albert Roussel and librettist Nino . The original production was in the Czech language and in three acts, but the work was later revised into a one act operetta in the French language...

(1937), sa femme in Le pauvre matelot

Le pauvre matelot

Le pauvre matelot is a three act opera composed by Darius Milhaud with libretto by Jean Cocteau. Its first performance was at the Opéra-Comique on December 16, 1927. Le pauvre matelot is short, lasting about 35 minutes when performed, and is dedicated to Henri Sauguet...

(1927) Comtesse Feodora in La peau de chagrin (1929), as well as taking part in the first performances at the Opéra-Comique of The Coronation of Poppea, L'Enfant et les Sortilèges and Tristan und Isolde.

Sibille also sang Santuzza in Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana

Cavalleria rusticana

Cavalleria rusticana is an opera in one act by Pietro Mascagni to an Italian libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci, adapted from a play written by Giovanni Verga based on his short story. Considered one of the classic verismo operas, it premiered on May 17, 1890 at the Teatro...

, Giulietta in Les Contes d'Hoffmann, the mother in Louise, Taven in Mireille, Anila in La Navaraisse, Télémaque in Pénélope and Geneviève in Pélléas et Mélisande.

She retired from the stage in 1939 and became a vocal teacher. She died in her home city of Paris.

External links

• http://www.isoldes-liebestod.info/Brangaene/Sibille.htm