Madeleine Milhaud Milhaud (22 March 1902 – 17 January 2008) was a French actress and librettist. She was both cousin to and wife of composer

Darius Milhaud Darius Milhaud (, ; 4 September 1892 – 22 June 1974) was a French composer, conductor, and teacher. He was a member of Les Six—also known as ''The Group of Six''—and one of the most prolific composers of the 20th century. His composition ...

Biography

Madeleine Milhaud was born in Paris to Michel and Maria Milhaud. Her father was from

Aix-en-Provence Aix-en-Provence, or simply Aix, is a List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, city and Communes of France, commune in southern France, about north of Marseille. A former capital of Provence, it is the Subprefectures in France, s ...

, and her mother from

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

. She began acting at a young age, and had a long career as an actress and reciter. Madeleine married her cousin, Darius Milhaud, in 1925. The couple had one son, Daniel (1930–2014), a painter. Darius' piano suite ''La Muse Menagère'' (''The Household Muse'') is dedicated to her, and depicts their daily life together. She wrote the libretti for his

opera Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...

s ''Médée'', ''Bolivar'', and '' La Mère coupable''. The family fled France when the Germans were within range of Paris in May 1940. They reached

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

and from there sailed to America, where they and their 10-year-old son stayed for the remainder of the war. Darius taught at

Mills College Mills College at Northeastern University in Oakland, California is part of Northeastern University's global university system. Mills College was founded as the Young Ladies Seminary in 1852 in Benicia, California; it was relocated to Oakland in ...

(in California) and Madeleine taught American students about French and French theatre. They returned to France in 1946.

Biography

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Further reading