Marie-Louise Desmatins (

fl. ''Floruit'' ( ; usually abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for 'flourished') denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indic ...

1682–1708) was a French

soprano A soprano () is a type of classical singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hertz, Hz to A5 in Choir, choral ...

and creator of many roles in French Baroque opera. She performed in Jean Baptiste Lully's '' Persée'' (1682), '' Armide'' (1686 and 1703 revival), '' Achille et Polyxène'' (1687), '' Thésée'' (1698 revival), ''

Isis Isis was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kingdom () as one of the main characters of the Osiris myth, in which she resurrects her sla ...

'' (1704 revival), ''

Roland Roland (; ; or ''Rotholandus''; or ''Rolando''; died 15 August 778) was a Frankish military leader under Charlemagne who became one of the principal figures in the literary cycle known as the Matter of France. The historical Roland was mil ...

'' (1705 revival), '' Bellérophon'' (1705 revival), '' Alceste'' (1706 revival), as well as in

Pascal Collasse Pascal Collasse (or Colasse) (22 January 1649 (baptism, baptised) – 17 July 1709) was a French composer of the Baroque era. Born in Rheims, Collasse became a disciple of Jean-Baptiste Lully during the latter's domination of the French operati ...

's '' Enée et Lavinie'' (1690) and ''

Thétis et Pélée ''Thétis et Pelée'' (''Thetis and Peleus'') is an opera by the French composer Pascal Collasse, first performed at the Académie Royale de Musique (the Paris Opéra) on 11 January 1689. It takes the form of a ''tragédie lyrique'' in a prologue ...

'' (1699 revival), André Cardinal Destouches' ''

Issé Issé (; Gallo: ''Isae'', ) is a commune on the banks of the river Don in the Loire-Atlantique department in western France. It is situated 10 km southeast of Châteaubriant. Population Transport The train station reopened in 2014, ...

'' (1697),

Henri Desmarets Henri Desmarets (February 1661 – 7 September 1741) was a French composer of the Baroque music, Baroque period primarily known for his stage works, although he also composed sacred music as well as secular cantatas, songs and instrumenta ...

' '' Didon'' (1704 revival),

André Campra André Campra (; baptized 4 December 1660 – 29 June 1744) was a French composer and conductor of the Baroque era. The leading French opera composer in the period between Jean-Baptiste Lully and Jean-Philippe Rameau, Campra wrote several '' trag ...

's ''

Iphigénie en Tauride ''Iphigénie en Tauride'' (, ''Iphigenia in Tauris'') is a 1779 opera by Christoph Willibald Gluck in four acts. It was his fifth opera for the French stage. The libretto was written by Nicolas-François Guillard. With ''Iphigénie,'' Gluck too ...

'' (1704), and

Marin Marais Marin Marais (; 31 May 1656, in Paris – 15 August 1728, in Paris) was a French composer and viol player. He studied composition with Jean-Baptiste Lully, often conducting his operas, and with master of the bass viol Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe ...

' ''

Alcyone In Greek mythology, Alcyone (or dubiously Halcyone) (; ) and Ceyx (; ) were a wife and husband who incurred the wrath of the god Zeus for their romantic hubris. Etymology Alkyóne comes from alkyón (), which refers to a sea-bird with a mour ...

'' (1706). The absence of her name in subsequent cast lists remained unexplained until 2007, when a report on the novel ''La Musique du Diable'' (1711) confirmed her death. A satirical narrative of Desmatins' afterlife in Hades, the novel suggests that she died of complications of a primitive form of

liposuction Liposuction, or simply lipo, is a type of fat-removal procedure used in plastic surgery. Evidence does not support an effect on weight beyond a couple of months and does not appear to affect obesity-related problems. In the United States, lip ...

. An extant portrait of her was painted by Robert Le Vrac de Tournières.

Bridgeman Art Library Bridgeman Images, based in New York, London, Paris and Berlin, provides one of the largest archives for reproductions of works of art in the world. Bridgeman Art Library was founded in 1972 by Harriet Bridgeman and changed its name in 2014. Th ...

Portrait of the singer Marie-Louise Desmatins (1670-1708)
Retrieved 10 July 2014.

References

17th-century births 18th-century deaths French operatic sopranos 17th-century French women opera singers 18th-century French women opera singers {{France-opera-singer-stub