Marie Thérèse Victoria Adélaïde Abbiate dite Thérèse Amiati or Amiati, born 2 June 1851 in Turin/Torino, Région Piémont, Italy and died 27 October 1889 in Raincy, Intercommunalité Métropole du Grand Paris, Canton Villemomble - Grand Est, Département Seine-Saint-Denis (sous-préfecture), Région Île-de-France was a French singer of Italian origin.
She made herself famous, after the defeat of 1871 and the loss of Alsace-Lorraine, as a divette/starlet, by interpreting “revenge songs”. She was a boarder at Le Comédia, anciennement Eldorado, and La Scala, 13 boulevard de Strasbourg, le 10e arrondissement de Paris. also performing for the L'espace Pierre-Cardin, ancien café des Ambassadeurs puis théâtre et restaurant des Ambassadeurs, 1, avenue Gabriel, dans le 8e arrondissement de Paris.
The link between Amiati and Marie Thérèse Victoire Adélaïde Abbiate was not taken for granted by her contemporaries. The confusion comes in part from the choice of a first stage name, Fiando, for her artistic beginnings. Thus, Gaston Senner (?-?) affirmed in La Presse in 1899, on the occasion of the erection of a "monument" in memory of Amiati, that "the artist's real name was Fiando", even though his newspaper had published ten years earlier that this "real name was Abiate". In addition, the birthplace of the artist, now established as Turin, subject to various hypotheses: Fernand Movel (?-?) followed by Constant Saclé (?-1909) believed Amiati was born in Florence/Firenze. Jules Lemaître (1853-1914), for his part, thought that she came from Rome. There are also some discrepancies on its date of birth: Le Gaulois, in its edition of 30 October 1889, specified that Amiati had started at 14, which would have implied that she was born in 1852. Ten years later, on the occasion of the inauguration of the funeral monument of Amiati, Le Gaulois maintained, claiming that she died in 1889 at age 37.
Little is known about Amiati's life before her debut as a chanteuse. According to Le Gaulois, "her father was a good man - but he drank - her mother beat her - but she still loved him." Another period newspaper claims that she had been a laundress before being a singer. François Élie Jules Lemaître (1853-1914), finally, wrote that she had had no primary education and that when she started out as an artist, she was "still incapable of deciphering the slightest piece."
In reality, her father Charles Abbiate/Carlo Abbiate (Oleggio 1821-Paris 1889) was a music teacher and her mother Innocente Franchi/Innocenza Franchi (Turin 1832-Paris 1902) housewife. The couple had 9 children.
Amiati began on stage in 1866, at the Saint-Pierre, in a comical number, under the name of Fiando. According to the review Tout Paris, it played 170 times, and she interpreted “with a skull full of promise […] the role of the Coq gaulois." She then went on to the Concert Béranger, "like a peasant woman in clogs and a petticoat.". Quickly she become the star of this room, according to its music teacher, Marius Ludovic Benza dit Ludovic Benza (1834-1874) to the director of the Eldorado, who started it in 1869, still in the genre known as paysannerie/'peasantry'.
During the Commune, she was already known by the stage name of Amiati, the Official Journal noting that it "…does not lack a certain originality". In March 1871, she created at Eldorado 'Qu'on se souvienne'. In April 1871: 'Maudite soit la guerre' and 'La Voix de la France'. in May 1871, before the Versaillais entered Paris, 'Assez de sang. Cri patriotique' calling for national reconciliation. She was already a star of the Eldorado.
She was considered one of the main representatives of the genre "patriotic song", a well-defined use of café-concert, or even la prêtresse consacrée/“the consecrated priestess" of naive chauvinism. Indeed, after the Franco-German War, "the song becomes patriotic, calls for revenge, marked the uneasiness of popular souls". "Amiati eminently represented this genre, literally wrapping herself in the tricolor flag, out “suddenly we don't know where", to sing La Marseillaise" or revenge songs like ' Alsace et Lorraine' (1871), taken after Marie-Joséphine-Euphrasie Chrétiennot dite Chrétienno (1838-1893), who “brought tears to Adrien Bernheim, the chronicler of Figaro, with its famous refrain:
Vous n'aurez pas l'Alsace et la Lorraine
Et, malgré vous, nous resterons français
Vous avez pu germaniser la plaine
Mais notre cœur, vous ne l'aurez jamais.
From 1874, according to a columnist for L'Orchestre, patriotic songs are heard less often at the Eldorado. Soon, according to an article in L'Art lyrique in 1896, the café-concert programs reverted to more sentimental songs. Amiati adapted “anacreontic” songs such 'Ça coûte un baiser' (1885). Other "dramatic and melodic successes” were, according to Constant Saclé (?-?), 'Le Baiser des adieux '(1874), ‘La Fille de l'hôtesse', 'N't'en va pas Madeleine!' (1874),' L'Amour frileux', 'Valse maudite' (1878) 'Amour, Folie' (1880), 'Le bon temps',' Stella d'Amore'.
Besides the Eldorado, she also performed at the Ambassadors and at the Scala. In 1884, Amiati was a boarder at La Scala, an establishment opposite the Eldorado, whose owners bought the Eldorado in 1887. In 1885, Le Gaulois observed that the success of La Scala was “considerable, that we continue to turn people away and that her stars, including Amiati," the singer with emotional accents "that we welcome with bravos"which "attract all Paris." Le Temps reported that the singer aroused "indescribable enthusiasm". However, fashion was changing: even at café-concerts, the public prefered plays. Audiences "no longer listened to the songs that once made the fortune of these establishments. They wait for the end piece and consider the rest as hors d'oeuvres, more or less bad. Consequently, lyric stars [like] Amiati […] no longer have any real power over the recipe. We listen to them, we applaud them, because they do better than the others; but we don't bother any more to come and see and hear them.” In 1887, some considered Amiati as "a declining star" even if Le Gaulois continued to report that it "obtained, every evening, a great success” with a new patriotic song by Paul Déroulède (1846-1914).
Among Amiati's last successes, Saclé noted 'Loin des jaloux', 'Le bon vieux maître d'école', 'La plus belle fille du monde' and 'La Prière d'une Alsacienne'.
In the summer of 1889, she lost her husband, Eugène Maria. Overwhelmed with grief, and already very affected by the death of several of his children by croup in 1888, she continued, although pregnant, to sing until the end of the season. She needed to pay all the creditors of her late husband; his monthly salary was not enough, so she had to borrow half of her three-year salary. She died the following winter, following childbirth of puerperal peritonitis. She was destitute, leaving 13fr. 15c to four surviving kids.
She was first buried in the common grave/fosse commune 40 at the Raincy cemetery.
In 1898, Le Moniteur des spectacles took the initiative to raise money to adorn her new grave with a bronze medallion by Élisa Bloch née Marcus (1848-1905). The monument was inaugurated in 1899.
NOTABLE SONGS
'Les Turcos' commemorating the Bataille de Forbach-Spicheren 6 August 1870
'Ne dansez plus, des Français dorment là' (1872)
'Le Maître d'école alsacien' (1872)
'Fils de l'Allemand' (1882)
'Maudite soit la guerre' (1871)
'Les Émigrants' (1871)
'Le Blessé' (1878)
'L'Appel après le combat' (1872)
'Une tombe dans les blés' (1872)
'Le Clairon' (1873)
'L'Enfant de Paris' (1874)
'Le Cheveu blanc'
'La ferme aux fraises'
'Le Bouquet tricolore'
'Mère et patrier'
'Homme! Nous allons nous instruire'
PANEGYRIC DELIVERED AT THE PLAQUE DEDICATION
"Amiati!... C'était la chanson bourgeoise et guerrière. L’enthousiasme du dessert au nougat. Elle soulevait les salles. Par son apparence de belle fille bien grasse, elle suscitait toutes les ardeurs des spectateurs médiocres et populaires, qu'elle détournait ensuite facilement et à l'aide d'un refrain de victoire sur un sentiment toujours prêt de patriotique candeur. On désirait à la fois la Bourgeoise et la Revanche, et on acclamait le tout. Ils avaient la perception de ce qu'était une noble et forte femme très décolletée et l'idée obscure que pour chanter ainsi d’elle-même tous les beaux refrains qu'ils pensaient entre hommes, elle devait bientôt venir au milieu d'eux et ne pas être difficile. On l'aimait. Ainsi s'explique le succès de la défunte chanteuse et son monument. Elle le mérite, car c'était une brave femme, et ses pensées de ménagère, enflammées quotidiennement par des revendications tricolores, durent se reposer dans la vie et ne jamais dépasser un idéal autoritaire, honorable, et tout rempli d'une saine tendresse, d'une intimité semblable et parallèle à son art."
---Edmond Sée (1879-1959)
She made herself famous, after the defeat of 1871 and the loss of Alsace-Lorraine, as a divette/starlet, by interpreting “revenge songs”. She was a boarder at Le Comédia, anciennement Eldorado, and La Scala, 13 boulevard de Strasbourg, le 10e arrondissement de Paris. also performing for the L'espace Pierre-Cardin, ancien café des Ambassadeurs puis théâtre et restaurant des Ambassadeurs, 1, avenue Gabriel, dans le 8e arrondissement de Paris.
The link between Amiati and Marie Thérèse Victoire Adélaïde Abbiate was not taken for granted by her contemporaries. The confusion comes in part from the choice of a first stage name, Fiando, for her artistic beginnings. Thus, Gaston Senner (?-?) affirmed in La Presse in 1899, on the occasion of the erection of a "monument" in memory of Amiati, that "the artist's real name was Fiando", even though his newspaper had published ten years earlier that this "real name was Abiate". In addition, the birthplace of the artist, now established as Turin, subject to various hypotheses: Fernand Movel (?-?) followed by Constant Saclé (?-1909) believed Amiati was born in Florence/Firenze. Jules Lemaître (1853-1914), for his part, thought that she came from Rome. There are also some discrepancies on its date of birth: Le Gaulois, in its edition of 30 October 1889, specified that Amiati had started at 14, which would have implied that she was born in 1852. Ten years later, on the occasion of the inauguration of the funeral monument of Amiati, Le Gaulois maintained, claiming that she died in 1889 at age 37.
Little is known about Amiati's life before her debut as a chanteuse. According to Le Gaulois, "her father was a good man - but he drank - her mother beat her - but she still loved him." Another period newspaper claims that she had been a laundress before being a singer. François Élie Jules Lemaître (1853-1914), finally, wrote that she had had no primary education and that when she started out as an artist, she was "still incapable of deciphering the slightest piece."
In reality, her father Charles Abbiate/Carlo Abbiate (Oleggio 1821-Paris 1889) was a music teacher and her mother Innocente Franchi/Innocenza Franchi (Turin 1832-Paris 1902) housewife. The couple had 9 children.
Amiati began on stage in 1866, at the Saint-Pierre, in a comical number, under the name of Fiando. According to the review Tout Paris, it played 170 times, and she interpreted “with a skull full of promise […] the role of the Coq gaulois." She then went on to the Concert Béranger, "like a peasant woman in clogs and a petticoat.". Quickly she become the star of this room, according to its music teacher, Marius Ludovic Benza dit Ludovic Benza (1834-1874) to the director of the Eldorado, who started it in 1869, still in the genre known as paysannerie/'peasantry'.
During the Commune, she was already known by the stage name of Amiati, the Official Journal noting that it "…does not lack a certain originality". In March 1871, she created at Eldorado 'Qu'on se souvienne'. In April 1871: 'Maudite soit la guerre' and 'La Voix de la France'. in May 1871, before the Versaillais entered Paris, 'Assez de sang. Cri patriotique' calling for national reconciliation. She was already a star of the Eldorado.
She was considered one of the main representatives of the genre "patriotic song", a well-defined use of café-concert, or even la prêtresse consacrée/“the consecrated priestess" of naive chauvinism. Indeed, after the Franco-German War, "the song becomes patriotic, calls for revenge, marked the uneasiness of popular souls". "Amiati eminently represented this genre, literally wrapping herself in the tricolor flag, out “suddenly we don't know where", to sing La Marseillaise" or revenge songs like ' Alsace et Lorraine' (1871), taken after Marie-Joséphine-Euphrasie Chrétiennot dite Chrétienno (1838-1893), who “brought tears to Adrien Bernheim, the chronicler of Figaro, with its famous refrain:
Vous n'aurez pas l'Alsace et la Lorraine
Et, malgré vous, nous resterons français
Vous avez pu germaniser la plaine
Mais notre cœur, vous ne l'aurez jamais.
From 1874, according to a columnist for L'Orchestre, patriotic songs are heard less often at the Eldorado. Soon, according to an article in L'Art lyrique in 1896, the café-concert programs reverted to more sentimental songs. Amiati adapted “anacreontic” songs such 'Ça coûte un baiser' (1885). Other "dramatic and melodic successes” were, according to Constant Saclé (?-?), 'Le Baiser des adieux '(1874), ‘La Fille de l'hôtesse', 'N't'en va pas Madeleine!' (1874),' L'Amour frileux', 'Valse maudite' (1878) 'Amour, Folie' (1880), 'Le bon temps',' Stella d'Amore'.
Besides the Eldorado, she also performed at the Ambassadors and at the Scala. In 1884, Amiati was a boarder at La Scala, an establishment opposite the Eldorado, whose owners bought the Eldorado in 1887. In 1885, Le Gaulois observed that the success of La Scala was “considerable, that we continue to turn people away and that her stars, including Amiati," the singer with emotional accents "that we welcome with bravos"which "attract all Paris." Le Temps reported that the singer aroused "indescribable enthusiasm". However, fashion was changing: even at café-concerts, the public prefered plays. Audiences "no longer listened to the songs that once made the fortune of these establishments. They wait for the end piece and consider the rest as hors d'oeuvres, more or less bad. Consequently, lyric stars [like] Amiati […] no longer have any real power over the recipe. We listen to them, we applaud them, because they do better than the others; but we don't bother any more to come and see and hear them.” In 1887, some considered Amiati as "a declining star" even if Le Gaulois continued to report that it "obtained, every evening, a great success” with a new patriotic song by Paul Déroulède (1846-1914).
Among Amiati's last successes, Saclé noted 'Loin des jaloux', 'Le bon vieux maître d'école', 'La plus belle fille du monde' and 'La Prière d'une Alsacienne'.
In the summer of 1889, she lost her husband, Eugène Maria. Overwhelmed with grief, and already very affected by the death of several of his children by croup in 1888, she continued, although pregnant, to sing until the end of the season. She needed to pay all the creditors of her late husband; his monthly salary was not enough, so she had to borrow half of her three-year salary. She died the following winter, following childbirth of puerperal peritonitis. She was destitute, leaving 13fr. 15c to four surviving kids.
She was first buried in the common grave/fosse commune 40 at the Raincy cemetery.
In 1898, Le Moniteur des spectacles took the initiative to raise money to adorn her new grave with a bronze medallion by Élisa Bloch née Marcus (1848-1905). The monument was inaugurated in 1899.
NOTABLE SONGS
'Les Turcos' commemorating the Bataille de Forbach-Spicheren 6 August 1870
'Ne dansez plus, des Français dorment là' (1872)
'Le Maître d'école alsacien' (1872)
'Fils de l'Allemand' (1882)
'Maudite soit la guerre' (1871)
'Les Émigrants' (1871)
'Le Blessé' (1878)
'L'Appel après le combat' (1872)
'Une tombe dans les blés' (1872)
'Le Clairon' (1873)
'L'Enfant de Paris' (1874)
'Le Cheveu blanc'
'La ferme aux fraises'
'Le Bouquet tricolore'
'Mère et patrier'
'Homme! Nous allons nous instruire'
PANEGYRIC DELIVERED AT THE PLAQUE DEDICATION
"Amiati!... C'était la chanson bourgeoise et guerrière. L’enthousiasme du dessert au nougat. Elle soulevait les salles. Par son apparence de belle fille bien grasse, elle suscitait toutes les ardeurs des spectateurs médiocres et populaires, qu'elle détournait ensuite facilement et à l'aide d'un refrain de victoire sur un sentiment toujours prêt de patriotique candeur. On désirait à la fois la Bourgeoise et la Revanche, et on acclamait le tout. Ils avaient la perception de ce qu'était une noble et forte femme très décolletée et l'idée obscure que pour chanter ainsi d’elle-même tous les beaux refrains qu'ils pensaient entre hommes, elle devait bientôt venir au milieu d'eux et ne pas être difficile. On l'aimait. Ainsi s'explique le succès de la défunte chanteuse et son monument. Elle le mérite, car c'était une brave femme, et ses pensées de ménagère, enflammées quotidiennement par des revendications tricolores, durent se reposer dans la vie et ne jamais dépasser un idéal autoritaire, honorable, et tout rempli d'une saine tendresse, d'une intimité semblable et parallèle à son art."
---Edmond Sée (1879-1959)
Marie Thérèse Victoria Adélaïde Abbiate dite Thérèse Amiati or Amiati, born 2 June 1851 in Turin/Torino, Région Piémont, Italy and died 27 October 1889 in Raincy, Intercommunalité Métropole du Grand Paris, Canton Villemomble - Grand Est, Département Seine-Saint-Denis (sous-préfecture), Région Île-de-France was a French singer of Italian origin.
She made herself famous, after the defeat of 1871 and the loss of Alsace-Lorraine, as a divette/starlet, by interpreting “revenge songs”. She was a boarder at Le Comédia, anciennement Eldorado, and La Scala, 13 boulevard de Strasbourg, le 10e arrondissement de Paris. also performing for the L'espace Pierre-Cardin, ancien café des Ambassadeurs puis théâtre et restaurant des Ambassadeurs, 1, avenue Gabriel, dans le 8e arrondissement de Paris.
The link between Amiati and Marie Thérèse Victoire Adélaïde Abbiate was not taken for granted by her contemporaries. The confusion comes in part from the choice of a first stage name, Fiando, for her artistic beginnings. Thus, Gaston Senner (?-?) affirmed in La Presse in 1899, on the occasion of the erection of a "monument" in memory of Amiati, that "the artist's real name was Fiando", even though his newspaper had published ten years earlier that this "real name was Abiate". In addition, the birthplace of the artist, now established as Turin, subject to various hypotheses: Fernand Movel (?-?) followed by Constant Saclé (?-1909) believed Amiati was born in Florence/Firenze. Jules Lemaître (1853-1914), for his part, thought that she came from Rome. There are also some discrepancies on its date of birth: Le Gaulois, in its edition of 30 October 1889, specified that Amiati had started at 14, which would have implied that she was born in 1852. Ten years later, on the occasion of the inauguration of the funeral monument of Amiati, Le Gaulois maintained, claiming that she died in 1889 at age 37.
Little is known about Amiati's life before her debut as a chanteuse. According to Le Gaulois, "her father was a good man - but he drank - her mother beat her - but she still loved him." Another period newspaper claims that she had been a laundress before being a singer. François Élie Jules Lemaître (1853-1914), finally, wrote that she had had no primary education and that when she started out as an artist, she was "still incapable of deciphering the slightest piece."
In reality, her father Charles Abbiate/Carlo Abbiate (Oleggio 1821-Paris 1889) was a music teacher and her mother Innocente Franchi/Innocenza Franchi (Turin 1832-Paris 1902) housewife. The couple had 9 children.
Amiati began on stage in 1866, at the Saint-Pierre, in a comical number, under the name of Fiando. According to the review Tout Paris, it played 170 times, and she interpreted “with a skull full of promise […] the role of the Coq gaulois." She then went on to the Concert Béranger, "like a peasant woman in clogs and a petticoat.". Quickly she become the star of this room, according to its music teacher, Marius Ludovic Benza dit Ludovic Benza (1834-1874) to the director of the Eldorado, who started it in 1869, still in the genre known as paysannerie/'peasantry'.
During the Commune, she was already known by the stage name of Amiati, the Official Journal noting that it "…does not lack a certain originality". In March 1871, she created at Eldorado 'Qu'on se souvienne'. In April 1871: 'Maudite soit la guerre' and 'La Voix de la France'. in May 1871, before the Versaillais entered Paris, 'Assez de sang. Cri patriotique' calling for national reconciliation. She was already a star of the Eldorado.
She was considered one of the main representatives of the genre "patriotic song", a well-defined use of café-concert, or even la prêtresse consacrée/“the consecrated priestess" of naive chauvinism. Indeed, after the Franco-German War, "the song becomes patriotic, calls for revenge, marked the uneasiness of popular souls". "Amiati eminently represented this genre, literally wrapping herself in the tricolor flag, out “suddenly we don't know where", to sing La Marseillaise" or revenge songs like ' Alsace et Lorraine' (1871), taken after Marie-Joséphine-Euphrasie Chrétiennot dite Chrétienno (1838-1893), who “brought tears to Adrien Bernheim, the chronicler of Figaro, with its famous refrain:
Vous n'aurez pas l'Alsace et la Lorraine
Et, malgré vous, nous resterons français
Vous avez pu germaniser la plaine
Mais notre cœur, vous ne l'aurez jamais.
From 1874, according to a columnist for L'Orchestre, patriotic songs are heard less often at the Eldorado. Soon, according to an article in L'Art lyrique in 1896, the café-concert programs reverted to more sentimental songs. Amiati adapted “anacreontic” songs such 'Ça coûte un baiser' (1885). Other "dramatic and melodic successes” were, according to Constant Saclé (?-?), 'Le Baiser des adieux '(1874), ‘La Fille de l'hôtesse', 'N't'en va pas Madeleine!' (1874),' L'Amour frileux', 'Valse maudite' (1878) 'Amour, Folie' (1880), 'Le bon temps',' Stella d'Amore'.
Besides the Eldorado, she also performed at the Ambassadors and at the Scala. In 1884, Amiati was a boarder at La Scala, an establishment opposite the Eldorado, whose owners bought the Eldorado in 1887. In 1885, Le Gaulois observed that the success of La Scala was “considerable, that we continue to turn people away and that her stars, including Amiati," the singer with emotional accents "that we welcome with bravos"which "attract all Paris." Le Temps reported that the singer aroused "indescribable enthusiasm". However, fashion was changing: even at café-concerts, the public prefered plays. Audiences "no longer listened to the songs that once made the fortune of these establishments. They wait for the end piece and consider the rest as hors d'oeuvres, more or less bad. Consequently, lyric stars [like] Amiati […] no longer have any real power over the recipe. We listen to them, we applaud them, because they do better than the others; but we don't bother any more to come and see and hear them.” In 1887, some considered Amiati as "a declining star" even if Le Gaulois continued to report that it "obtained, every evening, a great success” with a new patriotic song by Paul Déroulède (1846-1914).
Among Amiati's last successes, Saclé noted 'Loin des jaloux', 'Le bon vieux maître d'école', 'La plus belle fille du monde' and 'La Prière d'une Alsacienne'.
In the summer of 1889, she lost her husband, Eugène Maria. Overwhelmed with grief, and already very affected by the death of several of his children by croup in 1888, she continued, although pregnant, to sing until the end of the season. She needed to pay all the creditors of her late husband; his monthly salary was not enough, so she had to borrow half of her three-year salary. She died the following winter, following childbirth of puerperal peritonitis. She was destitute, leaving 13fr. 15c to four surviving kids.
She was first buried in the common grave/fosse commune 40 at the Raincy cemetery.
In 1898, Le Moniteur des spectacles took the initiative to raise money to adorn her new grave with a bronze medallion by Élisa Bloch née Marcus (1848-1905). The monument was inaugurated in 1899.
NOTABLE SONGS
'Les Turcos' commemorating the Bataille de Forbach-Spicheren 6 August 1870
'Ne dansez plus, des Français dorment là' (1872)
'Le Maître d'école alsacien' (1872)
'Fils de l'Allemand' (1882)
'Maudite soit la guerre' (1871)
'Les Émigrants' (1871)
'Le Blessé' (1878)
'L'Appel après le combat' (1872)
'Une tombe dans les blés' (1872)
'Le Clairon' (1873)
'L'Enfant de Paris' (1874)
'Le Cheveu blanc'
'La ferme aux fraises'
'Le Bouquet tricolore'
'Mère et patrier'
'Homme! Nous allons nous instruire'
PANEGYRIC DELIVERED AT THE PLAQUE DEDICATION
"Amiati!... C'était la chanson bourgeoise et guerrière. L’enthousiasme du dessert au nougat. Elle soulevait les salles. Par son apparence de belle fille bien grasse, elle suscitait toutes les ardeurs des spectateurs médiocres et populaires, qu'elle détournait ensuite facilement et à l'aide d'un refrain de victoire sur un sentiment toujours prêt de patriotique candeur. On désirait à la fois la Bourgeoise et la Revanche, et on acclamait le tout. Ils avaient la perception de ce qu'était une noble et forte femme très décolletée et l'idée obscure que pour chanter ainsi d’elle-même tous les beaux refrains qu'ils pensaient entre hommes, elle devait bientôt venir au milieu d'eux et ne pas être difficile. On l'aimait. Ainsi s'explique le succès de la défunte chanteuse et son monument. Elle le mérite, car c'était une brave femme, et ses pensées de ménagère, enflammées quotidiennement par des revendications tricolores, durent se reposer dans la vie et ne jamais dépasser un idéal autoritaire, honorable, et tout rempli d'une saine tendresse, d'une intimité semblable et parallèle à son art."
---Edmond Sée (1879-1959)
She made herself famous, after the defeat of 1871 and the loss of Alsace-Lorraine, as a divette/starlet, by interpreting “revenge songs”. She was a boarder at Le Comédia, anciennement Eldorado, and La Scala, 13 boulevard de Strasbourg, le 10e arrondissement de Paris. also performing for the L'espace Pierre-Cardin, ancien café des Ambassadeurs puis théâtre et restaurant des Ambassadeurs, 1, avenue Gabriel, dans le 8e arrondissement de Paris.
The link between Amiati and Marie Thérèse Victoire Adélaïde Abbiate was not taken for granted by her contemporaries. The confusion comes in part from the choice of a first stage name, Fiando, for her artistic beginnings. Thus, Gaston Senner (?-?) affirmed in La Presse in 1899, on the occasion of the erection of a "monument" in memory of Amiati, that "the artist's real name was Fiando", even though his newspaper had published ten years earlier that this "real name was Abiate". In addition, the birthplace of the artist, now established as Turin, subject to various hypotheses: Fernand Movel (?-?) followed by Constant Saclé (?-1909) believed Amiati was born in Florence/Firenze. Jules Lemaître (1853-1914), for his part, thought that she came from Rome. There are also some discrepancies on its date of birth: Le Gaulois, in its edition of 30 October 1889, specified that Amiati had started at 14, which would have implied that she was born in 1852. Ten years later, on the occasion of the inauguration of the funeral monument of Amiati, Le Gaulois maintained, claiming that she died in 1889 at age 37.
Little is known about Amiati's life before her debut as a chanteuse. According to Le Gaulois, "her father was a good man - but he drank - her mother beat her - but she still loved him." Another period newspaper claims that she had been a laundress before being a singer. François Élie Jules Lemaître (1853-1914), finally, wrote that she had had no primary education and that when she started out as an artist, she was "still incapable of deciphering the slightest piece."
In reality, her father Charles Abbiate/Carlo Abbiate (Oleggio 1821-Paris 1889) was a music teacher and her mother Innocente Franchi/Innocenza Franchi (Turin 1832-Paris 1902) housewife. The couple had 9 children.
Amiati began on stage in 1866, at the Saint-Pierre, in a comical number, under the name of Fiando. According to the review Tout Paris, it played 170 times, and she interpreted “with a skull full of promise […] the role of the Coq gaulois." She then went on to the Concert Béranger, "like a peasant woman in clogs and a petticoat.". Quickly she become the star of this room, according to its music teacher, Marius Ludovic Benza dit Ludovic Benza (1834-1874) to the director of the Eldorado, who started it in 1869, still in the genre known as paysannerie/'peasantry'.
During the Commune, she was already known by the stage name of Amiati, the Official Journal noting that it "…does not lack a certain originality". In March 1871, she created at Eldorado 'Qu'on se souvienne'. In April 1871: 'Maudite soit la guerre' and 'La Voix de la France'. in May 1871, before the Versaillais entered Paris, 'Assez de sang. Cri patriotique' calling for national reconciliation. She was already a star of the Eldorado.
She was considered one of the main representatives of the genre "patriotic song", a well-defined use of café-concert, or even la prêtresse consacrée/“the consecrated priestess" of naive chauvinism. Indeed, after the Franco-German War, "the song becomes patriotic, calls for revenge, marked the uneasiness of popular souls". "Amiati eminently represented this genre, literally wrapping herself in the tricolor flag, out “suddenly we don't know where", to sing La Marseillaise" or revenge songs like ' Alsace et Lorraine' (1871), taken after Marie-Joséphine-Euphrasie Chrétiennot dite Chrétienno (1838-1893), who “brought tears to Adrien Bernheim, the chronicler of Figaro, with its famous refrain:
Vous n'aurez pas l'Alsace et la Lorraine
Et, malgré vous, nous resterons français
Vous avez pu germaniser la plaine
Mais notre cœur, vous ne l'aurez jamais.
From 1874, according to a columnist for L'Orchestre, patriotic songs are heard less often at the Eldorado. Soon, according to an article in L'Art lyrique in 1896, the café-concert programs reverted to more sentimental songs. Amiati adapted “anacreontic” songs such 'Ça coûte un baiser' (1885). Other "dramatic and melodic successes” were, according to Constant Saclé (?-?), 'Le Baiser des adieux '(1874), ‘La Fille de l'hôtesse', 'N't'en va pas Madeleine!' (1874),' L'Amour frileux', 'Valse maudite' (1878) 'Amour, Folie' (1880), 'Le bon temps',' Stella d'Amore'.
Besides the Eldorado, she also performed at the Ambassadors and at the Scala. In 1884, Amiati was a boarder at La Scala, an establishment opposite the Eldorado, whose owners bought the Eldorado in 1887. In 1885, Le Gaulois observed that the success of La Scala was “considerable, that we continue to turn people away and that her stars, including Amiati," the singer with emotional accents "that we welcome with bravos"which "attract all Paris." Le Temps reported that the singer aroused "indescribable enthusiasm". However, fashion was changing: even at café-concerts, the public prefered plays. Audiences "no longer listened to the songs that once made the fortune of these establishments. They wait for the end piece and consider the rest as hors d'oeuvres, more or less bad. Consequently, lyric stars [like] Amiati […] no longer have any real power over the recipe. We listen to them, we applaud them, because they do better than the others; but we don't bother any more to come and see and hear them.” In 1887, some considered Amiati as "a declining star" even if Le Gaulois continued to report that it "obtained, every evening, a great success” with a new patriotic song by Paul Déroulède (1846-1914).
Among Amiati's last successes, Saclé noted 'Loin des jaloux', 'Le bon vieux maître d'école', 'La plus belle fille du monde' and 'La Prière d'une Alsacienne'.
In the summer of 1889, she lost her husband, Eugène Maria. Overwhelmed with grief, and already very affected by the death of several of his children by croup in 1888, she continued, although pregnant, to sing until the end of the season. She needed to pay all the creditors of her late husband; his monthly salary was not enough, so she had to borrow half of her three-year salary. She died the following winter, following childbirth of puerperal peritonitis. She was destitute, leaving 13fr. 15c to four surviving kids.
She was first buried in the common grave/fosse commune 40 at the Raincy cemetery.
In 1898, Le Moniteur des spectacles took the initiative to raise money to adorn her new grave with a bronze medallion by Élisa Bloch née Marcus (1848-1905). The monument was inaugurated in 1899.
NOTABLE SONGS
'Les Turcos' commemorating the Bataille de Forbach-Spicheren 6 August 1870
'Ne dansez plus, des Français dorment là' (1872)
'Le Maître d'école alsacien' (1872)
'Fils de l'Allemand' (1882)
'Maudite soit la guerre' (1871)
'Les Émigrants' (1871)
'Le Blessé' (1878)
'L'Appel après le combat' (1872)
'Une tombe dans les blés' (1872)
'Le Clairon' (1873)
'L'Enfant de Paris' (1874)
'Le Cheveu blanc'
'La ferme aux fraises'
'Le Bouquet tricolore'
'Mère et patrier'
'Homme! Nous allons nous instruire'
PANEGYRIC DELIVERED AT THE PLAQUE DEDICATION
"Amiati!... C'était la chanson bourgeoise et guerrière. L’enthousiasme du dessert au nougat. Elle soulevait les salles. Par son apparence de belle fille bien grasse, elle suscitait toutes les ardeurs des spectateurs médiocres et populaires, qu'elle détournait ensuite facilement et à l'aide d'un refrain de victoire sur un sentiment toujours prêt de patriotique candeur. On désirait à la fois la Bourgeoise et la Revanche, et on acclamait le tout. Ils avaient la perception de ce qu'était une noble et forte femme très décolletée et l'idée obscure que pour chanter ainsi d’elle-même tous les beaux refrains qu'ils pensaient entre hommes, elle devait bientôt venir au milieu d'eux et ne pas être difficile. On l'aimait. Ainsi s'explique le succès de la défunte chanteuse et son monument. Elle le mérite, car c'était une brave femme, et ses pensées de ménagère, enflammées quotidiennement par des revendications tricolores, durent se reposer dans la vie et ne jamais dépasser un idéal autoritaire, honorable, et tout rempli d'une saine tendresse, d'une intimité semblable et parallèle à son art."
---Edmond Sée (1879-1959)
Advertisement
Advertisement
