BIOGRAPHY    MUSIC RECORDINGS SOURCES

Louise Angelique Bertin’s parents, Louise and Armand, were editors of the Journal des débats and immersed their daughter in poetry, painting, and music at every opportunity in their artistic home. Francois Joseph Fétis, a writer and critic, was Bertin’s first teacher and also the director of the first private performance of her opera Guy Mannering. Bertin’s second opera, the one-act Le loup-garou, was performed at the Opéra Comique 2 years later in 1827.

Venturing into serious operas with both Fausto and La Esmeralda, Bertin began a more original compositional style. Acclaimed composer, Hector Berlioz, who was also a critic for the Journal des Débats, helped her with the Fausto score and held some of the score in high regard. He later criticized pieces of the orchestration but, during the writing process, he offered no corrections.

La Esmeralda, Bertin’s final opera, was unsuccessful and criticized harshly, which left her feeling defeated. After withdrawing from public scrutiny, she chose to continue composing, writing 12 cantatas, piano ballads, chamber symphonies, and several string quartets, primarily for private performances. Her cantatas, Hymne à Apollon, Jean le Parricide, La chasse et la guerre, Le départ du Comte, Le plus beau présent des dieux, Le retour d’Agamemnon, Les chasseurs, Les enfants des fées, Les esprits, Les juifs, Ronde de jeunes filles, and Vanité remain unpublished.

Music

Recordings

Sources

Macdonald, Hugh, "Bertin, Louise", in Grove Music Online , published in print: 20 January 2001.

Sadie, Julie Ann, & Rhian Samuel,eds. The Norton/Grove Dictionary of Women Composers. W.W. Norton and Co., 1995

Pendle, Karin, editor. Women and Music, A History. Indiana University Press, 1991, p. 107.

Wertheimer, Melissa. “Loudly applauded”: Composer Louise Angélique Bertin.” Library of Congress Blogs, 2021.