Born: 15 January 1805, France
Died: 26 April 1877
Country most active: France
Also known as: Louise-Angélique Bertin
The following is excerpted from Infinite Women creator Allison Tyra’s book Uncredited: Women’s Overlooked, Misattributed, and Stolen Work.
Composer Louise Bertin collaborated with Victor Hugo to create an operatic version of his book Notre-Dame de Paris (The Hunchback of Notre Dame). La Esmeralda featured music by Bertin (her fourth opera) and a libretto (words) by Hugo, making Bertin the only composer to work directly with Hugo on an opera. But almost as soon as the opera opened in 1836, Bertin was accused of receiving special privileges due to her brother’s connection to the government’s opera administration, with a riot erupting during the seventh performance. Although the original production was forced to close, a version of it continued to be performed over the following three years. Because Bertin had a physical disability that affected her ability to walk or stand for long periods of time, composer Hector Berlioz was hired to run the rehearsals of La Esmeralda, which led to claims that he had actually written music for the opera, which he adamantly denied. Bertin was so frustrated by the situation that she never wrote another opera.
The following is excerpted from Famous Women: An Outline of Feminine Achievement Through the Ages With Life Stories of Five Hundred Noted Women, written by Joseph Adelman, published 1926 by Ellis M Lonow Company.
Louise Angelique Bertin, a French poet and composer. She cultivated successfully painting, poetry and music.
She wrote the operas Guy Manning (Opera Comique, 1827), Faust (Italiens, 1831), and Esmeralda, text by Victor Hugo (Grand Opera, 2836).
According to Halévy, she had “an abundance of ideas and often revealed a rare power of expression.”
Her volume of poems, entitled Las Glanes 1842) received the prize of the Academy.
The following is excerpted from A Dictionary of Music and Musicians, published in 1900 and edited by George Grove.
BERTIN, Louise Angelique, born near Paris 1805, contralto singer, pianist, and composer. ‘Le Loup Garou’ (Paris, 1827) and ‘Faust’ (1831) were her most successful operas, though Victor Hugo himself adapted the libretto for her ‘La Esmeralda’ (1836). Mlle. Bertin’s imperfect studies account for the crudities and irregularities to be found in her writings among many evidences of genius. She died Ap. 26, 1877.