Moreau, Fanchon [Françoise]

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[Françoise]

(b1668; d after 1743). French soprano. Although Titon du Tillet (Le Parnasse françois, 1732) stated that she left the stage about 1708, her name disappears from cast lists in 1702; he added that she was still living in 1743. According to J.-B. Durey de Noinville (Histoire du théâtre de l’Opéra de l’Académie royale de musique en France, 1753, 2/1757) she made her début in 1683 in the prologue of Lully’s Phaëton (probably as Astraea). From 1683 to 1692 (when her older sister Louison left the Opéra) both sisters were entered as ‘Mlle Moreau’ in cast lists. It is known, however, that it was Fanchon who created the role of Oriane in Lully’s Amadis (1684) and Sidonie in his Armide (1686). Between 1692 and 1702 she appeared in several Lully revivals: as Oriane in Amadis (1701), Sangaride in ...