Émilie Ambre
| Émilie Ambre | |
|---|---|
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| Born |
Émilie Gabrielle Adèle Ambroise 1849 Oran, French Algeria |
| Died | April 1898 (aged 48–49) Paris, France |
| Occupation | Opera singer (soprano) |
Émilie Gabrielle Adèle Ambre (née Ambroise; (1849 – April 1898) was a French opera singer who performed leading soprano roles in Europe and North America and later became a singing teacher. Born in French Algeria and trained at the Marseilles Conservatory, she was for several years the mistress of William III of the Netherlands. She had a son Robert by her next lover Gaston de Beauplan, but the relationship eventually foundered after their return from the financially disastrous 1880–1881 American tour de Beauplan had organized to showcase her talents. Following her retirement from the stage in 1890, Ambre opened a singing school in Paris with the composer Emile Bouichère and married him in 1894. As a singer, she was particularly known for her performances as Violetta, Manon, and Aida, but is primarily remembered today as the subject of Édouard Manet's portrait of her as Carmen.
Ambre was born in Oran in French Algeria to a prosperous French family. After her father's death when she was sixteen, she went to France to study at the Marseilles Conservatory and made her debut in that city. She then went to Paris for further training with Gustave-Hippolyte Roger and first appeared there at the Opéra-Comique in La fille du régiment, after which she was engaged to sing in Geneva, Bruges, Brussels, The Hague, and Amsterdam. According to the French press at the time, she appeared in Amsterdam in the 1876/1877 season to great success in the title roles of Mignon, Carmen, and Ernest Guiraud's Piccolino, and a brilliant future was predicted for her.
It was while singing in the Netherlands that she met King William III and became his mistress. He conferred the title "Comtesse d'Ambroise" on her and bought her extravagant jewels as well as a lavishly appointed country house in Meudon outside Paris where the couple often sojourned. After the death of his estranged wife Queen Sophie in June 1877, William installed Ambre in the late queen's chambers and announced that he was planning a morganitic marriage to her. As chronicled by August Willem Philip Weitzel, the opposition from his ministers and the Dutch press was intense. He was eventually persuaded to end the relationship and in 1879 married Princess Emma of Waldeck.
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