Hortense Rhéa
| Hortense Rhéa | |
|---|---|
Hortense Rhéa
New York Public Library |
|
| Born |
September 4, 1844 Brussels, Belgium |
| Died |
May 5, 1899 (aged 54) Montmorency, Val-d'Oise, France |
| Other names | Hortense Rhea, Hortense Barbe-Loret |
| Occupation | French actress |
Hortense Rhéa (September 4, 1844 – May 5, 1899) was a Belgium-born French actress whose popularity extended to the Russian Empire and later the United States of America.
Hortense Barbe-Loret was born in Brussels the daughter of a prosperous French organ builder. At an early age she lost first her father and then her mother and was sent to France to be raised and educated at the Ursuline Convent, Paris. After graduating, Rhéa came to the attention of Charles Fechter who in turn introduced her to Mme. Samson, remembered as an acting instructor who worked with Rachel Felix. With Samson’s backing she was accepted to study at the Conservatoire de Paris under the tutelage of Léon Beauvallet.
Rhéa made her début at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, Brussels, in Les doigts de fée, a comedy in five acts by Ernest Legouvé and Eugène Scribe. The following season Rhéa began a two-year engagement playing principle young woman rôles at the Théâtre-Français, Rouen, that led to a successful tenure at the Théâtre du Vaudeville, Paris, and a subsequent tour of French provinces. In the early 1870s Rhéa commenced a tour of the Russian Empire that in 1876 led to her becoming a leading actress at the French Imperial Theatre, St Petersburg. Rhéa remained at the Imperial until the company disbanded following the assassination of Tzar Alexander II on March 13, 1881. Rhéa, who had once met the tzar, actually witnessed the attack as she watched his carriage pass below the windows of her rehearsal studio just moments before Nikolai Rysakov threw the first bomb.
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