Marie Cabel

Marie Cabel (31 January 1827 – 23 May 1885) was a Belgian coloratura soprano. She is probably best remembered for having created the role of Philine in Ambroise Thomas's opera Mignon.

Born Marie-Josèphe Dreulette in Liège, she was the daughter of a former cavalry officer in Napoleon's army, who after his discharge had become an accountant for various theatres in Belgium. Pauline Viardot, who at that time lived in a chateau near Brussels, happened to hear Cabel sing as a child and predicted a great future for her. Cabel first studied voice in Liège with Bouillon, and, her father having died, gave music lessons to help support her mother. Cabel's younger brother Edmond also became a singer and in 1863 created the role of Hylas in Hector Berlioz's Les Troyens.

Cabel later studied voice in Brussels with Ferdinand Cabel and Louis-Joseph Cabel. In 1847 she married Georges Cabel, the brother of Louis-Joseph and also a voice teacher. As the marriage was unhappy, they soon separated and ultimately divorced. That same year she gave a concert in Paris and continued her studies at the Paris Conservatory in 1848–1849.

Cabel made her operatic debut in Paris at the Château des Fleurs in 1848, and in 1849 sang the roles of Georgette in Halévy's Le val d'Andorre and Athénaïs in Halévy's Les mousquetaires de la reine at the Opéra-Comique, where she went almost unnoticed. Moving back to Brussels, she sang at the Théâtre de la Monnaie from 1850 to 1853 with greater success. In 1852 she also appeared in Lyon, at a salary of 3,000 francs per month, and the following year in Strasbourg and Geneva.

It was in Lyon that she was discovered by Jules Seveste, the director of the Théâtre Lyrique in Paris. Seveste engaged her for the 1853–1854 season at his theatre, where she made her debut creating the role of Toinon in Adolphe Adam's Le bijou perdu on 6 October 1853. Fétis described her as "young, fresh, winsome, cheerful, having the devil of a body, lacking at the time taste and musical style, but blessed with an adorable voice, of a marvelous purity, whose brilliant and silvery timbre produced an amazing effect on the public, with which she launched the most difficult lines with amazing confidence and assurance…" Georges Bousquet, writing in the Revue et Gazette Musicale of 9 October 1853, reported that the hit of the show was Cabel's performance of the aria "Ah! qu'il fait donc bon cueillir la fraise". She became such a popular star that the company, located in the working class district of the Boulevard du Temple, began to attract a well-heeled audience, including Emperor Napoleon III and his new bride Eugénie de Montijo.

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