Marie Louise Marcadet

Marie Louise Marcadet
Born	Marie Louise Baptiste 1758 Sweden
Died	1804 (aged c. 56) France
Other names	Marie Louise Baptiste
Spouse(s)	Jean Remi Marcadet

Marie Louise Marcadet (née Baptiste) (1758–1804) was a Swedish opera singer and a dramatic stage actress. She was active in both the Royal Swedish Opera, and at the Royal Dramatic Theatre. She is regarded as the greatest tragedienne in Sweden during the 1780s decade, before the first noted native tragedienne, Maria Franck. She was a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music from 1795.

Marcadet was born in Sweden as the daughter of two actors of the French Theatre of Bollhuset and at the court theatre at Drottningholm of Queen Louisa Ulrika of Prussia; Jacques Anselme Baptiste and the prima donna Marie Baptiste, and of French descent. In 1780 she married a dancer from her parents home country, Jean-Rémy Marcadet (b. 1755), premierdancer and instructor of ballet at the Royal Swedish Ballet and was thereby known as Madame Marcadet.

When the French Theatre was dissolved in 1771, Marie Louise left Sweden with her parents and followed them touring in Europe; they returned to Sweden in 1776 and performed in a French Court Theatre at the Swedish court in 1776–1781. She debuted at the Opera-theater in Bollhuset in Les deux avares, an opéra bouffon by Grétry in the 1777–1778 season and was later the same year acclaimed in Lucile by the same composer. From this year, she was employed at the Royal Swedish Opera as an opera singer.

She was also a dramatic actress; from 1781, she was a part of the French dramatic theatre of Monvel in Bollhuset, and from 1788, she was employed at the Royal Dramatic Theatre. When the director of the Royal Dramatic Theatre left the country in 1788 to escape his creditors, the actors ruled the theatre themselves by votes, and she became a member of the board of directors. This rule was considered quite chaotic, but Marcadets judgement was praised.

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