The Mesdemoiselles Bengraff

 

When I see a French carte de visite labelled 'Opéra', and I have no idea who the person is ... well, I feel I ought to find out ..

Today I came across this one. Mlle Bengraff. 1862.

Not a dancer. Not in that frock. So ...

Well, actually I have discovered that their were two Mlles Bengraff. And they were actually born Bengraf. The daughters of Georges Joseph Bengraf of Wissemberg and his wife Anne Marguerite Apolline Eck. 

Both worked at the Opéra for a good number of years, in the capacity of (very) small part players ('second role et coryphée de chant'). By 1862, both were married ladies but the younger continued to work as Mlle Bengraff, so I guess this is she.

BENGRAF, Marie Louise Angélique (b Maçon, 1 January 1833; d  Paris 6 January 1867).

BENGRAF, Anne Marguerite Josephine (b Orléans 1825; d 19 rue Durantin, Paris 25 January 1879)

I don't know when the girls began at Opéra, but I see them in the chorus of a piece titled L'Apparition in 1848. Bengraff 1 and Bengraff 2. One of them is Alice in Le Comte Ory in the same year (presumably Josephine as Marie was not yet 16). Anyway, in 1851, now Madame Jules Joseph Tarby, Josephine had a shot at being a provincial leading lady, at Bordeaux. She was hissed by a box of toffs, returned to the Opéra in her modest employment, and remained there till 1871 when the newest management sacked her. She sued, lost on a technicality, but won her pension ..

Marie married the theatre's chef du chant, Eugène François Vauthrot (11 March 1862), and gave birth to two daughters. She continued playing 'a woman', 'a waiting woman' and so forth (Jeannette in Le Philtre, Inès in La Favorita, Azéma in Semiramide with the Marchisios &c) until she, too, left the stage. She died at the age of 34, followed four years later by her husband (5 September 1871).

Addendum: I spot a Mlle Bengraff at the Théâtre des Nations playing 'a peasant' in Le Phitre (26 March 1849).