Caroline Grassari, born Marie-Caroline-Josephine Gérard was a French opera singer active at the Paris Opéra from 1816 to 1828 where she sang leading soprano roles. Amongst the many roles she created were Almazie in Isouard's Aladin ou La lampe merveilleuse and Aurora in Carafa's La belle au bois dormant.
Life and career
Grassari was born Marie-Caroline-Josephine Gérard in Tongeren, Belgium, where she was baptised on 15 June 1795. Her father was, a highly decorated French general. Her mother, Anne-Christine Tournay, was the daughter of Tongeren's Burgomaster. Her parents divorced in her childhood and she initially lived with her mother in Belgium, where she began her musical studies. In 1814, she was sent to Paris under the care of her father and finished her studies at the Conservatoire de Paris. She made her stage debut under the name "Mademoiselle Grassari" at the Paris Opéra on 13 February 1816 singing Antigone in Sacchini's Œdipe à Colone. She was then given a permanent position at the Opéra as premier remplacement, singing the roles of the primadonnas when they were unavailable as well as secondary roles. However, she soon rose to the first rank of singers and went on to create numerous leading roles for the company, including Aurora in Carafa's La belle au bois dormant and Elzire in Liszt's Don Sanche. In April 1819 she also sang in the Opéra's first and only performance of Maximilian Stadler's oratorio La Délivrance de Jérusalem. Grassari was described in contemporary accounts as uniting a beautiful voice with compelling acting and a charming stage presence. She was particularly admired for her performances as Amazily in Spontini's Fernand Cortez and the title role in Méhul's Stratonice. One of Grassari's last performances at the Opéra was in May 1827 as Pamina in Les mystères d'Isis, a pastiche opera by Ludwig Wenzel Lachnith based on the story of Mozart's Die Zauberflöte. Faced with enormous deficits in 1828, Émile Lubbert, the new director of the Opéra, gave notice to Henri-Étienne Dérivis that his contract would not be renewed and asked Grassari to retire early. She was paid 30,000 francs to cancel her contract. According to her father's death certificate, she was still alive when he died in September 1832. Earlier that year articles had appeared in Gazette des Tribunaux and Giornale del Regno delle Due Sicilie describing a lawsuit which she brought against her former protector and lover, Jean-François Levrat, whom she accused of using her pension from the Opéra to pay off his creditors. Apart from those articles, news of her disappeared completely from the French press after her retirement. Arthur Pougin wrote in 1906 that despite an extensive search, he was unable to find any publication of the date of her death, a fact which he found remarkable given her considerable fame during the twelve years she was on the stage.
Roles created
Grassari's performances in world premieres at the Paris Opéra included:
