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See also:RACHEL (1821-1858) , See also:French actress, whose real name was See also:Elizabeth See also:Felix, the daughter of poor See also:Jew pedlars, was See also:born on the 28th of See also:February 1821, at Mumpf, in the See also:canton of See also:Aargau, See also:Switzerland. At See also:Reims she and her See also:elder See also:sister, See also:Sophia, after-wards known as Sarah, joined a troupe of See also:Italian See also:children who made their living by singing in the cafes, Sarah singing and Elizabeth, then only four years of See also:age, See also:collecting the coppers. In 183o they came to See also:Paris, where they sang in the streets, Rachel giving such patriotic songs as the Parisienne and the Marseillaise with a See also:rude but precocious See also:energy which evoked See also:special admiration and an abundant shower of coppers. See also:Etienne Choron, a famous teacher of singing, was so impressed with the talents of the two sisters that he undertook to give them gratuitous instruction, and after his See also:death in 1833 they were received into the See also:Conservatoire. Rachel made her first See also:appearance at the Gymnase in See also:Paul See also:Duport's La Vendeenne on the 4th of See also:April 1837, with only mediocre success. But on the 12th of See also:June in the following See also:year she succeeded, after See also:great difficulty, in making a debut at the See also:Theatre See also:Francais, as Camille in See also:Corneille's See also:Horace, when her remarkable See also:genius at once received See also:general recognition. In the same year she played Roxane in See also:Racine's Bajazet, winning a See also:complete See also:triumph, but it was in Racine's Phedre, which she first played on the 21st of See also:January 1843, that her See also:peculiar gifts were most strikingly manifested. Her range of characters was limited, but within it she was unsurpassable. She excelled particularly in the impersonation of evil or See also:malignant See also:passion, in her presentation of which there was a See also:majesty and dignity which fascinated while it repelled. By careful training her See also:voice, originally hard and harsh, had become flexible and melodious, and its See also:low and muffled notes under the See also:influence of passion possessed a thrilling and penetrating quality that was irresistible. In plays by contemporary authors she created the characters of See also:Judith and See also:Cleopatra in the tragedies of Madame de See also:Girardin, but perhaps her most successful appearance was in 1849 in See also:Scribe and See also:Legouve's Adrienne See also:Lecouvreur, which was written for her. In 1841 and in 1842 she visited See also:London, where her interpretations of Corneille
and Racine were the sensation of the See also:season. In 1855 she made a tour in the See also:United States with comparatively small success, but this was after her See also:powers, through continued See also:ill-See also:health, had begun to deteriorate. She died of See also:consumption at Cannet, near See also:Nice, on the 4th of January 1858, and was buried in the Jewish See also:part of the See also:cemetery of Pere Lachaise in Paris. Rachel's third sister was Lia Felix (q.v.).
See Jules G. See also:Janin, Rachel et la tragedie (1858) : Mrs See also:Arthur Kennard, Rachel (See also:Boston, 1888) ; and A. de Faucigny-Lucinge, Rachel et son temps (1910).
End of Article: RACHEL (1821-1858)
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