Louise 'Louison' Moreau was a French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 opera

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

tic soprano

Soprano

A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...

 who belonged to the Académie Royale de Musique

Académie Royale de Musique

The Salle Le Peletier was the home of the Paris Opera from 1821 until the building was destroyed by fire in 1873. The theatre was designed and constructed by the architect François Debret on the site of the former Hôtel de Choiseul...

, also a popular celebrity commonly referred to as one of the filles de l'opéra.

Opera career

Preceding her younger sister Fanchon Moreau

Fanchon Moreau

Françoise 'Fanchon' Moreau was a French operatic soprano who belonged to the Académie Royale de Musique, also a celebrated beauty who was a favourite of the Great Dauphin.-Opera career:...

 by about three years, Louison made her debut at the Paris Opéra

Académie Royale de Musique

The Salle Le Peletier was the home of the Paris Opera from 1821 until the building was destroyed by fire in 1873. The theatre was designed and constructed by the architect François Debret on the site of the former Hôtel de Choiseul...

 around 1680. Once dismissed for being pregnant, she was reinstated and remained until 1692. From 1683 to 1692 when both sisters were referred to as 'Mlle Moreau', it usually makes it difficult to determine who sang what, however popular songs of the day and gossip columns are sometimes revealing. It is known that Louison created the role of Amasie in the premiere of Orontée, a tragédie en musique by Jean-Louis Lully

Jean-Louis Lully

Jean-Louis Lully was a French musician and composer. He was born in Paris, the youngest son of Jean-Baptiste Lully....

, the son of Jean-Baptiste Lully

Jean-Baptiste Lully

Jean-Baptiste de Lully was an Italian-born French composer who spent most of his life working in the court of Louis XIV of France. He is considered the chief master of the French Baroque style. Lully disavowed any Italian influence in French music of the period. He became a French subject in...

, and Paolo Lorenzani

Paolo Lorenzani

Paolo Francesco Lorenzani was an Italian composer of the Baroque Era. While living in France, he helped promote appreciation for the Italian style of music....

 in 1688.

Celebrity

Like her sister, Louison received the attentions of Louis, the Great Dauphin, to whom she was introduced in error when it was intended to present her reputedly more beautiful younger sister to him.

Sources

• Anthony, James R (1992), 'Moreau, Louison' in The New Grove Dictionary of Opera
  New Grove Dictionary of Opera
  The New Grove Dictionary of Opera is an encyclopedia of opera, considered to be one of the best general reference sources on the subject. It is the largest work on opera in English, and in its printed form, amounts to 5,448 pages in four volumes....
  
  , ed. Stanley Sadie (London) ISBN 0-333-73432-7