Hortense Schneider

Catherine Schneider, called Hortense, ( born April 30, 1833 in Bordeaux, † May 5, 1920 in Paris) was a famous French operetta star ( soubrette ) during the Second Empire.

Hortense Schneider was the daughter of a Strasbourg Schneiders, who had settled in Bordeaux and were married there. Even as a child, after the early death of her father, she took singing lessons and went with a theater company through the province. 1855 she stood on the recommendation of singer Jean Berthelier with the composer Jacques Offenbach before that was about to open his own theater under the name Théâtre des Bouffes, and was engaged immediately.

Following numerous roles in the smaller operettas of Offenbach, she became the star of four of its major successes: La Belle Hélène ( The Beautiful Helen, 1864), Barbe- Bleue (1866 ), La Grande- Duchesse de Gérolstein ( 1867) and La Périchole ( 1868). After that, she also appeared in stage works of Hervé. After Offenbach's death in 1880, she retired from the stage.

She embodied the type of capricious, scandal-ridden Diva, who became popular after the mid-19th century, much like the brunette Marie Geistinger in the German language area. As capricious and tyrannical Grand Duchess of operetta State Gerolstein they parodied the aristocracy of their time.

In 1949 her (and Offenbach's ) life by Marcel Achard, under the title La Valse de Paris was filmed.