Marie Charbonnel

Marie Louise Charbonnel (1880–1969) was a French contralto opera singer who made her début at the Lyon Opera in 1901. She was spectacularly successful at her Paris Opera début in 1907 when she played Dalila in Camille Saint-Saëns' Samson et Dalila.

Biography Born on 18 December 1880 in Lyon,

Charbonnel appeared in the principal opera houses in the French provinces as well as at the Theatre de la Monnaie in Brussels. Together with Ketty Lapeyrette, she was one of the two leading French contraltos of her day. Her most important roles were in Gluck's Orphée et Eurydice, as Mother in Gustave Charpentier's Louise, as Mary in The Flying Dutchman and as Pygmalion in Victor Massé's Galathée.

After retiring from the stage, she lived in Paris. Marie Charbonnel died in Couilly-Pont-aux-Dames on 24 April 1969.