Franqois Joseph Talma

Background

Talma was born in Paris on January 15, 1763 to the family of a successful dentist.

Education

His father, a dentist in Paris, and afterwards in London, gave him a good English education, and he returned to Paris, where for a year and a half he practised dentistry.

Career

Although Talma’s father, a dentist, wanted his son to become a dentist as well, young Talma spent his time instead in amateur theatricals and made his professional debut at the Comédie-Française on Nov. 21, 1787, as Seide in Voltaire’s Mahomet. Influenced by his friend the painter David, he became one of the early advocates of historical costuming when he appeared in a Roman toga and headdress in the small role of Proculus in Voltaire’s Brutus.

Until November 4, 1789, Talma had taken only minor roles; on that day he took over the title role in Marie-Joseph-Blaise de Chenier’s anti-monarchical Charles IX after it had been turned down by other actors, who feared political difficulties. As expected, the play caused demonstrations in the theatre and aroused such dissension in the company that the pro-republican Talma established a rival troupe known as the Théâtre de la République. There he developed realism in staging and costuming while producing classical French drama and translations of Shakespeare. In acting he insisted upon a realistic rather than a declamatory style and made speaking pauses follow the sense of speeches rather than their metre.

In 1799, when the two companies were reunited at Talma’s theatre as the Comédie-Française, he emerged as the supreme tragedian of the era, winning the admiration and patronage of Napoleon. Talma wrote “Réflexions sur Lekain et l’art théâtral” as a preface to the memoirs of the French actor Lekain.

He made his last appearance on the 11th of June 1826 as Charles VI in Delaville's tragedy, and he died in Paris on the 19th of October of that year.

Achievements

• Talma is remambered as an actor whose reforms in acting styles, stage costuming, and scenery made him a leading precursor of 19th-century French Romanticism and Realism.

Personality

Talma possessed the physical gifts to enable him to excel, a striking appearance and a voice of beauty and power, which he gradually trained to perfection. At first somewhat stilted and monotonous in his manner, he came to be regarded as a model of simplicity.

Connections

He married Julie Carreau, a rich and talented lady in whose salon were to be met the principal Girondists. They divorced in 1802. Then again he married Charlotte Vanbove, an actress of the Come die Frangaise.

Wife:

Charlotte Vanbove, an actress of the Come die Frangaise.

Wife:

Julie Carreau

Friend:

Joseph Chenier