(Excerpt from Both Sides of the Curtain Art and the Stage...)
Excerpt from Both Sides of the Curtain Art and the Stage, delight to honour their senior members - the Stage most of all. This is more to my present purpose, as the Stage admits of a doyenne. At this moment its place of honour is held by an American, Miss Genevieve Ward. Towards the end of March, year by year, and in London where She lives, she has what may be described as a virulent attack of birthday. Her faithful Press trumpets the news of the seizure. The morning mail brings its interviews, its sheaves of letters, and its bouquets by command or otherwise, from both hemispheres. The caller calls - usually to assure her that in her honour Time has performed his favourite trick act of running back, and that she looks younger than ever. This was the even course of the ritual of 1916, when she entered her eightieth year; and the completion of the term was duly celebrated in the same way in 1917. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
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Geneviève Ward was born in New York City, daughter of Samuel and Lucy (Leigh) Ward, and granddaughter of Gideon Lee, mayor of the city in 1833, and through her grandmother a descendant of Jonathan Edwards. Named Lucy Geneviève Teresa, she later dropped all but the middle name, which she herself wrote with the accent.
She was taken abroad by her mother to be educated and at fifteen elected to become a singer. Rossini sent her to a teacher in Florence. In 1877 she went to France to study at the Comédie-Française (she was a gifted linguist)
Genevieve made her French début in April 1859, at Paris, as Elvira in Don Giovanni. Her English début was at a Philharmonic concert in London in 1861. Her New York début was at the Academy of Music, November 10, 1862, as Violetta in La Traviata, under the name of Mme. Guerrabella. Shortly thereafter, during a Cuban tour (where she was hissed for wearing boots and cloak in the rôle of the page in Ballo in Maschera), her singing voice failed her, and for the next decade she had no public record. But she was studying for the dramatic stage, and on October 1, 1873, in Manchester, England, she appeared as Lady Macbeth. The Manchester Guardian (October 3) was mildly favorable. She continued to practise and play, and in 1875 reached Drury Lane. On Feburary 11, in that year, she played Lady Macbeth in French. She returned to England with a considerable "classic" repertoire, and September 2, 1878, made her dramatic début in America, at Booth's Theatre, New York, as Jane Shore. She acted throughout the country the following winter. On her return to England she secured a play which was new, and effective - Forget-Me-Not, by Herman Merivale, a play in the school of Dumas fils and Sardou, which gave her talents exact scope. She produced this at the Lyceum, London, August 1879, with a young leading man named Johnson Forbes-Robertson, and so great was its success that she subsequently acted it over two thousand times, and in most countries around the globe which possessed an English-language theatre. It boasted the once-famous line, "There would be no place in creation for such women as I, if it were not for such men as you. " For the next two decades she was professionally active in England, America, and Australia. On March 3, 1883, after a second American tour, she produced Legouvé's Medea, and also revived Forget-Me-Not. Her last American tour was made in 1887. In 1891 she toured to South Africa. She joined Henry Irving's company at the Lyceum in 1893, playing Eleanor in Becket (1893), Morgan le Fay in King Arthur (1895), Margaret in Richard III (1896). In 1897 she ventured out of her traditional repertoire to play Mrs. Borkman in Ibsen's John Gabriel Borkman at the Strand. She never visited America again, but lived quietly in England, teaching younger players, with a record of having acted in seventy-seven plays behind her. She reappeared in 1918, with George Alexander at the St. James, because, she said, "of the war strain. " That year, with Richard Whiteing, she published Both Sides of the Curtain, which contains personal reminiscences. She celebrated her eighty-fourth birthday by appearing as the Queen in Richard III. She died the same year in London.
(Excerpt from Both Sides of the Curtain Art and the Stage...)
She was, in her prime, said to have "broad, ample shoulders and a waist that typifies good health. " She was above average height, with a Roman nose, firm chin, dark eyes, heavy brows - a commanding female, in brief, and though graceful, with a well-trained, flexible voice, born for parts of emotional amplitude and intellectual dominance rather than "sex appeal. " Her pictures show a strong resemblance to Ristori. In later years her face grew thin, long, and intellectual, like that of Irving. After her early adventure, she never married again.
Quotes from others about the person
A Boston critic, writing of her in the Boston Daily Advertiser, April 7, 1879, said, "She is of the school of Ristori, and is not so very far behind that admirable performer. " The New York Post had previously said her acting was "good, but traditional. "
On 10 November 1856, at age 19, she married a Russian count, Constantine de Guerbel.
