Background
Marie-Madeleine Guimard was born in Paris on the 27th of Decemder 1743.
Marie-Madeleine Guimard was born in Paris on the 27th of Decemder 1743.
For twenty-five years Guimard was the star of the Paris Opéra. She bought a magnificent house at Pantin, and built a private theatre connected with it, where Collé’s Partie de chasse de Henri IV which was prohibited in public, and most of the Proverbes of Carmontelle (Louis Carrogis, 1717-1806), and similar licentious performances were given to the delight of high society.
She made her debut in the role of Terpsichoré in "Les Fêtes grecques et romaines" (1762). She was one of the best performers in Jean-Georges Noverre’s dramatic ballets.
In 1772, in defiance of the archbishop of Paris, she opened a gorgeous house with a theatre seating five hundred spectators in the Chaussée d’Antin. In this Temple of Terpsichore, as she named it, the wildest orgies took place. In 1786 she was compelled to get rid of the property, and it was disposed of by lottery for her benefit for the sum of 300, 000 francs. She died in Paris in 1816.
In 1789 Marie-Madeleine married Jean Etienne Despréaux, dancer, song-writer and playwright.