Louise-Rosalie Lefebvre (18 June 1755 – 22 September 1821), also known asMadame Dugazon, was a Frenchoperaticmezzo-soprano, actress anddancer.
Born in Berlin as the daughter of a dancing master at the court ofFrederick II of Prussia, she returned to Paris with her parents in 1765. She made her stage debut at the age of twelve as a dancer, but it was as an actress "with songs" that she made her debut at the Comédie Italienne in 1774 inGrétry'sSylvain. She was at once admittedpensionnaire and in 1775sociétaire.
She became a star of the Comédie Italienne (which became theOpéra-Comique), where she created over 60 roles. She was married to the actorJean-Henri Gourgaud, who went by the stage name Dugazon. Together they had a child,Gustave Dugazon. The couple soon divorced, but continued to perform at the Comédie Italienne for more than twenty years.
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The two kinds of parts with which she was especially identified—young mothers and women past their first youth—are still called "jeunes dugazons" and "mères dugazons" in French opera. Examples of the first are Jenny inLa dame blanche and Berthe de Simiane inLes mousquetaires de la reine; of the second, Marguerite inLe Pré aux clercs. The type of voice for these roles is a lightmezzo-soprano or a dark-coloredsoprano leggero, and they are generally less demanding technically.
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