Sophie Arnould
Portrait of a Lady, called Sophie Arnould byJean-Baptiste Greuze,c. 1773
Born	Magdeleine Sophie Arnould (1740-02-13)13 February 1740 Paris,France
Died	18 October 1802(1802-10-18) (aged 62) Paris,France
Occupation	Singer
Children	4

Sophie Arnould (13 February 1740, inParis,France – 18 October 1802, in Paris,France) was a French operaticsoprano.

Born Magdeleine Sophie Arnould, she studied in Paris withMarie Fel andLa Clairon, and made her stage debut at theOpéra de Paris on 15 December 1757 and sang there for 20 years.

She created forChristoph Wilibald Gluck the roles of Eurydice inOrphée et Eurydice and the title role inIphigénie en Aulide. She also obtained considerable success in operas byJean-Philippe Rameau,François Francoeur, andPierre-Alexandre Monsigny.

Her love life was extremely colorful. Her tumultuous relationship withLouis-Léon de Brancas, duc de Lauragais, resulted in four children, includingAntoine-Constant de Brancas [fr], colonel of theFirst Empire, who died atEssling.^[1] She was also the lover ofPaul Barras andNicolas-François de Neufchâteau, among many others.^[2] In fact, she was notorious for having as many affairs with women as with men, notablyFanny Raucourt, Mme de Villeroy and the Princess of Hénin.^[3]

According to her contemporaries, her voice was more beautiful than powerful, but she was a passionate actress. Her lack of discipline in both her professional and personal life led to a premature vocal decline. However, she was able to retire in 1778 with an enviable pension of 2000 pounds (livres).

She was much in demand in Parisian society, and legend has it thatMadame de Pompadour told her "With such talents, you could become a Princess". She was painted byMaurice Quentin de La Tour, and left herSouvenirs and an abundant correspondence.

French composerGabriel Pierné wrote an opera based on her tumultuous life entitledSophie Arnould (1927).

• Le guide de l'opéra, les indispensables de la musique, R.Mancini & J.J.Rouvereux, (Fayard, 1986),ISBN 2-213-01563-5
• Francis Rogers,The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 6, No. 1 (Jan., 1920), pp. 57–61.

This article about a French opera singer is astub. You can help Wikipedia byexpanding it.

• v
• t
• e

• 1740 births
• 1802 deaths
• Singers from Paris
• French artists' models
• French operatic sopranos
• 18th-century French women opera singers
• French LGBTQ singers
• 18th-century French LGBTQ people
• 19th-century French LGBTQ people
• 18th-century French letter writers
• French opera singer stubs

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Articles with hCards
• Pages using infobox person with deprecated parameters
• All stub articles