Massenet wrote for her mezzo voice the Dulcinée of Don Quichotte, premiered in 1910, then the Colombe of Panurge. A survivor of the Bazar de la Charité fire, she bequeathed her two properties to the Orphelinat des Arts. Her stage name appears nowhere on the family vault.
The story
Georgette was born on 8 June 1878 at Le Vésinet, a commune created three years earlier. On 7 July 1884 she was formally recognised by notarial deed by Edmond Richard Wallace, son of the philanthropist Sir Richard Wallace — the man of the drinking fountains. On 4 May 1897 she and her mother came out alive from the fire at the Bazar de la Charité.
After an audition at the salle Pleyel in 1896 she worked in the singing class of Louise Vincent-Carol, where Massenet used to come and accompany at the piano. The name “Lucy Arbell” appears in the Opéra registers on 13 March 1903: the director Gailhard invented it, finding her surname too long.
She made her debut at the Paris Opera on 23 October 1903 in Saint-Saëns's Samson et Dalila. Massenet then wrote for her: she created Dulcinée in “Don Quichotte” at Monte-Carlo on 19 February 1910, and in Paris the following December.
On 25 April 1913 she sang Colombe in “Panurge”, first given eight months after Massenet's death. She left the stage for good in 1931 and was made a chevalier of the Legion of Honour on 30 January 1936.
She died at Bougival on 21 May 1947, having left her two properties, La Garenne at Bougival and La Favorite at Saint-Aubin-sur-Mer, to the Orphelinat des Arts, the orphanage of the acting profession. She lies in Division 37 with her adoptive father, her mother and her two brothers, one of whom died for France at Vauquois in 1915.
The grave
It is a family grave, that of the Wallaces, and the stage name appears nowhere on it. The inscriptions are spread over several panels, partly illegible: Edmond Richard Wallace, her adoptive father, who died on 12 March 1887; her mother Suzanne, née Gall, who died on 15 December 1925; Lieutenant Edmond R. Wallace, of the 89th infantry regiment, “died for France at Vauquois” on 28 February 1915; Henri Richard Wallace. The creator of Dulcinée is present there only under her civil name.
On site, do not miss
The inscription panels of the family vault, half worn away, and the absence of the name “Lucy Arbell” on the singer's stone.
Visitors' questions
Where is Lucy Arbell's grave?
In Division 37, Chemin Masséna, second row. It is the grave of the Wallace family: the inscriptions, spread across several panels and partly worn away, give her civil name rather than her stage name.
Gioachino RossiniWhat roles did Massenet write for her?
Dulcinée in “Don Quichotte”, first performed in Monte Carlo on 19 February 1910 and then in Paris that December, and Colombe in “Panurge”, which she sang on 25 April 1913, eight months after the composer's death. She had made her Opéra debut in 1903 in Samson and Delilah.
Stéphane GrappelliWhy was she called Lucy Arbell?
Because the director of the Opéra, Pedro Gailhard, thought her surname too long: he gave her this stage name, first recorded in the registers on 13 March 1903. Her civil name was Georgette Wallace.
Ignace PleyelWho rests with her in Division 37?
Her adoptive father Edmond Richard Wallace, who died in 1887, her mother Suzanne, born Gall, who died in 1925, and her two brothers — including Lieutenant Edmond R. Wallace, of the 89th Infantry Regiment, killed at Vauquois on 28 February 1915.
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