Marie Roze was born Marie-Hippolyte Ponsin and shortened her civil name for the billboard, as the opera singers of her century did, keeping that name ever after. She pursued the international career that led from Paris to London and New York, in the days when opera was still Europe's great popular spectacle. Albert Pasche sculpted her monument.
The story
Marie Roze's name was Marie-Hippolyte Ponsin, and it is under her stage name that she lies. Singers of the nineteenth century shortened their legal names like that for the Morris columns — and kept them all the way to the stone.
Bizet wrote the part of Carmen with Marie Roze in mind, and she turned it down: the character struck her as too improper. She ended up singing it in English, from London to America, with the Carl Rosa company — which in 1891 built an entire touring troupe around that Carmen, hers.
She died in 1926, at eighty. The monument in Division 58 is the work of the sculptor Albert Pasche: it shows her not as Carmen but as Galatea, the statue the gods bring to life.
The grave
A monument by the sculptor Albert Pasche, in Division 58. The singer rests here under her stage name — Marie Roze — rather than her civil name, Marie-Hippolyte Ponsin: such was the custom of nineteenth-century singers, who shortened their names for the billboard and kept them all the way to the stone.
On site, do not miss
Monument by the sculptor Albert Pasche. She rests here under her stage name, Marie Roze, and not under her civil name, Marie-Hippolyte Ponsin.
Visitors' questions
Where is Marie Roze's grave?
In Division 58, avenue Latérale Nord, second row, under a monument by the sculptor Albert Pasche. The Division is also that of the choreographer Pierre Lacotte and the composer Monpou. She died in 1926, at eighty.
Pierre LacotteWhat was her real name?
Marie-Hippolyte Ponsin. “Marie Roze” was her stage name — common practice among the singers of the nineteenth century, who cut their legal names down to something a playbill could hold.
Sophie CruvelliWhere did she sing?
On the great opera stages: the international career, the one that ran from Paris to London and New York. She belonged to that generation of French sopranos the rest of the world fought over.
Marie VuillaumeHow old was she when she died?
Eighty, in 1926. Her career had run through the second half of the nineteenth century, when opera was still the great popular entertainment of Europe.
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