Mademoiselle Montansier

Profiting from the French Revolution, she set herself up in Paris in the company of her lover, Honoré Bourdon (stage name "de Neuville"), and took possession of the Théâtre des Beaujolais under the arcades of the Palais-Royal.

Still holding the rights from the former court at the Tuileries, she successfully put on Italian operas in French translations, attracting the envy of the Académie Royale de Musique, exiled to the Porte Saint-Martin.

Returning to Paris in March on the withdrawal of French troops and restoration of the Austrian government, she built "Théatre-National" on rue de la Loi (now square Louvois), opening it on 15 August.

Imprisoned by the Terror on 25 Brumaire (15 November) on the pretext of having received funds from the English and from Marie-Antoinette or having wanted to set fire to the neighbouring Bibliothèque Nationale, the troupe of "chanteurs-comédiens" which she had created were merged into that of the "Théâtre-Français" on Faubourg Saint-Germain, with their former building passing into the control of the Paris Opéra (it would be destroyed in 1820 in reprisals for the assassination of the duc de Berry).

Nevertheless, the regime change at this time was not favourable to her - the troupe was transferred to the salle Favart in 1802, then placed under the direction of Louis-Benoît Picard in 1804, and in 1803 - when Montansier was in prison several weeks for debt - de Neuville died.