[1] Her younger sister, Clara Leroux (born 1806 in Boulogne-sur-Mer), also became a singer, who after her marriage was known as Mme Lavry and debuted at the Opéra as the Lady-in-waiting to Isabelle in the 1831 premiere of Meyerbeer's opera Robert le diable.

[13][b] Zulmé Leroux enrolled at the Conservatoire de Paris on 9 July 1814, made rapid progress in solfège and continued her studies in singing under Charles-Henri Plantade.

[9][4] She made her stage debut under the name Zulmé Leroux at the Paris Opéra on 31 January 1821 as Antigone in Sacchini's Œdipe à Colone.

[12] The couple had several children, including a son Victor (1823–1853)[13] and a daughter Claire (born 19 January 1837), who was also a musician prior to her marriage to the architect Edmond Guillaume [fr] on 13 June 1866.

The opera was a failure at its premiere, which was attended by the recently crowned King Charles X, and only the final tableau with Dabadie was singled out for praise.

She then gestured to the back curtain, which parted to reveal a receding line of illustrious French kings ending with the Arc de Triomphe and the Tuileries Palace on the far horizon.

She had been engaged by the Duc de La Châtre in 1821 after he heard her performance at Notre Dame Cathedral in a Te Deum marking the baptism of the Count of Chambord.

He wrote that Dabadie had been schooled and excelled in works of the earlier classical composers such as Gluck, Sacchini, and Spontini and saw no future for herself in the newer repertoire that was coming into vogue at the Opéra.