Louise Bertin

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Louise-Angélique Bertin (February 15 1805-April 26 1877) was a French composer and poet.

She was the daughter of Louis-François Bertin, the proprietor of the influential Journal des débats. A pupil of François-Joseph Fétis, she wrote several operas, including Guy Mannering, Le Loup-garou (1827), Fausto (1831), and - most famously - Esmeralda (1836). Based on Victor Hugo's novel Notre-Dame de Paris (The Hunchback of Notre Dame), it was the only opera for which Hugo himself ever wrote a libretto. Hector Berlioz was entrusted with the musical supervision of the opera, but the piece was an outright failure at its premiere, partly for political reasons with many members of the Opposition seeing an ideal opportunity to strike at Louise Bertin's father, the owner of the leading Government newspaper.

She also composed several instrumental pieces (including six ballades for the piano) and two volumes of poetry: Les Glanes (1842) and Nouvelles Glanes (1878).