Lisette Stenberg

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Lisette Stenberg
Born	Maria Elisabet Stenberg 23 October 1770 Stockholm, Sweden
Died	18 June 1847 Vänersborg, Sweden
Other name(s)	Lisette Desvigné-Stenberg
Spouse(s)	Desvigné, a frenchman.

Caroline Lisette (Maria Elisabet) Stenberg, (23 October in Stockholm or Gothenburg 1770-18 June 1847 in Vänersborg) was a Swedish actor and musician. She was a well known and popular actor in 18th century Stockholm, and a star of the Stenborg theatre, the second theatre in Stockholm. She was not only an actor but also a singer and a musician, a pianist, and played piano forte between the acts.

[edit] Biography

Born in Gothenburg, where her father worked as an inspector, she ran away from home with a lover: "Abandoned by her family, betrayed by her lover, the theatre became her only refuge, and in her despair she wover to become the most extravagant actress that ever excisted. Unfortunately, she kept her promise all to well".

The Stenborg Theatre, which had ben founded as a continuation of the old Stenborg Troupe of Petter Stenborg, was by foreginers categorised as a boulevard theater; it was a theater less high pitched then the Royal Dramatic Theatre and very popular among the public but not among the aristocracy.

She debuted at the Stenborg Theatre 2 april 1789 in a so called Harlequinade, Arlequin Favirot-sultaninna at the age of nineteen, and made a success; the paper asked who the new actress was- as a debutant, her name, according to the custom, was not in the program- and asked to se her again. The same year, she was countess Clainville in Det oförmodade vadet, by Sedaine: she was to play the piano in the part, and suprised the audience by playing a claviacord sonata accompanied by a violin from the orchestra, which made her recognised as a musician and was repeated the rest of the season. In 1794, she debuted as a concert singer at a concert at Riddarhuset, which was also a success.

She played music and sang in the operetts and performed both melodrama, tragedy and "higher comedy". She played Franciska in Minna von Barnhelm in (1793), and was the first to play Cherubin in Figaro (1792). She played Orgon in Tartuffe, Zemir in Zemir och Azor, Rosalie and also played seductor. She was also the perhaps first known native Swedish female actor to have performed a breeches role when she played the part of count Razilli in 1790.

G.A. Silfverstolpe called her "one of the greatest actors the world have seen"; she was very popular among the audience and had a lot of admirers, but she was often in troubble with the police. As a person, she was described as a confidant and strong young woman. It was said that "her fame as an acress grew in parallel with her extravagance". In 1797, a performance was given in benefit of "one of the actresses,who has always had the fortune to enjoy the flattering admiration from the audience as well as the proof of it's support": her name was not revealed, as she at that point was bancrupt.

Lisette Stenberg was involved with several scandals with the police. She took great loans, pawned both her own and others property and forged signatures, among others her director's Carl Stenborg's, who often made loans to his actors and never deamnded to be payed back. She made personal bancrupty in 1789 and 1794 and aplyed to be released from her debts on the grounds that she was not of legal maturity, which relieved her of her creditors but not her debts and was arrested three times in 1796 for having pawned things she had borrowed. Nothing of this had any effect on her great popularity. In 1798, the theatre experience a loss due to the fact that Lisette Stenberg was in Copenhagen, and welcomed her back with great relief.

In 1798, the new monopol of the royal theatres were proclaimed in Stockholm, and as a consequence, the Stenborg Theater were closed down in 1799 and the staff were fired. Many of the actors then joined travelling theatre companys. Lisette Stenberg are listed as one of the actors performing in Gothenburg and Norrköping in 1800 in the Lindqvist troupe. Some of the actors from Stenborg Theatre, where hired at the Royal Dramatic Theatre, and it is thought that the reason for way Lisette Stenberg was'nt, despite of the fact that her talent as an actor was never questioned, was because of her scandals. She received great praise in Gothenburg for her voice, mimique, posture and gesture and said that "there is no possibility for any actress to perform the part better", as everything in her was completely adapted to the role and that she also deserved all the applaus she received as a singer. Her last recoreded performance was in 7 May 1800 in Norrköping. After this, she lived an adventurous life.

In 1813, Stenborg was in Hamburg in Germany as a nurse to the French army of Napoleon. In 1816, she was in Paris in France under unclear circumstances. She and one of the servants to the Swedish ambassador in Paris, Lagerbjelke, who was known as a spy of the French police, was arrested for stealing clothes from Lagerbjelke, but Stenberg was released. She returned to Sweden in the 1820s and lived in Vänersborg under a French name, Madame Desvigné-Stenberg, claiming to be the widow of a Frenchman, giving lessons in French and received a small pension from queen Desiree Clary of Sweden. She died in a poor house.