RACHEL

RACHEL, the stage name of Eliza Rachel Felix (1821–1858), French actress and one of the world's greatest tragediennes. Born in Switzerland, Rachel was the daughter of a peddler, Jacob Felix, who took his large family to Paris. She was singing with her sisters in the streets when she was heard by the singing master, Etienne Choron, who undertook to give her free instruction. Under his sponsorship, she attended drama classes and the conservatoire, and at the age of 17 played at the Théâtre Gymnase. The leading Paris critic, Jules Janin of the Journal de Débats, was the only one to perceive her quality, and saw his enthusiasm vindicated when, in 1838, she entered the Comédie-Française and achieved success in Corneille's Horace. Thereafter her career was one of fame and notoriety. Rachel was slight of build and by some considered plain; but on the stage she had beauty, charm, and power. Though she had little formal education, her supreme dramatic achievement was in the French classics, especially Corneille and Racine, in which she replaced the declamatory style of the period with vitality and passion. She appeared in some contemporary plays, including Adrienne Lecouvreur, written for her by Legouvé and Scribe. Her greatest performance was in Racine's Phèdre; it was described as "an apocalypse of human agony." The notoriety attending Rachel's name arose from her private life. She never married, but she had two children, one by Count Colonna-Walewski, an illegitimate son of Napoleon. She was also the mistress at different times of the poet Alfred de Musset, the Prince de Joinville, and a nephew of Napoleon, Prince Jerome. She first appeared in London in 1841 and subsequently toured the Continental capitals, including St. Petersburg. Her tour of the United States in 1855 proved to be the end of her career, for the tubercular condition from which she suffered became worse, and she never acted again. At her funeral, the chief rabbi of the Consistory of Paris delivered an oration in Hebrew. Rachel's brother RAPHAEL (1825–1872), and her sisters SARAH (1819–1877), LIA (1828–1908), REBECCA (1829–1854), and DINAH (1836–1909) all had theatrical careers of varying success. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: J.E. Agate, Rachel (Eng., 1928); B. Falk, Rachel the Immortal (1936); J. Richardson, Rachel (Eng., 1956). (Ravelle Brickman)