Marie Louise Marcadet was born in Sweden as the daughter of the French actors
Marie Baptiste and Jacques Anselme Baptiste. Her parents where both engaged at the
French theater in Stockholm, and she was trained as a stage artists by them. The Baptiste family left Sweden in 1771, when the French theater was dissolved by
Gustav III of Sweden upon his succession to the throne. She returned to Sweden with her parents in 1776, and performed with some of the French actors of the old theater, which entertained the Swedish royal court in a smaller scale, until a new
French theater was established in 1781. In 1780, she married a French dancer at the
Royal Swedish Ballet, Jean-Rémy Marcadet, and was thereafter known under the name Marcadet.
Career Marie Louise Marcadet was engaged as an opera singer at the Royal Swedish Opera in 1778-95, and as a dramatic stage actress at the French theater in 1781-92, and at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in 1788-95. She made her debut at the Royal Swedish Opera in
Bollhuset in the
opéra bouffon Les deux avares by
Grétry in the 1777–78 season, and was later the same year acclaimed in
Lucile by the same composer. She was also active as a stage actress. When a new French theater was founded in 1781, directed by
Monvel, she became a part of their company until their dissolution in 1792. She had an influential position at the opera. On the occasion of her marriage, she was given the opportunity to stage her own production as a benefit performance, which was somewhat controversial and criticized by
Gustaf Johan Ehrensvärd, who noted as criticism toward the opera manager Barnekow, that she: "acted as a director of the performance, which he should have done, disposed of the loges, auctioned them off, so that prime minister
riksråd Ulric Scheffer lost his loge for not being the highest bidder... it was given to a cook and a chancellor. Such indecency could not be allowed by anyone but this opera management." She belonged to the pioneer generation of the Royal Dramatic Theatre. When the first Swedish language Ristell theater (1787–88) went bankrupt and transformed by the king to the Royal Dramatic Theatre in 1788, Marie Louise Marcadet and the other actors formed a board of directors and managed the new theater themselves. This management has been described as stormy, but Marcadet was praised for her judgement in the voting about which plays to stage in the theater. The financial arrangements and employment conditions at the royal theater illustrate that Marie Louise Marcadet and
Fredrica Löf was given the highest position of all women actors there.
Estimation . Marie Louise Marcadet performed both as an opera singer and a stage actress and was regarded as one of the most noted stage artists in Sweden during her twenty years long career. Marie Louise Marcadet, alongside Jaques Marie Boutet de Monvel,
Joseph Sauze Desguillons and
Anne Marie Milan Desguillons, has been credited with influence over the development which directed the newly established Swedish national theater to follow a French pattern. She was highly respected as a professional artist, and was referred to as an example of the importance of education by
Carl von Fersen in his work
Operans och svenska spektaklets förbättrande (1780). Marcadet was not regarded to be beautiful and described as a very thin woman with a protruding chin to her appearance, but regarded as an competent singer and a marvelous actor. As an opera singer, she was estimated to have a moderately good voice, but handled with such skill that she functioned very well in opera, though she was never counted as belonging to the absolute elite. It was her dramatic talent as a stage actress she was given the highest praise. The critics appreciated that her hard French accent gave her speech power and energy, and she was admired for the impression of passionate strength she eluded.
Johan Henric Kellgren called her acting divine, and considered her acting divine,
Carl Christoffer Gjörwell wrote of her dramatic ability in the
opéra comique Zémire et Azor by Grétry that "her entire soul was created for the Theater."
Roles Among her parts was Clytaimnestra,
Merope by
Voltaire, Jocasta in
Oedipe by Adlerbeth, Statira in
Olympie by
Johan Henric Kellgren,
Athalie by
Racine and countess Walltron in
Der Graf von Walltron by
Heinrich Ferdinand Möller. She played Henriette in
Les deux avares (season 1777–78), Arséne in the opera
La belle Arsène by
Monsigny (with
Elisabeth Olin and
Christoffer Christian Karsten) and Iphigenie in
Iphigénie en Aulide by
Gluck (with
Carl Stenborg), 1779–80, Cybèle in
Atys by
Piccinni (with Carl Stenborg and Kristofer Kristian Karsten), 1784–85, Hermione in
Andromaque by Grétry (with
Franziska Stading),
Cecilia av Eka in
Gustaf Wasa by
Johann Gottlieb Naumann (with Carl Stenborg, Kristofer Kristian Karsten and
Caroline Halle-Müller), 1785–86, Ramfrid in
Folke Birgersson till Ringstad by
Gustav III (with Kristofer Kristian Karsten and
Inga Åberg), 1792–93, and Minerva in
Alcides inträde i världen (The arrival of Alcide in the world) by
Haeffner, 1793–94.
Later life She made her last performance on the
Stenborg theatre 14 November 1795, in which she had expressed her wish to "receive the encouragement of the public, which she had so beneficially been granted during her career", and made "a startling success by the praise given to her from an overwhelmed audience." After this farewell performance, Marie Louise Marcadet left Sweden for France, where she died in Paris. ==Legacy==