soubrette

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soubrette

a minor female role in comedy, often that of a pert lady's maid

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Soubrette

the role of a pert, witty, resourceful, and clever servant girl who helps her masters in their amorous intrigues. The role originated in the Italian commedia dell’arte with the figure of Servetta and then entered French comedy. Examples of the sou-brette are Dorine and Toinette in Moliere’s Tartuffe and Le Malade imaginaire and Suzanne in Beaumarchais’s The Marriage of Figaro. The role of soubrette appeared in the Russian theater in comedies and vaudevilles in the 18th and 19th centuries.

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References in periodicals archive ?

predominate: the Soubrette, the Queen, the Fallen Woman, the Prima Donna

the Soubrette and the Queen were typically positive in both primary

A Soubrette like Clara Young, for example, might sometimes be

first of which is the Soubrette. Related to the original theatrical

sense of the term "soubrette," denoting an actress who played

most part, the Soubrette type of actress, found both in primary sources

Soubrette was her description as a "hoyden"--a boisterous,

Soubrette actress was known for her short stature and slender, boyish

opposite of the Soubrette: stately and severe, the Queen was a mature,

Yiddish theatre actresses and American Jewish identity

Her lovely soubrette voice fatigued easily and was the least responsive of the seven.

Teaching the older singer

But her hit song "Art is Calling for Me" has lived on to become a standard part of the repertoire of countless soubrettes, especially as a humorous and effective recital closer.