page_title: Mlle Raucourt
section_title: Career at the Comédie Française
hierarchical_section_title: Mlle Raucourt / Life / Career at the Comédie Française
caption_attribution_description: English: Mlle. Raucourt
context_page_description: Françoise Marie Antoinette Saucerotte, called Mlle Raucourt was a French actress, engaged at the Comédie Française in 1772-1799, where she became famous as a tragedienne.
context_section_description: In 1772, she made her debut at the Comédie Française as Dido. She played all the classical tragedy parts to crowded houses, until the scandals of her private life and her extravagance ended her popularity.
  Her beauty and talent had made her famous, but her not so secret love affairs with other women made her notorious. She was known to have had numerous affairs with both men and women, preferring the latter. One on-again-off-again lover was opera soprano Sophie Arnould. Famous or not, in her time this could have a negative effect on a career, and a popular scandalous pamphlet claimed that she led a secret society of lesbians in Paris called the Sect of Anandrynes
  Part of the ensuing three years she was in prison for debt, but some of the time she spent in the capitals of northern Europe, followed everywhere by scandal. Under protection of the queen she reappeared at the Théâtre Français in 1779, and renewed her success in Paris, as Cleopatra, and all her former roles.
caption: Mlle. Raucourt by Adèle Romany
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