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Early Life

Lucia Elizabeth Bartolozzi was born in London on March 2, 1797 to an Italian father and a German mother.  Both of her parents were artists in their own right and, as such, she began training at an early age most notably under Domenico Corri. At 16, she married Armand Vestris, the premier danseur at the King’s Theatre. It is through this connection that she made her debut onstage in 1815 as Proserpina in Il Ratto di Proserpina. During a brief stint performing abroad in Paris to minimal acclaim, Madame Vestris and her husband split as he went on to dance for the Teatro San Carlo in Naples and she returned to England.

To Play a Man

Upon her return to London, Madame Vestris was contracted at the Drury Lane Theatre where, after a few moderately successful operas, she was cast to play Don Giovanni and it was this performance that made her famous both on the stage and off. It was the adoption of breeches roles that both made her career and invited scandal and gossip into her private life. Her reputation as a scandalous beauty only served to further her career and she remained a crowd favourite until her retirement in 1854 playing roles such as Felix (The Alcaid), Pippo (La gazza ladra), and Fatima (Oberon). Upon her taking up independent residence in 1822, wild rumours began to circulate about her goings-on. The “Vestry-men” of this period are found in a series of unsigned and undated letters that underline the secrecy with which she conducted her private life, but also encouraged the scandal that would bring in audiences.

In 1830, Madame Vestris’ career had grown to the point where she had the money to lease the Olympic Theatre. It is here that she began to present “burlettas”, short light pieces similar to vaudevilles, but sans the vulgarity. She also began producing the works of James Robinson Planché. It is during her residency at the Olympic that she began to remodel what English theatre could be- her vision was a theatre that was as elegant and comfortable as a tasteful drawing room and her plan to cater to the boxes began to bring back a crowd that had avoided the theatre since the Old Price Riots. She remarried in 1838 to Charles James Matthews and the two of them took her company on a tour of America. Upon their return, they jointly managed the Covent Garden theatre where they offered 5 act plays to the same standard as those played in the Olympic. Their opening show, Love’s Labour’s Lost (played for the first time since 1605), had a lukewarm reception, but the attention paid to detail in both sets and costumes soon became a trademark of their productions. Her later production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, in which she appeared as Oberon, was far more successful and also began the tradition of the female Oberon on the English stage that lasted 70 years.  Until her retirement in 1854, Madame Vestris not only brought new life and innovations to the English theatre, but she also managed a company of several hundred in a time when women had limited autonomy.  She died just two years after retiring and is buried at Kensal Green.

Later Career

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