Sophia And Pierre In The Electoral Palatinate

Jean-George Noverre (1727-1810)
by Jean-Baptiste Perronneau. Source: Wikimedia Commons

In 1760 Jean-George Noverre moved from Lyon to Stuttgart to take up an engagement with Charles Eugene, Duke of Württemberg. It was here that Noverre's career achieved its apogee following the publication of his Lettres sur la danse et les ballets (Lyon, 1760). Many of his ideas on the ballet d'action in this treatise were influenced by David Garrick (1717-1779), with whom he had spent two years in London from 1755. 

We know from the 1768 correspondence between Jean Monnet, former director of the Opéra Comique, and David Garrick that Mademoiselle Auselin had danced (circa 1765) at the opera in London. In 1766 she moved to Stuttgart to work with Noverre. After a brief engagement in Paris in April 1768 it is recorded in the same correspondence that she intended to travel to the Electoral Palatinate and the court of Charles Theodore, Prince-Elector and Count Palatine.

There is a confusing note on Pierre d'Aigueville's presence in the Electoral Palatinate. In La culture française à Francfort au XVIIIe siècle (1914), Bettina Strauss refers to the ballet master Pitrot, whose real name is Pierre d'Aigueville of Verseilles. It is possible that Pierre adopted this name but it provokes many questions. Jean Baptiste Pitrot (1729-1809) was active in Brussels, Lille, Ghent, Liège and became ballet master in the Hague in 1762. His elder brother, Antoine-Bonaventure (1727-after 1792), pursued his career throughout Europe and even worked in Russia. So, either this ballet master was Pierre or was perhaps Antoine-Bonaventure Pitrot.

The latter seems more likely, but in Festschrift zu Goethes 150. Geburtstagsfeier (Frankfurter Verein für Geschichte und Landeskunde, 1882) states that Pierre was usually called on playbills, "the famous Monsieur Pitrot." But, confusion aside, Pierre and Mademoiselle Auselin may have both performed in this region of Europe. Mademoiselle Auselin's engagement at the court theatre may have been somewhat briefer than her time in Stuttgart. Pierre was performing in London, partnered by Mrs. King, on the 1 November 1768 and both he and his wife were discharged by Garrick in the middle of the 1773-1774 season. Somewhere in between Madame d'Aigueville found time to give birth to James. His year of birth is given between 1770-1773.

I've often wondered whether Pierre was the price that Garrick paid to get Sophia who would "make much impact" on his theatre and if Garrick's theatre was the price that Sophia paid for Pierre.