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PORTRAITS OF CELEBRITIES.
373

THE LATE MADAME TREBELLI-BETTINI.

Born 1838.


M LLE. ZÈLIE THERESE CAROLINE GILLEBERT DE BEAULIEU was born at Paris, her family belonging to the oldest nobility of France. She was taught the piano at the age of six, and, on the discovery that she possessed a remarkable contralto voice, was trained for the lyric stage by Herr Wastel. She made her first appearance at Madrid in "Norma," at the age of twenty-one, and as it was at that time indispensable to have an Italian name in order to succeed in Italian. opera, Mademoiselle Gillebert formed the name by which she was known to the public by leaving out the G of her own name and spelling the remainder backwards. From the first there was no doubt of her right to stand in the very foremost rank of great singers. In 1862 she first appeared in London, and soon afterwards married Signor Bettini. In private life she was loved and respected by all who knew her, and her recent unexpected death occasioned wide-spread regret.