Social Victorians/People/Yznaga

Also Known As

• Family name: Yznaga

Timeline

1876 May 22, Consuelo Yznaga and George Victor Drogo Montagu married in Grace Church, New York City. Emilia Yznaga moved to England with Consuelo.

1881 December 5, John Lister-Kaye and Natica (Maria de la Natividad) Yznaga married in New York City.

1896 April 24, by, Emilie Yznaga had moved to Paris and was visited by Consuelo, Duchess of Manchester, her daughter Alice Montagu, and Lady de Grey.

1897 July 2, Friday, Emilia Yznaga attended the Duchess of Devonshire's fancy-dress ball at Devonshire House, as did her sisters.

1901 October 15, Emilie Yznaga had been living in New York City and moved to Paris (see Residences, below).

Costume at the Duchess of Devonshire's 2 July 1897 Fancy-dress Ball

Emilia Yznaga in costume as Cydalise of the Comedie Italienne from the time of Louis XV. ©National Portrait Gallery, London.

At the Duchess of Devonshire's fancy-dress ball, Emilia Yznaga (at 360) was dressed as Cydalise of the Comedie Italienne from the time of Louis XV. Also present was her sister Lady Natica Lister-Kaye (at 499).

Charles Reutlinger's portrait of "Emilia Yznaga as Cydalise of the Comedie Italienne from the time of Louis XV" in costume is photogravure #199 in the album presented to the Duchess of Devonshire and now in the National Portrait Gallery. The printing on the portrait says, "Miss Emilia Yznaga as Cydalise of the Comedie Italienne from the time of Louis XV," with a Long S in Miss.

Emilia Yznaga was not mentioned in any press reports, but her portrait is in the commemorative album of portraits.

Cydalise is a character in Charles Palissot de Montenoy's Les Philosophe, which premiered at the Comédie-Française theatre on 2 May 1760. Palissot (3 January 1730 – 15 June 1814) was a satirical critic of philosophers like Diderot and Rosseau, and Cydalise is their "ultimate victim." This character continues to be used in francophone art, especially by Charles Lecocq (3 June 1832 – 24 October 1918), who wrote comic operas.

Cydalise is a character in Charles Lecocq's 3-act opera bouffe Madame Angot's Daughter (La Fille de Madame Angot), libretto by Clairville, Paul Siraudin and Victor Koning. The opera premiered November 1872, at the Fantasies Parisiennes, Brussels, and then opened in Paris 23 February 1873 at the Folies Dramatiques. Madame Angot's Daughter is set in Paris at the time of the French Revolution.

Madame Angot's Daughter continued to be performed in Europe. In December 1882, Simonsen's Royal English and Comic Opera Company performed La Fille de Madame Angot at the Theatre Royal, with a Miss Chapman playing Cydalise. A performance of this comic opera premiered 15 March 1897 by the Théâtre Royal Français de la Haye in the Hague. On 12 May 1897 it was performed at Casa della Musica.

In 1885, Charles Lecocq's "Cydalise: Gavotte pour Piano" was published in Album du Galois, Arthur Meyer, ed., 1885, along with work by Saint-Saëns and others.

Charles Lecocq's 1878 La Camargo (librettists Eugène Leterrier and Albert Vanloo) also has a character named Cydalise, also not a leading character, who is "Une Marchande de Macarons, Cydalise" — a macaron merchant. La Camargo does not seem to have been revived very much after its original run in the late 1870s. In 1894 Belgian writer Georges Eekhoud did a public performance of L’Escrime à Travers Les Ages (Fencing Through the Ages), which has a commedia-style character named Cydalise.

Demographics

• Nationality: Cuban American

Residences

• An apartment on Avenue Marceau, Paris (by 24 April 1896 – )
• Left New York City for Paris (15 October 1901)
• 5, Grosvenor Square, West, London (as of 3 July 1913 – at least 9 February 1915)
• Paris (as of 30 March 1918)
• 142 bis rue de Grenelle, Paris (as of 20 September 1915 – at least 25 May 1923)
• New York City (30 June 1942 – 1944)

Family

• Antonio Modesto Yznaga del Valle (8 September 1823 – 6 May 1892)
• Ellen Maria Clement (1833 – 24 January 1908)

1. Fernando Alfonso Yznaga (1851 – 6 March 1901)
2. Consuelo (Francisca Maria de la Consolacion) Yznaga (1853 – 20 November 1909)
3. Emilia Yznaga (31 October or 30 April 1864 – 1 November 1944)
4. Natica (Maria de la Natividad) Yznaga (2 May 1859 – 13 February 1943)

• María Consuelo (Francisca Maria de la Consolacion) Yznaga Montagu (1853 – 20 November 1909), née Consuelo Yznaga
• George Victor Drogo Montagu, 8th Duke of Manchester (17 June 1853 – 18 August 1892)

1. William Angus Drogo Montagu, 9th Duke of Manchester (3 March 1877 – 9 February 1947)
2. Jacqueline Mary Alva Montagu (27 November 1879 – 15 March 1895)
3. Alice Eleanor Louise Montagu (27 November 1879 – 10 January 1900)

• Natica (Maria de la Natividad) Yznaga Lister-Kaye (2 May 1859 – 13 February 1943)
• Sir John Pepys Lister-Kaye, 3rd Baronet (18 February 1853 – 27 May 1924)

1. John Digby Lister-Kaye (15 Sep 1882 – Oct 1882)

Relations

• Emilie Yznaga's sisters were Consuelo Montagu, Duchess of Manchester and Lady Natica Lister-Kaye.

Questions and Notes

1. Emilia Yznaga seems not to have married and may have been another wealthy "bachelorette" who chose not to curtail her rights for the sake of having a husband and children.
2. Francisca Maria de la Consolacion Yznaga (1853 – 20 November 1909 and María Consuelo Iznaga y Clement appear to be the same person, not just by dates: The Peerage links to the Manchester dukedom from Francisca Maria de la Consolacion Yznaga's page.