Anna Thillon

Anna Thillon, born Sophie Anne Hunt in 1819 in either Calcutta or London, was an operatic soprano who built a career across Europe and the United States before appearing on Broadway in 1852. She died on 5 May 1903 in Torquay at the age of 84.

Her parents were Elisabeth and Joseph Hunt. Mrs. Hunt came from a noble family, and through that connection her daughters gained access to aristocratic social circles. Joseph Hunt was a wealthy merchant, and a 1840 issue of The Musical World described Sophie Anne Hunt as belonging to one of the aristocratic families of England. When she was around fourteen, however, her father went bankrupt, and her mother relocated the family to France.

Much of Thillon's vocal training took place in France, where her teachers included Marco Bordogni and Giovanni Tadolini. She also studied with Claude Thomas Thillon, conductor of the Havre Philharmonic Society, whom she married and whose surname she adopted professionally. Following appearances in the French provinces, she made her stage debut at the Paris Théâtre de la Renaissance in 1838, taking the title role in Albert Grisar's Lady Melvil. In 1840 she joined the Opéra-Comique, where she created two roles for composer Daniel Auber: Catarina in Les diamants de la couronne in 1841 and Casilda in La part du diable in 1843.

Thillon made her English debut in 1844 at the London Princess's Theatre, again performing the role of Catarina. She subsequently appeared at Drury Lane, where she created the role of Stella in Michael Balfe's The Enchantress. Her American career began in 1851, and she participated in San Francisco's first professional theatrical season. Her Broadway appearances came in 1852 and included The Basket Maker's Wife and The Enchantress. She retired from the stage approximately four years after her American career began.

Between roughly 1840 and 1855, the artist Henry Willard painted an oil portrait of her. After her retirement, Thillon settled in Torquay, where she lived as a widow until her death. No record of children has been documented. She had at least two sisters: Elizabeth Victoria Hunt and Mary Charlotte Hunt, born in 1825, who married a Georgian prince from the Bagration-Davydov family in 1845 and became Princess Mariya Iosifovna Bagration-Davydova, eventually dying in the Russian Empire at an advanced age.