Media Contact:
Amy Kirk Duvoisin
French Market Corporation
(504) 289-0789 or akirk@frenchmarket.org 
 
Event Schedule:

5:00 p.m. Louisiana History Alive presents The Baroness Pontalba and friends
5:45 p.m. New Orleans Opera Association presents songs by Jenny Lind
6:30 p.m. Happy Birthday, Baroness! Join us in singing Happy Birthday and sharing in 219 mini cupcakes
6:45-7:00 p.m. More performances and shops open...final raffle for books about The Baroness!

Enjoy extended shop hours, retail specials, live opera, historical characters in costume, and a chance to win one of 6 hardcover copies of the Baroness's biography "INTIMATE ENEMIES" by Christina Vella*

Signed Paperback copies of the book will be for sale at Muse at 532 St. Peter Street throughout the evening

***Spend $25 in one of the participating Shops at the Upper Pontalba on Saint Peter Street and get a raffle ticket! You must be present to win. Raffles will be at 5:30 p.m., 6:15 p.m. and 6:45 p.m. **


LOUISIANA HISTORY ALIVE PRESENTS THE BARONESS AND OTHER HISTORICAL CHARACTERS FROM THE BALCONY AT 526 ST. PETER STREET 5:00-5:45 p.m. The characters will remain on site for the duration of the party, roaming in and out of shops and on the Upper Pontalba sidewalk and pedestrian mall

The three historical characters on-site from 5:00-7:00 p.m. will be:

  1. Baroness Pontalba: Micaela Almonester, Baroness de Pontalba was born in 1795, the daughter of the richest man in New Orleans. At age 15, she married her French cousin, Celestin Delfau de Pontalba, the Baron. After years of enduring isolation and abuse at the hand of her father-in-law who tried to control her fortune, he shot her four times before he turned his pistol on himself. The Baroness survived and returned to New Orleans in 1849 and constructed the Pontalba apartment buildings and landscaping of Jackson Square.
  2. Jules Lion: Jules Lion was born in Paris in 1809. He was the first African-American photographer and in 1840 opened a daguerrotype studio in New Orleans just one year after the invention of the process.
  3. Adelina Patti: Adelina Patti, born 1843 in Spain, was a highly acclaimed 19th century opera singer. One of the most famous sopranos in history, Patti traveled all over Europe and the United States earning huge booking fees.


5:45-6:25 NEW ORLEANS OPERA ASSOCIATION
In honor of the Baroness Pontalba's birthday, we honor her with selections in memory of the great Jenny Lind. During the Swedith Nightingale's famous concert tour in New Orleans, she was hosted by the Baroness and performed one of her famous concerts from her balcony of the upper Pontalba. Selections will be highlights from Jenny Lind's repertoire and the most famous operatic music of the mid-19th Century.