Felicita from Vestvali

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Felicita Vestvali, photo ca.1855.
Felicita Vestvali, steel engraving after a photo in Allgemeine Moden-Zeitung , 1868
Felicita von Vestvali as Hamlet , 1873

Felicita von Vestvali , also Felicia de Vestfali , actually Anna Marie Stegemann , (born February 23, 1831 in Stettin , † April 3, 1880 in Warsaw ) was a German singer ( alto ) and actress .

Life

Her family origin is unclear. According to Ludwig Eisenberg, Vestvali came from an old noble family. She was born in Szczecin. Her father - as a senior civil servant - had adopted the pseudonym "Stegemann" for political reasons . According to another source, her father belonged to the Polish aristocratic family Westfalowicz. Still others state that she was born in Kraków in 1834 as the daughter of a senior Austrian official. Vestvali's family refused to give her theater training; therefore she ran away from home and, at the age of 15, joined the impresario Wilhelm Bröckelmann and his theater company in Leipzig in 1846 . Together with Bröckelmann's troupe, Vestvali went on a long tour to various North German city theaters. Back in Leipzig, she was discovered by the actress Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient and accepted as a student. With their support, Vestvali was able to make her debut there at the Old Theater in the role of "Agathe".

After a short guest appearance at the Hanover Opera House , Vestvali went to France to the Conservatory ( Paris ). This was followed by a concert tour as a soloist. From the winter of 1855/56 she studied with Romani ( Florence ) and Saverio Mercadante in Naples . During this time she also took the stage name Felicita von Vestvali and sang her first trouser role, the role of Romeo , as an alleged Italian singer in La Scala in Milan .

Sensational successes followed in Paris , London , New York City and Mexico City . After that, a longer vacation should actually take place in Italy. But Emperor Napoléon Bonaparte brought Vestvali back to Paris to attend the Great Opera . The audience celebrated her performances enthusiastically and the critics compared her to Maria Malibran , Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient and Rachel .

With a French opera company she made a tour of France, Belgium and Holland and in 1862 another tour to New York followed. She worked there with colleagues like Charles Kean et al. a. In the United States , Vestvali was the first ever female Hamlet actress ( en travestie ). From this time on she was also called "the female Kean" in honor of her. Karl Gutzkow suggested her in the foreword to his play Richard Savage as a candidate for the leading role.

After bad reviews of her appearance in Gluck's Orpheus and Euridike in San Francisco in 1865, she switched from music theater to the speaking stage. She returned to Europe and was successful again. She appeared as Romeo and Hamlet in Shakespeare's dramas. She played these roles in 1867 in London at the Lyceum Theater in English. Queen Victoria attended one of the performances. The Royal Academy of Arts made her an honorary member.

From spring 1868 she could be seen in Hamburg and Lübeck. She then went on a major tour of Europe for about two years. After the end of the war in 1871, Vestvali rarely appeared and withdrew more and more into private life. She spent the last years of her life in Bad Warmbrunn ( Riesengebirge ). While visiting friends in Warsaw, she fell ill and died there six weeks after her 49th birthday on April 3, 1880.

Roles (selection)

and as an actress:

  • Gamea - Gamea, or, the Jewish Mother
  • Angelo - Bel demonio

Quote

Karl Gutzkow wrote about Felicita von Vestvali:

Seldom has an artist acquired such a wide range of fame and traversed the old and new world in a true triumphant advance, equally great as an Italian singer as an English and German tragedy .

literature

Web links

Commons : Felicita von Vestvali  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Karl-Josef Kutsch , Leo Riemens : de Vestfali, Felicia . In: Large song dictionary . De Gruyter, 2004, ISBN 978-3-598-44088-5 , p. 1141 ( full text in Google Book Search).
  2. ↑ A. Diezmann (Ed.): Felicita von Vestvali: in ALLGEMEINE MODEN-ZEITUNG, 70th year 1868, No. 47, p. 744.
  3. ↑ http://zagria.blogspot.com/2008/10/felicitas-von-vestvali-1824-1880-tenor.html#ixzz25AWmkx2s
personal data
SURNAME Vestvali, Felicita of
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Vestfali, Felicia de; Stegemann, Anna Marie (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German singer (alto) and actress
DATE OF BIRTH February 23, 1831
PLACE OF BIRTH Szczecin
DATE OF DEATH April 3, 1880
Place of death Warsaw