SAROLTA, Mademoiselle [AGGTELEKI BUJANOVICS, Sarolta Gizela Maria Anna Eva] (Belvárosi, Pest, ?20 January 1839, bap 26 January 1839; d unknown)

This chapter presents a biography of mid- to late-19th-century Victorian vocalist Mademoiselle Sarolta. Mlle Sarolta, a Hungarian soprano and a beauty of the era, had a fifteen-year career as a prima donna in Italian opera in many of the main European capitals. From Britain, it was back to Berlin at the Viktoria-Theater, to which she had been recalled by one Bernardo Pollini to star in the new season of Italian opera (Oscar in Un ballo in maschera), alongside Signora Pollini, Kate Morensi, Armandi and Signor Marchisio. The Pollinis proved a disaster, and Signora Sarolta took over the management. Anyway, the proposed production of Crispino e la comare got on, and in December she was still in Berlin, raising 'stürmische Applaus' in concert. In January they played I puritani and then Don Pasquale, but Sarolta hit the headlines most extravagantly when, at a charity concert, she got up and sang Thérésa's popular and throughly 'indecent' 'Rien n'est sacré pour un sapeur'.