Felicita Vestvali (born Anna Marie Stegemann, also known as Felicità von Vestvali; 23 February 1831 – 3 April 1880) was a German operatic contralto or dramatic soprano and actress. She became famous both in Europe and the United States.
She was known in North America as "Vestvali the Magnificent" or "Magnificent Vestvali" and was praised by Abraham Lincoln and Napoleon III. Vestali was admired for her beauty and her contralto voice as well as for her independence from the norms of femininity of the time. She was a self-described "man-hater" (Männerfeindin) and was widely described as Uranian with links to the feminist movement, the budding movement for gay and lesbian rights, and to movements for racial and religious emancipation.
Despite her Italian stage name, Vestvali was born in Stettin, Kingdom of Prussia (now Szczecin, Poland), as Anna Marie Stegemann. Her father, Georg Leberecht Stegemann (1789–1842) was a widowed lieutenant, and her mother was Baroness Charlotte Stegemann, nee von Hünefeld (1794–1860). Felicita claimed that her father "changed the last name for political reasons", but there's no proof of that. The Stegemanns were a Lutheran and German-speaking family, however Charlotte had Polish ancestors, and Georg's son from the previous marriage (Henryk Westwalewicz) was Polish, and so it is likely that young Anna Marie's household also used Polish.
Theatrical training and early roles
Vestvali's family refused her theater training, so in 1846 at the age of 15, she ran away from home in boy's clothes and joined the impresario Wilhelm Bröckelmann and his theater company, debuting in Cöslin. With Bröckelmann's group, Vestvali undertook a long tour of various northern German city theaters. Back in Leipzig, she was discovered by actress Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient and accepted as a student. With her support, Vestvali was able to make her debut there at the Altes Theater in the role of Agathe in Der Freischütz, as well as playing Romeo in Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi.
After a short guest appearance at the Hanover Opera House, Vestvali went to France with her step-brother Henryk Westwalewicz, living among participants of the Polish emigration and introducing themselves as Polish. Her 19th century biographers claimed she studied at Conservatoire de Paris, but she is not on the lists of graduates. In 1848 Felicita became pregnant, giving birth to a daughter named Marie Jenny Emma in 1849. The father's name was not registered, but the most likely candidate was Italian Joseph de Filippi.
In 1850, under name Felicita de Westwalewicz, she traveled to England, giving solo concerts in London and Guernsey, where she also was a home teacher. In 1851 she moved to Naples, studying under Saverio Mercadante and befriending the writer Francesco Mastriani (who dedicated his novel Il mio Cadavere to her). She continued musical education in Florence under Pietro Romani. During this time, she took the stage name Felicita Vestvali and sang as a supposedly Italian singer in La Scala, as Azucena in Il trovatore in 1853.
Due to the La Scala performance, Vestvali performed for Royal Opera in 1854, in her first 'mature' travesti role of Orsini in Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia. This didn't lead to a new contract, so in January 1855 Felicita and Henryk traveled to the USA, leaving Marie with de Filippi. In New York, she was hired to play Arsaces in Semiramide, earning fans such as John Bigelow and Walt Whitman. Her other roles in America included Leonora in La favorite, Alisa in Lucia di Lammermoor, and Armando di Gondì in Maria di Rohan.
In October 1855 Felicita and Henryk moved to Mexico City, where Felicita was hired by Teatro Nacional. Her most praised role there was Romeo. In March 1857 she traveled to Cuba to perform in Havana's Tacón Theatre, then returned to the USA, where she became "Vestvali the Magnificent". At this time, she fell in love with aspiring actress Jessie McLean, singing together in concerts. In 1858 Vestvalis and McLean came back to Europe.
In 1859, likely thanks to Jean-François Mocquard or Józef Michał Poniatowski she was brought back to the Paris Opera. According to a popular story, Napoleon III was so captivated with her that he presented her with a solid silver suit of armor for her performance as Romeo in Bellini's Romeo and Juliet, but likely he didn't see Vestvali perform (the premiere was attended by prince Napoléon-Jérôme Bonaparte instead).
With a French opera company, she made a tour through France, Belgium and Holland, and in 1861, performing in Wiesbaden, she met her longtime partner, German actress Elise Lund. In 1863 another tour to New York followed, with Henry (who died in 1863), her daughter Marie, and Elise.
After bad reviews of her appearance in Gluck's play Orfeo ed Euridice in New York in 1863, Vestvali switched from musical theater to speaking roles, starting with the titular role in Victor Séjour's Gamea, or The Jewish Mother, which gained her the recognition of Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln. Her first spoken travesti role was in The Brigand.
Karl Gutzkow suggested her in the preface to his play Richard Savage as a candidate for the leading role.
She returned to Europe in 1867 (with adult Mary staying in America), following health problems and doctor advice to change to a different climate. She appeared as Romeo and Hamlet in Shakespeare's dramas. She played these roles in 1867 in London's Lyceum Theatre in English. Vestvali later claimed Queen Victoria attended a performance, but it's unlikely, considering the queen avoided theaters while she was mourning her husband.
In the spring of 1868, Vestvali performed in Hamburg and Lübeck, always playing alongside Elise Lund, including the titular roles of Romeo and Juliet. Afterwards, she went on a two-year tour through Europe, bringing her now signature role of Hamlet to many cities. When the Franco-Prussian War started in 1871, Vestvali took a few months break. After the war ended, she rarely performed and retreated into private life. She built Reichshallentheater theater in Berlin in 1873.
She spent the last years of her life in Bad Warmbrunn, where her sister Emma started building a villa quarter known as "Russische Kolonie”. During a visit to Warsaw, where her and Emma's investment of Vestvali Palace was recently finished, she fell ill and died on 3 April 1880, six weeks after her 49th birthday. During her last illness, she was "nursed by a Miss G", as well as her "inseparable friend" and principal heir, Elise Lund. Lund later took Vestvali's body to Bad Warmbrunn, where she was likely buried at the German cemetery by the modern Jagiellońska Street of Jelenia Góra.