Ilka Pálmay

Ilka Pálmay (often erroneously written Ilka von Pálmay; 21 September 1859 – 17 February 1945), born Ilona Petráss, was a Hungarian-born singer and actress. Pálmay began her stage career in Hungary by 1880, and by the early 1890s, she was creating leading roles in opera and operetta at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna. She was married to Austrian Count Eugen Kinsky in the early 1890s.

In 1895, Pálmay began to perform in London, and in 1896 she created the leading role of Julia in Gilbert and Sullivan's The Grand Duke. In 1897, Palmay returned to Hungary and spent most of the rest of her long and successful career in Hungary and Austria. She continued to perform until 1928.

Pálmay was born in Ungvar, in the Ung County of the Kingdom of Hungary (present-day Ukraine). She was married twice, first to actor-manager József Szigligeti (from 1877 to 1886), and then to Austrian Count Eugen Kinsky in the early 1890s, who maintained an estate at Althofen in Carinthia. Although she was often billed as "von Palmay" early in her career, she explained to The Sketch that the "von" "isn't right; von is German. In Hungary the y at the end of name means the same thing."

Pálmay began her stage career in Hungary (including Košice, Budapest and Kolozsvár) by 1880 and played about two dozen roles in the 1880s, including Serpolette in Les Cloches de Corneville In the early 1890s, she performed at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna, where she created leading roles in Carl Zeller's Der Vogelhändler (1891) and Johann Strauss II's Fürstin Ninetta (1893). Soon, she was playing in Prague and the Unter den Linden Theater in Berlin. There, in 1893, she was scheduled to appear in a German production of The Mikado in drag as the tenor hero, Nanki-Poo, and Sullivan took action to try to prohibit her from appearing in the role. Later, Pálmay was surprised to find out that no woman had ever appeared on stage at the Savoy Theatre dressed as a man.

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