Inez Fabbri

Inez Fabbri
Inez Fabbri ca. 1870
Born	(1831-01-26)26 January 1831 Vienna, Austrian Empire
Died	30 August 1909(1909-08-30) (aged 78) San Francisco, California, U.S.
Nationality	Austrian
Other names	Agnes Schmidt, Inez Fabbri-Mulder, Inez Fabbri-Müller
Occupation	Opera singer (soprano)

Inez Fabbri (26 January 1831 – 30 August 1909), née Agnes Schmidt, was an Austrian American soprano, voice teacher and impresaria. She sang in Austria, Germany, England, South America and the Caribbean, making her home in San Francisco where, in the 1870s, she was the most important musical personality and prima donna assoluta of her time, performing in more than 150 concerts and operas from 1872 to 1879, producing operas, and teaching voice to up-and-coming singers.

She was the daughter of an impoverished Viennese textile manufacturer. She made a successful operatic debut in Kassa, Hungary, (now Košice, Slovakia) as Abigail in Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia in 1847. After a few years on the road singing in Königsberg (1856–1857) and Potsdam (1857), she arrived at the Hamburgischerer Stadttheater where, among other roles, she received recognition for Valentine in Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots which became one of her starring roles.

Here she met Richard Mulder (1822–1874), a Dutch musician and impresario whom she married in 1858. He organized a tour to South America (1858–59) during which time she sang in Argentina, Brazil and Chile. From then on she would use her stage name, "Fabbri" (Italian for "Schmidt/Smith").

In 1860, she was engaged by Max Maretzek to sing at his Winter Garden Theatre in New York. Her highly acclaimed American debut was as Violetta in Verdi's La Traviata. Shortly thereafter, she sang Elvira in Ernani in which The New York Times wrote that "she was more dramatic and powerful" [than in her role as Violetta] and "a dramatic actress of the first class". "Mme. Fabbri was called out twice after each act, and the finale to the third act was encored."

Her debut at the Winter Garden was followed by tours in the American Mid-West, Canada and the Caribbean Islands. She was especially well received in Puerto Rico but lost all her possessions in a fire. In 1862–1863, she and her husband returned to Europe on a tour. From May 1863 to March 1864, she sang thirty-seven performances at the Wiener Hofoper in roles which included Elvira and Leonore in Verdi's Ernani and Il Trovatore, Raquel in Halévy's La Juive, and Alice and Berthe in Meyerbeer's Robert le diable and Le Prophète.