Felicita Vestvali

Abstract is: Felicita Vestvali (born Anna Marie Stegemann, also known as Felicità von Vestvali; 23 February 1831 – 3 April 1880) was an opera singer and actress famous 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 and for her independence from the norms of femininity at the time. She was a self-described "man-hater" ("Männerfeindin") and widely described as Uranian, with links to the feminist movement, the nascent movement for gay and lesbian rights, and to the movements for racial and religious emancipation.