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Soprano Minnie Hauk Carte de Visite, CdV, decorative reverse.
2,5 x 4 inches, (64 x 104 mm), very fine condition.
Amalia Mignon Hauck (Minnie Hauk, 1851 - 1929) was an American operatic soprano.
She was born in New York City. In 1862, Hauk began vocal studies with Achille Errani, at age fourteen she made her debut in Brooklyn and a month later, her New York City debut. In the American premiere of Gounod's Roméo et Juliette (1867) she sang Juliette. Hauk sang at Covent Garden, London, in 1868 and debuted in Paris in 1869. The soprano then appeared in Italian and German opera at the Grand Opera in Vienna and other venues throughout Europe. Hauk was the first American Carmen (1878) and Manon (1885). Her voice became a mezzo-soprano of great strength and depth. Hauk's enormous repertory included approximately one hundred roles, and she sang Carmen in four languages.
In 1881 she married Ernst von Hesse-Wartegg, the Austrian writer and traveller. Much of Minnie's fortune was lost during World War I. By 1918 she was impoverished and nearly blind.
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