UNGER CAROLINE: (1803-1877)

UNGER CAROLINE: (1803-1877) Austro-Hungarian Contralto who sang the contralto part at the first performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in Vienna on 7th May 1824. Unger is credited with turning the completely deaf composer around to receive his audience's thunderous applause, cheers and ovation gestures on the occasion. A.L.S., C. Sabatier, one page, 8vo, n.p., n.d. (c.1842), to a gentleman, in French. Unger informs her correspondent that she has just received a letter from her father which obliges her to leave promptly for Paris and continues to state 'It is therefore with great regret, Sir, that I find myself forced to renounce the pleasure that I would have had in taking part in your concert but I will preserve the memory of the friendly and gracious manner in which you most kindly invited me…..' With blank integral leaf. Some very light, extremely minor age wear, VG £300-400 Caroline Unger had married the French writer Francois Sabatier in 1841 and retired from the stage in 1843.