Sophie Stebnowska

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Mariane Theresia Sophie (Maria Sofia) Stebnowska (or Stempkosta), as married Karsten (1753–16 February 1848), was a Polish opera singer, actor and harpsichordist. She was to be counted among the greated talents at the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm during the reign of king Gustav III of Sweden. She was married to the opera singer Christoffer Christian Karsten and was to be the maternal grandmother ot the world famous ballet dancer Marie Taglioni.

[edit] Biography and career

Sophie Stebnowska was from 1781 married to the Swedish opera singer Christoffer Christian Karsten, and in 1782, she was appointed premier actress and singer of the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm, a position she kept for twenty one years. At the marriage, the couple were given the villa Canton at Drottningholm. Though she did not reach the rank of prima donna, she was considered as a part of the opera's most valuable members, just behind the prima donnas Elisabeth Olin and then Caroline Frederikke Müller during the 1780s and 1790s.

She was also active as a musician; in March 1795 she particiapted in a public concert in Stockholm arranged by Karsten where she played the harp, while her husband and Marie Louise Marcadet sang; first each one by themselwes, then jointly.

As a person, she was described by Crusenstolpe as an ideal image of the Gustavian age; she behavied according to the ideal of the Gustavian court and her mowements were gracious, was friendly towards everyone without favorizing any and spoke to them with ease and with and well balanced tone of voice.

From 1803, she was no longer premier actress, and in 1806, she and her husband left their positions after the temporary closure of the opera.

Gustav Löwenhielm mentions her importance in the 19th century, during a discussion about the employment of foreign artists, when he points out that several of the artists during the foundation of the Royal Swedish Opera and the Royal Dramatic Theatre had been foreigners:

"Is it impossible to engage Mr Berg and Miss Schoultz? - Generally, I can not see how wh can elude the employment of halfgrown foreigners. Gustav III's Swedish national theatre started with the Danish Mrs Müller, the French Mrs Marcadet, the German Mamsell Stading, the German Mrs Augusti and the Polish Mrs Karsten. These ladies occupied our stage and kept it from the foundation of the opera and the premature departure of Mrs Olin in the beginning of the 1780s, until the year of 1800, when the school of Mrs Desguillons had created Mamsell Wässelia cum celeris."

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Sophie Karsten, nee Stebnowska, became the mother of the dancer Sophie Hedvig Karsten, premier dancer at the opera 1805-1806, and through her the maternal grandmother of Marie Taglioni. She died at Drottningholm.

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