Agatha Bârsescu, also known by the name Agathe Barcesque (1857 – 1939), was a Romanian theatre actress, opera singer and teacher, known for her interpretations of Greek tragedies.

At the age of 8, she and her cousin were sent to a boarding school in Sibiu, 275 km north-west of Bucharest, where she learned German.

However, en route to Paris she stopped over in Vienna and chose to stay there and take canto lessons.

Later she became a student at the Vienna Conservatory, where she took classes on literature, aesthetics, choreography, duel, costume and foreign languages.

This was followed by a lifetime contract being offered by the theatre and the title of "Court Actress" awarded by imperial decree.

She had starring roles in Grillparzer's Medea and Sappho, Antigone by Sophocles, Mary Stuart by Friedrich Schiller, and as the queen in Victor Hugo's Ruy Blas after she received the title.

Bârsescu decided to leave Vienna when she felt she couldn't grow artistically next to Charlotte Wolter, the first heroine of Burgtheater who could not deal with young competition.

In 1912, under the name Agathe Barcesque, she played the role of the abbess in the German silent film, The Miracle, an Austro-German co-production.

She spent time in New York taking part in shows at the Irving Place with immigrant Romanian Jews.

[1][2] In 1925 Bârsescu returned to Romania, settling in Iași, where she taught at the Conservatory of Dramatic Art for almost 15 years.

The following inscription was engraved on her funeral plaque: "Here rests the brilliant tragic actress, Agata Bârsescu, glory of the Romanian nation, who performed to perfection, in the country and abroad."