Caroline Frédérique Bernardine Hamaekers[a] (12 June 1836 – 24 October 1912) was a Belgian soprano prominent in the opera houses and demimonde of Paris from the mid-1850s through 1869.

The duke, who was the half-brother of Napoleon III, used his influence to get her hired by the Paris Opéra where she made her debut on 12 September 1856 as Mathilde in Rossini's Guillaume Tell.

[1][2][3][4] She was described in contemporary accounts as not being a great singer but having a pretty and agile coloratura voice with clear and brilliant high notes and a facility with trills equal to that of Adelina Patti.

Amongst those were Urbain, the Queen's page in Les Huguenots and the young student Bénoni which she sang in the world premiere of Gounod's La reine de Saba.

With the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870 she left France, gave concert tours and was then engaged as a highly paid prima donna at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie.

[1][2][3] Hamaekers retired from the stage in 1884, but kept up a lively correspondence with the literary critic and historian Frédéric Loliée, sharing her reminiscences of Parisian social and musical life during the Second French Empire.