Ema Pukšec

Her mother was Krescencia Brodarotti de Trauenfeld, while her father, Josip Pukšec, was a highly respected military officer stationed in the region around the city of Slunj.

For his service in protecting the eastern flanks of western Europe within the Austrian Military Frontier, her father was granted nobility and added the extension Murski to his name.

Her career as Ilma de Murska started in 1862 in Florence, Italy as Lady Harriet in Friedrich von Flotow's Martha.

[3] George Bernard Shaw observed that, in the famous fioriturae of this role, she sang "to chime with a delicate ring and inimitable precision of touch".

[10] She was obliged to break her schedule a few weeks later in Melbourne, as her husband was gravely ill. As a result, her fans in that city were treated to additional performances, in Lucia di Lammermoor and La Sonnambula, alternating nights with Fannie Simonsen.

Most important of these was an immense black Newfoundland dog called Pluto, which was trained to eat fowl off a plate, set for him as a place at the dining table with his mistress, without dripping anything on the tablecloth.

The monkey and cat tormented each other and clawed each other's fur, and the parrots were given free range in the hotels where the diva was staying, and were frequently destructive of the furnishings.

[14] Music critics, aristocratic opera patrons and ordinary listeners alike called her "The Croatian Nightingale" following her acclaimed appearances in Vienna and London.

[15] As a singer she was wild and uninhibited, to the frustration of the conductor, as she was apt to depart from the score in fantastic improvisations, and he would be obliged to hold back the orchestra's crescendo until she was ready.