Elisabeth Wendling

Elisabeth ("Lisl") Augusta Wendling, (née Sarselli, Mannheim, baptised 20 February 1746 - Munich, 10 January 1786) was a German soprano, for whom Mozart wrote the role of Electra in his opera "Idomeneo re di Creta".

There were four musicians in the original Idomeneo from the Wendling family. [Mark Everist, "Madame Dorothea Wendling is arcicontentissima: the performers of Idomeneo", in Julian Rushton, "W.A. Mozart: Idomeneo", Cambridge Opera Handbooks, 1993] She usually sang with her sister-in-law Dorothea Wendling, after her début in 1762 in Sofonisba by Traetta. Later she occasionally sang as the prima donna, most famously as Anna in "Günther von Schwarzburg" by Holzbauer (1777).

In a letter, Mozart says he has been introduced to her by Cannabich and that she was Karl Theodor's mistress, [Friedrich Heinrich Wilhelm Koerte (ed.), "Briefe deutscher Gelehrten: Aus Gleims litterarischem Nachlasse," Zurich, 1804-6] is very good-looking, and a good musician. Elisabeth had been greatly praised by Mozart's father and thus was chosen for the role of Electra.

In 1785 she was engaged to sing in Alessio Prati’s "Armida abbandonata", but fell ill and had to hand the role to her niece "Gustl" Wendling; she never sang in public again. [ B. Pelker: "Theateraufführungen und musikalischen Akademien am Hof Carl Theodors in Mannheim: eine Chronik der Jahre 1742–1777, Die Mannheimer Hofkapelle im Zeitalter Carl Theodors," ed. L. Finscher (Mannheim, 1992), pp. 219–59.]

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