La Chelito | |
---|---|
Born | Consuelo Portela Audet 1885
Placetas,
Las Villas, Cuba |
Died | 20 November 1959
Madrid, Spain | (aged 73–74)
Other names | Consuelo Portela-Audet, Consuelo Portela, La Bella Chelito |
Occupation(s) | Cuplé singer, business person |
Consuelo Portela Audet (1885–1959), commonly called La Bella Chelito and La Chelito, was a Cuban-born Spanish cuplé singer from the early 20th-century, and a theater business owner. [1] [2] [3] She was a pioneer in the genre of picaresque cuplé. [4]
She was born in Placetas, Las Villas, Cuba, to Spanish parents Antonia Audet and Isidro Portella. [5] [2] Her father was the captain of the Civil Guard in Cuba. [2] She started singing at the age of 14, while living in Cuba and performed at the Payret, Molino Rojo and Alhambra theaters. [5] She had critics including clergy, who labeled her as “libidinous satan” in Diario de la Marina, the Cuban newspaper. [5]
In 1910, her family returned to Spain. [5] She performed mostly in the theaters in Barcelona and Madrid. [5] In 1915, an erotic novel about the life of Chelito was written by Joaquín Belda in the work "La Coquito"; [6] which was later made into a 1977 film of the same name, released in Spain. Her only film appearance was in the silent film El Conde Maravillas (1927) by José Buchs. [7]
After she retired from stage in 1928, she built and managed the Muñoz Seca Theater in Plaza del Carmen, Madrid in 1930. [5] She also owned and managed the Salón Madrid; the Hall Encomienda, which became, after a reform, the Teatro Nuevo; and the Kursaal that she acquired in 1919 and renamed the Chanteclair. [2]
Other notable "Queens of cuplé" were La Fornarina and Raquel Meller. [8]