La Chelito
| |
|---|---|
Portela-Audet in the early 20th-century
| |
| Born | Consuelo Portela Audet 1885
Placetas, Las Villas, Cuba
|
| Died | 20 November 1959(1959-11-20) (aged 73–74)
Madrid, Spain
|
| 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 the 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]
