Hamaekers was born in
Louvain, Belgium, one of the ten daughters of Guillaume and Anne-Catherine (
née Vanderwalen) Hamaekers. Her father was an inn-keeper and a veteran of the
Battle of Austerlitz. She initially studied singing in Louvain with Mme. Mathieu-Marin and then at the Brussels Conservatory, making her first concert appearance in 1855. On the encouragement of
Eugène Scribe, she went to Paris accompanied by one of her sisters for further study with
Gilbert Duprez and later
François Delsarte. While still studying she came to the attention of the
Duke of Morny who provided her with a handsome carriage and a sable cloak amongst other gifts. 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. Through Morny she was also engaged as a singer for the chapel of the
Tuileries Palace and was a soloist at the baptismal mass of Napoleon III's son
Louis-Napoléon. '' 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. She was also known for having a very attractive stage presence and made a specialty of appearing in a variety of
en travesti roles which allowed her to show off her legs. 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. During the course of her 15 years at the Opéra she appeared in a variety of other operas, including
Robert le diable,
La Juive,
Le Prophète,
Le comte Ory, and
Les Vêpres siciliennes. She was the intimate of the composers
Rossini,
Meyerbeer and especially
Auber, whose pet name for her was "Didine". She attracted a string of lovers who provided her with considerable wealth, the most prominent of which was Napoleon III who gave her an emerald and diamond necklace. At the height of her career, she had a house in Paris, a chateau at
Fontainebleau, and spent her summers renting the country-seat of the president of the
Jockey-Club de Paris or the Marquis du Hallez's chateau. However, much of her fortune was dissipated by one of her last Parisian lovers who was addicted to gambling. 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. Amongst her roles there was Venus in the theatre's first performance of Wagner's
Tannhäuser. ==Later years==