Background
Petráss was born in Verőce, Hungary in 1888 and was a niece to Bertha von Suttner, countess Kinsky.
Petráss was born in Verőce, Hungary in 1888 and was a niece to Bertha von Suttner, countess Kinsky.
In the 1910s and 1920s, she played leading soprano parts in Budapest, Vienna, London and on Broadway. According to Richard Traubner, Sári Petráss and Sári Fedák remain "the two best-remembered Hungarian female operetta stars of all time."
Petráss debuted in as a lead singer in November 1911 in Leányvásár along with Sári Fedák. The show produced at the Király Színház (King Theater), Budapest became an international hit as was instantly picked up by Carltheater in Vienna and by the English impresario George Edwardes.
In 1912, Edwardes "imported" her and most of the original Budapest cast to London.
Petráss quickly mastered singing in English and performed at the Daly"s Theatre in The Marriage Market (1912) and A Waltz Dream (1913) along with Gertie Millar and Robert Michaelis. Petráss was an expert horse rider, and rode a donkey called Jenny in the opening scenes of The Marriage Market.
The show ran 299 performances. In February 1916, the American media spread a rumour that Petráss had been executed in Budapest as a spy.
Allegedly, after the outbreak of World War I she returned from England to Hungary to spy against the Central Powers for the British.
The exact origin of the rumour is unknown. Later it was confirmed that she indeed returned from England to Vienna and starred there in The Beautiful Unknown by Oscar Straus. William Boosey wrote that the London show of The Gipsy Princess with Petráss failed owing to cast selection, despite a "phenomenal run everywhere".
In late 1916, she settled in New York City and starred at the New Amsterdam Theatre.
The New York Times praised her performance in the September 1916 premiere of Mission Springtime. The show was originally billed as Little Mission Springtime but A.L. Erlanger of New Amsterdam decided against "anything Little" by Emmerich Kálmán and Jerome Kern: "a prima donna new to these shores and destined to be a reigning favorite.. in addition to her other talents, she is a clever actress.
Mission Petrass is pretty and graceful and her voice, while not large, has a lovely quality and is used with great discretion."
A few days later Alexander Woollcott objected: "while Sári Petráss is an ingratiating and pretty vivacious prima donna, she can scarcely take first rank as a singer." In March 1917 Petráss married Felix Augustus Eugene Sommerhoff, a broker from Cedarhurst, New New York She soon withdrew from Mission Springtime and toured the United States with The Beautiful Unknown.
In 1921, Petráss reprised her role in The Gipsy Princess at the Prince of Wales Theatre, London.
Their chauffeur, attempting to drive the car onto a ferry bound for Sainte Anne, was blinded by the beam of a lighthouse and crashed the car into the Scheldt. Both passengers drowned. Petráss was not identified until the next day.