Elisabetta Gafforini

Elisabetta Gafforini was an Italian opera singer quite celebrated in its time. She developed an international career that included a passage through Lisbon between 1803 and 1806, where she integrated the cast of Teatro de S. Carlos.

According to the accounts of the time she was endowed with an excellent voice and also great beauty. She was also known for her abundant, blond hair, which she combed exuberantly, with elegance and apparent sloughness.

Her hairstyle became famous in Lisbon at the time, being copied by many women. This would give rise to the expression "gaforina", used to designate a hairy and disheveled, but well cared hair. Writers like Eça de Queirós or Aquilino Ribeiro made use of this word in their works.