Katharina Klafsky

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Katharina Klafsky

Katharina Klafsky , also Katharina Klaffsky ( September 19, 1855 in St. Johann (Mosonszentjános), Wieselburg County - September 22, 1896 in Hamburg ) was an opera singer ( soprano ).

Life

Already at the age of eight, the vocal girl, the daughter of a cobbler, was accepted into the church choir of St. Johann and sang soprano and alto solos in masses. At fifteen she went to Oedenburg and soon afterwards to Vienna, where she eked out her life as a nanny for a few years until the organist Neuwirth from the Elisabeth Church became aware of her vocal and singing talent.

He brought her to Hasemann, the director of the Komische Oper, who hired the young maid as a choir singer. With the support of the Hofkapellmeister Hellmesberger, she was able to enjoy Mathilde Marchesi's lessons for some time , then she left Vienna to go to the Salzburg City Theater as a chorister, the director of which kept the talented beginner busy in small opera and operetta roles.

After the end of the 1875/76 season, she married the businessman Liebermann, whom she followed to Leipzig. In the autumn of 1876, after the marriage separated, the young wife was hired by Angelo Neumann , the opera director of the Leipzig City Theater, for a modest fee “for choir and small roles”.

Until 1879, according to her vocal training, which was only progressing very gradually (with Rebling, Sucher and Paul Geisler , and later Hey), she was mainly employed in very small roles (“Bridesmaid”, “First Boy” in “The Magic Flute”, “Waltraute” "In" Walküre "etc.); in September 1879 she sang “Wellgunde” in “Rheingold” for the first time and in October of the same year as the first major Wagner role “Venus” in “Tannhäuser”.

This was followed in 1880 and 1881 by “Alice” in “Robert the Devil”, the “First Lady” in the “Magic Flute”, the “Recha” in Halévy's “Jewess”, the “Bertha” in the “Prophet” and the “Brangäne” ”In“ Tristan und Isolde ”(first performance in Leipzig on January 2, 1882). During 1882 she was a member of Angelo Neumann's Richard Wagner troupe (performance of the ring tetralogy in all major European cities) and took over the roles of "Sieglinde" and "Brünhilde" alongside and on behalf of her friend Hedwig Reicher-Kindermann . In 1883, after surviving a serious illness, she joined the Bremen City Theater Association under Neumann's direction, to which she belonged until 1886.

Under Anton Seidl and Paul Geisler's direction, she developed into a dramatic singer of the very highest order. With each appearance, her extensive voice unfolded fuller and brighter. Only now did her singing take on the great, sweeping trait, the inspiration and elemental passion flowing from deep within, her playing that convincing truth which from then on were peculiar to all the achievements of the brilliant singer.

When she became a member of the Hamburg City Theater in 1886, whose greatest adornment she remained for ten years, she mastered the entire classical repertoire in addition to the great Wagner roles. Especially in the highly dramatic roles, she unfolded the power and abundance of her wonderfully expressive soprano in gorgeous and harrowing accents. In all of the games she became one with the character portrayed and aroused complete illusions through the truth and suggestive power of her playing. Her "Fidelio", her "Isolde", "Brünhilde", "Elisabeth", "Senta", "Eva", "Ortrud" and "Elsa" in Wagner's musical dramas, her "Eglantine", "Recha", "Rezia" , "Aida", "Alceste", "Norma", "Valentine", "Donna Anna", "Frau Fluth" etc. corresponded in every detail to the poetic and musical archetype, but bore the stamp of an ingenious peculiarity in many characteristic features.

“She was one of the few”, so it says in one of the obituaries dedicated to her, “who are able to fill the characters of the musical drama with their own life and personality because they have a life of their own and a great personality. What Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient was of her time, the art of K. could bring to life in front of our eyes and ears. What she gave, she built up from the mysterious powers of the soul. So she was always the mighty sorceress who knew how to comfort, inspire and shake hearts ”.

Gravestone in
the women's garden

As in Hamburg, Berlin and the other major German cities (sample performances in Stuttgart, Munich, Coburg etc., music festivals in Cologne, Aachen, Schwerin and Stuttgart), it also has it in Austria, France, England, Italy, Russia, Holland and America won enthusiastic admirers through numerous guest performances of her art. She celebrated her greatest triumphs in America in 1895, a year before her death. The local newspapers called her the most ideal "Isolde" and "Brünhilde", the greatest Wagner interpreter of her time, the mightiest "Leonore" ( Fidelio ), with whom none of all prima donnas of modern times could compete. Her success in all the major cities of the Union was a wonderful one, unlike any other artist in the last 20 years since Therese Tietjens and the young Patti. When she unexpectedly died in Hamburg after returning home on September 22, 1896 as a result of a fall she had suffered in America, the loss of this eminent singer deeply moved all circles of Hamburg.

In her second marriage she was married to the baritone player Franz Greve and in the third to the conductor Otto Lohse . Her tombstone is in the women's garden at the Ohlsdorf cemetery in Hamburg.

literature

Remarks

  1. ↑ Text largely based on the ADB (Ludwig Ordemann)
personal data
SURNAME Klafsky, Katharina
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Klaffsky, Katharina
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Opera singer (soprano)
DATE OF BIRTH September 19, 1855
PLACE OF BIRTH St. Johann (Mosonszentjános), Wieselburg County
DATE OF DEATH September 22, 1896
Place of death Hamburg