All Topics  
Pauline de Ahna

 

 
   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link
 

 

Pauline de Ahna
 
 
  Topics Pauline de Ahna Topic Home

Pauline Maria de Ahna (4 February 1863 - 13 May 1950) was a German operatic soprano
Soprano

A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four part chorale style harmony the soprano takes the highest part which usually encompasses the melody....
. She is best remembered today as the wife of composer
Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, usually in the medium of musical notation, for interpretation and performance. The level of distinction between composers and other musicians varies, which affects issues such as copyright and the deference given to individual interpretations of a particular piece of music....
 Richard Strauss
Richard Strauss

Richard Georg Strauss was a German composer of the late Romantic music and early modern eras, particularly of operas, Lieder and tone poems. Strauss was also a prominent Conducting....
 who wrote several of his works for her.

hna was born in Ingolstadt
Ingolstadt

Ingolstadt is a city in the Free State of Bavaria, Germany. It is located along the banks of the Danube River, in the center of Bavaria. As of December 31, 2005, Ingolstadt had 121,801 residents, making it the second-largest city in Upper Bavaria, after Munich....
, the daughter of General Adolf de Ahna. She first studied in Munich, followed by studies in 1887 with her future husband in Feldafing
Feldafing

Feldafing is a Municipalities of Germany in Starnberg , Bavaria, Germany, and is located on the west shore of Lake Starnberg, located southwest of Munich....
. She made her début in 1890 as Pamina in The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute

The Magic Flute is an opera in two acts composed in 1791 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a Singspiel, a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue....
 in Weimar
Weimar

Weimar is a city in Germany. It is located in the States of Germany of Thuringia , north of the Th?ringer Wald, east of Erfurt, and southwest of Halle, Saxony-Anhalt and Leipzig....
.






Discussion
Ask a question about 'Pauline de Ahna'
Start a new discussion about 'Pauline de Ahna'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


Pauline Maria de Ahna (4 February 1863 - 13 May 1950) was a German operatic soprano
Soprano

A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four part chorale style harmony the soprano takes the highest part which usually encompasses the melody....
. She is best remembered today as the wife of composer
Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, usually in the medium of musical notation, for interpretation and performance. The level of distinction between composers and other musicians varies, which affects issues such as copyright and the deference given to individual interpretations of a particular piece of music....
 Richard Strauss
Richard Strauss

Richard Georg Strauss was a German composer of the late Romantic music and early modern eras, particularly of operas, Lieder and tone poems. Strauss was also a prominent Conducting....
 who wrote several of his works for her.

Biography

De Ahna was born in Ingolstadt
Ingolstadt

Ingolstadt is a city in the Free State of Bavaria, Germany. It is located along the banks of the Danube River, in the center of Bavaria. As of December 31, 2005, Ingolstadt had 121,801 residents, making it the second-largest city in Upper Bavaria, after Munich....
, the daughter of General Adolf de Ahna. She first studied in Munich, followed by studies in 1887 with her future husband in Feldafing
Feldafing

Feldafing is a Municipalities of Germany in Starnberg , Bavaria, Germany, and is located on the west shore of Lake Starnberg, located southwest of Munich....
. She made her début in 1890 as Pamina in The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute

The Magic Flute is an opera in two acts composed in 1791 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a Singspiel, a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue....
 in Weimar
Weimar

Weimar is a city in Germany. It is located in the States of Germany of Thuringia , north of the Th?ringer Wald, east of Erfurt, and southwest of Halle, Saxony-Anhalt and Leipzig....
. In 1891 she appeared at Bayreuth
Bayreuth

Bayreuth is a city in northern Bavaria, Germany, on the Red Main river in a valley between the Frankish Alb and the Fichtelgebirge. It is the capital of Oberfranken and has a population of 73,048 citizens ....
, singing Elisabeth in Wagner's Tannhäuser
Tannhäuser (opera)

Tannh?user is an opera in three acts, music and text by Richard Wagner, based on the two Germany legends of Tannh?user and the S?ngerkrieg at Wartburg Castle....
 and a flowermaiden in Parsifal
Parsifal

Parsifal is an opera, or music drama, in three acts by Richard Wagner. It is loosely based on Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival, the medieval Epic poetry of the Arthurian knight Parzival and his quest for the Holy Grail....
. In 1894 she starred in Strauss's first opera, Guntram
Guntram (opera)

Guntram is an opera in three acts by Richard Strauss with a Germany libretto written by the composer.It was Strauss' first opera and shows a strong Richard Wagner influence....
, as Freihild, a role which he wrote specifically for her. The couple married later that year on 10 September 1894. De Ahna was famous for being bossy, ill-tempered, eccentric, and outspoken, but the marriage was happy, and she was a great source of inspiration to him. She was portrayed as the hero's companion in Ein Heldenleben
Ein Heldenleben

Ein Heldenleben , op.40, is a tone poem by Richard Strauss. The work was completed in 1898, and heralds the composer?s more mature period in this genre....
 and in several sections of Sinfonia Domestica.

Her other opera roles included Agathe in Der Freischütz
Der Freischütz

Der Freisch?tz is an opera in three acts by Carl Maria von Weber to a libretto by Johann Friedrich Kind. It is considered the first important German Romantic music opera, especially in its national identity and stark emotionality....
, Leonore in Fidelio
Fidelio

Fidelio is a German language opera in two acts by Ludwig van Beethoven. It is Beethoven's only opera. The German libretto is by Joseph Sonnleithner from the French of Jean-Nicolas Bouilly....
, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni

Don Giovanni is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and with Italian language libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It was premiered in the Estates Theatre in Prague on October 29, 1787 in music....
, and Ada in Die Feen
Die Feen

Die Feen is an opera in three acts by Richard Wagner. The German libretto was written by the composer after Carlo Gozzi's La donna serpente....
, the latter of which she sang in Munich in 1896. She retired from the stage in 1897 and is immortalized as Christine Storch in her husband's opera Intermezzo
Intermezzo (opera)

Intermezzo is an opera in two acts by Richard Strauss to his own German language libretto, described as a B?rgerliche Kom?die mit sinfonischen Zwischenspielen ....
. The echo of her beautiful voice can be heard in the series of superb roles for soprano in Strauss's later operas from Salome
Salome (opera)

Salome is an opera in one act by Richard Strauss to a German language libretto by the composer, based on Hedwig Lachmann?s German translation of the French language play Salome by Oscar Wilde....
 to the Countess Madeleine in Capriccio
Capriccio (opera)

Capriccio is the final opera by Germany composer Richard Strauss, subtitled "A Conversation Piece for Music". The opera received its premiere performance at the Nationaltheater M?nchen on October 28, 1942....
.

She was also the subject of the one-woman show Die Frau im Schatten by Dame Gwyneth Jones.

De Ahna outlived her husband, but only by eight months, dying in Garmisch-Partenkirchen
Garmisch-Partenkirchen

Garmisch-Partenkirchen is a market town in Bavaria, southern Germany. It is the administrative centre of the Garmisch-Partenkirchen , in the Oberbayern region, not far from the border with Austria....
 in May 1950.

Sources