Anna Bahr-Mildenburg
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Bahr-Mildenburg, Anna "Anna von Mildenburg was the first person through who- se artistry Mahler was able to show the great female figu- res of the music drama in their entire shattering power: Brünnhilde and Isolde, Ortrud and Elisabeth, Fidelio, Gluck's Clytemnestra and Donna Anna; and also Amne- ris and Amelia, Milada in Dalibor, Pfitzner's Minneleide and Santuzza. A woman's suffering has never been pre- sented, not even by Duse, in such magnitude as by this singer, in whom all the dark forces of tragedy have come alive. There is no greater tragic artist in our time." (Richard Specht: Gustav Mahler. Berlin 1913, quoted from Franz Willnauer: Gustav Mahler. "Mein lieber Trotzkopf, meine süße Mohnblume". Briefe an Anna von Mildenburg. Vienna: Zsolnay, 2006, p. 439 ff) Profile Thanks to her brilliant voice (highly dramatic soprano), her vocal and personal expressive powers and her dra- matic intelligence, Anna Bahr-Mildenburg was, in the ey- es of Gustav Mahler (to whom she was also bound in a lengthy love relationship), the ideal "singing tragedian" who fulfilled his demands for emotional depth in music- dramatic interpretation. In the Bayreuth of the era of Co- sima Wagner, she was a brilliant and convincing interpre- ter of the ideal of the "German belcanto" as adopted by Die Sängerin Anna Bahr-Mildenburg, Rollenbild von Julius Richard Wagner. She also attained great fame as a tea- Weisz, o. J. cher with the then completely new method of supplemen- ting customary vocal training with music-dramatic inst- Anna Bahr-Mildenburg ruction, and encouraging her pupils to display true stage Birth name: Marie Anna Wilhelmine Elisabeth Bellschan presentation. In both music and staging, she anticipated von Mildenburg a great deal of what eventually became accepted after 1951 as the new Bayreuth style, both in staging and in * 29 November 1872 in Wien, Österreich music. Her stage direction of persons - forming the basis † 27 January 1947 in Wien, Österreich of her productions - was controversial. Cities an countries "Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart", 2nd printing, indicates the birth name "Mildenburg von Bellschau"; it After her sensational debut as Brünnhilde in Richard Wa- is obviously incorrect, however, in view of the baptismal gner's “Walküre” ("Valkyrie") in 1895 at the former Ham- entry on 22 December 1872, according to which the na- burg State Theatre (today Hamburg State Opera) under me at birth is "Bellschan von Mildenburg". the direction of her mentor, Gustav Mahler, Anna Bahr- Mildenburg continued to celebrate major successes (so- Singer, singing teacher, opera director, journalist, me of which were guest performances) in Bayreuth and organiser of lectures, testamentary executor (as regards Vienna, then in London, Amsterdam, Zurich, Berlin, the estate of her husband, Hermann Bahr), nurse Augsburg, Brussels, Paris and Moscow. She was active in (during the First World War), actress (in works of her Munich, Berlin, Salzburg and Vienna as a teacher of dra- husband and in productions by Max Reinhard) matics, professor of voice and operatic performance and opera director, and at the Salzburg Festival as an actress. – 1 – Bahr-Mildenburg, Anna dence whether or not they were engaged to be married Biography (the singer's letters of reply were destroyed either by Anna Bahr-Mildenburg, born on 29 November 1872, was Mahler himself or by his later wife Alma Mahler; the on- born into an officer's family initially residing in Vienna, ly surviving letters are those written by Anna Bahr-Mil- later in Klagenfurt. Conspicuously musical, she received denburg to Mahler beginning in about the spring of 1902 piano lessons beginning at age seven and vocal instructi- when he was the opera director.) It is evident from Mah- on later on. She is said to have inherited her talent from ler's letters to Anna Bahr-Mildenburg that the relati- her maternal grandfather, a famous singer in his youth. onship had already cooled again before Mahler began his In Anna Bahr-Mildenburg's eighth year, the family mo- engagement as director of the Court Opera in Vienna ved from Klagenfurt to Görz (located near Trieste). The (the later State Opera) in 1897. Nonetheless she was en- singing lessons that she had already received in Klagen- gaged as an ensemble member in Vienna on his recom- furt from Karl Weidt were continued in Görz by Helene mendation beginning on 1 June 1898, even though she Rieckhoff-Pessiack. But it was only with the help of the had to "refrain from all personal dealings" with Mahler, comedy writer Julius Rosen, who lived in a neighbouring as stated in a letter from him to her in July 1897; from flat, that she was able to win her parents' support in fulfil- the informal address in the letters, "Liebste Anna" (“Dea- ling her wish to become a singer. Upon the request of her rest Anna”), he returned to the formal pronoun "Sie" of singing teacher Helene Rieckhoff-Pessiack, and probably the beginning of their acquaintance. The reason for the also due to her father's (an Imperial and Royal Major) rupture of the relationship cannot be clarified due to lack good connections, Anna Bahr-Mildenburg was granted of documentation. an audition for the then Vienna Court Opera director Wil- helm Jahn, who in turn recommended her to Rosa Pa- Shortly after her definitive separation from Mahler, from pier-Paumgartner. Due to her modest financial situation, about the beginning of 1898 (Mahler's "internal" separati- Anna Bahr-Mildenburg received a scholarship at the fa- on, in Willnauer's opinion, can perhaps be placed in the mous opera school and developed so well there, as a sin- summer of 1896), Anna Bahr-Mildenburg entered into ger, that she was initially engaged by the Leipzig Opera new relationships, first with one of Mahler's Hamburg fri- director Max Staegemann already at the end of her first ends, the well-to-do lawyer Dr. Hermann Behn, which year of study. Through the mediation of Rosa Papier-Pa- probably ended in the winter of 1899/1900. Moreover, umgartner, Anna Bahr-Mildenburg was also able to sing whilst still with Behn, she had a relationship with the for Bernhard Pollini, the director of the former Hamburg critic Ludwig Karpath, Mahler's friend from Budapest State Theatre (today Hamburg State Opera), who was so days. Shortly thereafter she then became the partner of enthusiastic over her ability that he telegraphed to Stae- Siegfried Lipiner, also Mahler's friend of many years' gemann, enticed her away from him and signed her on at standing. According to her diary, she also had a briefer re- the Hamburg Opera for three years beginning on 1 Sep- lationship with Alfred Roller, Mahler's colleague and an tember 1895. Already during her period of study with Ro- ingenious set designer in Vienna. sa Papier-Paumgartner, Anna Bahr-Mildenburg did not allow people to address her by the family name "Bell- Anna Bahr-Mildenburg remained at the Vienna Court schan von Mildenburg", but only by "von Mildenburg" – Opera until 1917 and celebrated great successes there, in- simply because Rosa Papier-Paumgartner found that this cluding her role debut as Isolde in Richard Wagner's was easier to remember. "Tristan und Isolde" on 13 February 1900. Her career was also boosted by the fact that, in 1896, Mahler had al- Having been vocally well trained, Anna Bahr-Mildenburg ready recommended her to Cosima Wagner, who rehear- was nonetheless an absolute novice on the operatic stage sed the role of Kundry in Wagner's "Parsifal" and later of when she started out in Hamburg. This notwithstanding, Isolde. Anna Bahr-Mildenburg made her debut as Kund- as Gustav Mahler later wrote to Natalie Bauer-Lechner, ry at the Bayreuth Festival in 1897 and appeared there "her musical and dramatic genius already radiated from again in 1909, 1911 and 1914. Guest appearances led her everything." For these singing abilities, she found in Gus- to London in 1910 and 1913, to Amsterdam in 1911 and to tav Mahler an ideal mentor to whom she also soon beca- Brussels in 1914. me bound in an intensive love relationship. It cannot be gathered with any certainty from the surviving correspon- Through her instruction from Mahler and Cosima Wag- – 2 – Bahr-Mildenburg, Anna ner (who regularly rehearsed Wagner roles with young ber: IV / 12, 16) In addition, she polemicised with emotio- singers and also directed in Bayreuth), Anna Bahr-Mil- nally laden words against those who – as she expressed denburg acquired a mature dramatic competence; she – wanted to take away her life's content from her. In her especially perfected her talent for interpreting music-dra- diary, she called those who did not invite her to perform matic procedures with impressive acting. as a singer, "murderers, stranglers, withholders of my art", for example, and wished that "God should bring It is nonetheless striking that, alongside this ability, the them to justice". (Diary 1928, shelf number: V / 1, 6) condition of her voice was a frequently discussed subject in the Mildenburg reception from the very outset. Accord- The fact is that she had to sing extremely often from the ing to Willnauer, for example, the files of the Court Ope- beginning of her career in Hamburg onwards (see also ra report Anna Bahr-Mildenburg's unusually frequent re- the compilation of Bahr-Mildenburg's appearances in quests from the "most esteemed Herr Director Mahler" Hamburg in Willnauer, see above, pp. 482ff). According and especially, later on, from his successor Felix von to this, the singer had to perform 19 times just from Sep- Weingartner, that she be permitted to take a holiday for tember until the end of 1895 during her first season.