Anna von Mildenburg

Anna von Mildenburg (November 29, 1872 – January 27, 1947) was a Wagnerian soprano. Also known as Anna Bahr-Mildenburg, she was a protege of the composer/conductor Gustav Mahler during his musical directorship in Hamburg. He brought her to Vienna in 1898, where she established herself as one of the great operatic stars during his tenure there.

Anna Bellschan von Mildenburg was born in Vienna. She studied voice with Rosa Papier and Johannes Ress at the Vienna Conservatory and then privately with Cosima Wagner and Mahler, having an affair with the latter which lasted until 1897.

She took her first position in 1895 at the Hamburg State Opera, singing the role of Brünnhilde under the direction of Mahler. In 1897, she performed the role of Kundry in Parsifal at the Bayreuth Festival.

In 1898 Mahler brought her to the Vienna State Opera, where she experienced enormous success. In her first year there she earned 14,000 gulden (about €112,000 in 2008). Her stature at the opera equaled that of Mahler, who was then music director there. She performed at the Vienna State Opera until 1917. Among her most celebrated performances during this tenure was a performance of Isolde in Tristan and Isolde under Mahler's direction.

From 1922 to 1927 von Mildenburg was a guest performer at the Salzburg Festival, appearing in Hugo von Hofmannsthal's "Das Salzburger grosse Welttheater". In 1929 she taught at the International Mozarteum Summer Academy in Salzburg.

Together with her husband, the Austrian writer, playwright and critic Hermann Bahr, she is buried in a place of honor in the Salzburg Community Cemetery. Only one recording by her is known to have survived. It consists of part of the aria "Ocean! thou mighty monster", sung in German, from "Oberon" by Carl Maria von Weber. Made in 1904, the recording has been reissued on CD. It substantiates her reputation as a top-class singer of power and authority.

References

Some of the information in this article comes from the German-language Wikipedia article. See also "The Record of Singing" by Michael Scott, Volume One (Duckworth, London, 1977), for a synopsis of von Mildenburg's career and an assessment of her singing.