Johanna Geisler

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Johanna Geisler
Kroll Oper
Spouse
​
(m. 1919)​
Children3, including Werner Klemperer

Johanna Geisler, or Geissler (born Johanne Elisabeth Meyer; 28 May 1888 – 3 November 1956), was a German operatic

Kroll Oper in Berlin in 1927. When he had to leave Germany in 1933, she and the children followed, to Zürich
, to Los Angeles from 1935 to 1947, then Budapest, and finally Zürich again.

Life and career

Johanne Elisabeth Meyer was born in

Theater Dessau in 1905 and the Theatre in Wiesbaden the following year, singing in the opera chorus.[1][2] In 1906, at age 18, she gave birth to a daughter, Carla, whose father, an officer, was not willing to marry her.[6] Her widowed foster mother moved in with her.[1] Unlike her own mother, Geisler raised her daughter herself,[7] but passed her in society as her little sister.[1][4][8] A second child, born when she was 21, died shortly afterwards. In Wiesbaden she occasionally sang small solo roles, of servants and maids.[4]

Mainz

With the 1912/13 season, Geisler became a member of the

Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor. The theatre's records show her busy in 23 of the 44 productions of the 1915/16 season alone.[1] Her last performance there was appearing as all three women Hoffmann loves in Offenbach's Hoffmanns Erzählungen.[9]

Cologne

On 1 September 1916, Geisler began at the

Die Zauberflöte, Micaela in Bizet's Carmen and Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos by Richard Strauss.[2] In 1917 Otto Klemperer conducted Beethoven's Fidelio in Cologne, with her as Marzelline. In the winter of 1918, she had a relationship with the baritone Friedrich Schorr, which was close enough for him to expect her to marry him.[10] Klemperer, born into a Jewish family, converted to the Catholic Church. He spent the Holy Week of 1919 at Maria Laach Abbey, where he composed a setting of the mass, Missa sacra. Geisler visited him there.[10]

Johanna Geisler and Otto Klemperer, c. 1920

It is unknown when they decided to get married. Marianne Klemperer, the conductor's sister, described her as with "a very lively face with expressive nose and lips, but not particularly slender", and later "she must have nerves of steel, she has a lot of humour and is very jolly".[5] They married on 16 June 1919 in a Jesuit chapel in Cologne, with a small group of family and friends attending, including the philosopher Max Scheler. After the ceremony, they performed together in a private rehearsal of the Missa sacra[11] at the Gürzenich [de].[12] The couple had two children, Werner, born in 1920,[13] who became an actor,[14] and Lotte, born in 1923.[9]

With her husband as chief conductor in Cologne, she appeared in leading roles of a broad repertoire including Mozart's Despina in

Baden-Baden Music Festival.[2]

Berlin

When Otto Klemperer moved to the

Hänsel und Gretel[9] to Leipzig, Trier, Riga and Reval. Her natural voice, never professionally trained, weakened,[4] also due to her "incautious willingness" to take a wide range of heavy roles.[5] She rarely performed after a vocal crisis.[2]

Geisler had shown talent for acting early, and therefore had performed not only solo roles from the chorus, but also acted in dramas.

Ludwig der Zweite, König von Bayern.[20]

Exile

Under the Nazi regime, Geisler's family had to leave Germany. They moved to Zürich, Switzerland, in 1933, and in 1935 to the U.S. after Klemperer accepted the offer to become chief conductor of the Los Angeles Symphony.[1] They returned to Europe in 1947, where he was director of the Hungarian State Opera until 1950.[9] In the 1950s, the family settled in Zürich again.[1]

Johanna Klemperer died in a hospital in

Wenn ich einmal soll scheiden" were performed at her funeral.[21]

Legacy

The only recording of Geisler's voice dates to 1932 when she performed in a broadcast of Julius Bittner's Das höllisch Gold [de] as the Old Woman, conducted by Erich Kleiber. The recording is only partially preserved. In 1983, her youngest daughter published a book about her mother's youth up to her marriage to Klemperer in 1919, Die Personalakten der Johanna Geisler [de].[2] Eva Weissweiler wrote a biography of Otto Klemperer, published in 2010, which also covered his relationship with his wife, who is described as a "great singer and loyal companion" ("großartige Sängerin und treue Gefährtin").[22]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Weickart 2012.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Kutsch & Riemens 2012.
  3. ^ a b Klemperer 1983, p. 13.
  4. ^ a b c d e f Meurs 2015.
  5. ^ a b c Heyworth 1996, p. 137.
  6. ^ Klemperer 1983, p. 30.
  7. ^ Klemperer 1983, pp. 14, 32.
  8. ^ Heyworth 1996, p. 139.
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i Bruggemann & Unger 2023.
  10. ^ a b Heyworth 1996, p. 136.
  11. ^ Steege 2021.
  12. ^ a b Heyworth 1996, p. 171.
  13. ^ Heyworth 1996, p. 143.
  14. ^ Mahler 2023.
  15. ^ McQuaid 2020.
  16. ^ Casaglia, Gherardo (2005). "Der Zwerg, 28 May 1922". L'Almanacco di Gherardo Casaglia (in Italian).
  17. ^ Klemperer 1983, p. 137.
  18. ^ Otto Klemperer: Über Musik und Theater, Berlin 1982; quoted after Eva Weissweiler 2010, p. 132.
  19. ^ Klemperer 1983, p. 138.
  20. ^ Filmportal 2023.
  21. ^ LOC 2005.
  22. ^ Lessmann 2010.

Cited sources

  • Bruggemann, Dick; Unger, Werner (2023). "Otto Klemperer / Curriculum vitae" (PDF). archiphon.de. Retrieved 6 March 2023.
  • Heyworth, Peter (1996). Otto Klemperer: Volume 1, 1885-1933: His Life and Times.
    ISBN 978-0-52-149509-7
    .
  • Klemperer, Lotte (1983). Die Personalakten der Johanna Geisler. Frankfurt:
    ISBN 3-596-25626-7
    .
  • ISBN 978-3-59-844088-5
    .
  • Lessmann, Ulla (November 2010). "Ein Hypnotiseur am Pulte". Neue Musikzeitung. Retrieved 11 March 2023.
  • McQuaid, Chris (2020). My Travels with Wagner. Strategic Book Publishing & Rights Agency. p. 171.
    ISBN 978-1-68-235319-6
    .
  • Meurs, Norbert (13 September 2015). "SWR2 Zeitwort / 23.09.1903" (PDF). SWR. Retrieved 9 March 2023.
  • Steege, Benjamin (2021). "Worldhood and World War I". An Unnatural Attitude: Phenomenology in Weimar Musical Thought.
    ISBN 978-0-22-676303-3
    .
  • Weickart, Eva (2012). "Blick auf Mainzer Frauengeschichte" (PDF) (in German). Mainz. p. 34. Retrieved 6 March 2023.
  • "Ludwig der Zweite, König von Bayern". Filmportal (in German). 2023. Retrieved 7 March 2023.
  • "Otto Klemperer Archive / Guides to Special Collections in the Music Division of the Library of Congress" (PDF). Library of Congress. 2005. Retrieved 11 March 2023.
  • "Otto Klemperer (1885-1973)". Mahler Foundation. 2023. Retrieved 9 March 2023.

Further reading

  • Hiltrud Schroeder [de] (ed.): Sophie & Co. Bedeutende Frauen Hannovers. Biographische Portraits. Hannover: Fackelträger-Verlag, 1991, ISBN 3-7716-1521-6, p. 234f.
  • Hugo Thielen: Geissler, Johanna. In: Hannoversches Biographisches Lexikon. Hannover 2002, ISBN 3-87706-706-9, p. 126.
  • Eva Weissweiler: Otto Klemperer. Ein deutsch-jüdisches Künstlerleben. Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 2010, ISBN 978-3-462-04179-8.

External links

Media related to Johanna Geisler at Wikimedia Commons

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