A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Wagner, Johanna
WAGNER, Johanna, niece of Richard Wagner, was born at Hanover, October 13, 1828, daughter of Albert Wagner, a dramatic tenor. He married Elise Gollmann, with a voice of the abnormal compass of three octaves and two notes, who in her very short career is said to have sung the parts of Tancredi and of the Queen of Night, with equal fulness of tone.
Richard Wagner and his brother Albert lived together in Wurzburg during the whole of 1833. Johanna, then only five, sang everything she heard; and her uncle, in after years, would often quote her childish version of the words of operas. She appeared at six as Salome in the 'Donauweibchen.' In 1843 her uncle heard her sing the part of Myrrha in Winter's 'Unterbrochene Opferfest,' and in May 1844 obtained a temporary engagement for her at the Royal Opera at Dresden, where he was preparing the first performance of his 'Rienzi.' Though but sixteen she had such success as Irma in 'Maurer und Schlosser,' and Agathe in the 'Freischütz,' that she was not only engaged for three years, but the management paid the fine necessary to release her from her contract at the Ducal Theatre at Bernburg. She spent the summer with her uncle near Dresden, studying his Tannhäuser, scene by scene, as he composed it, and had the honour of creating the part of Elizabeth when only seventeen. Her uncle had intended the first performance to take place on her seventeenth birthday, but the illness of a singer postponed it until Oct. 21, 1845. However, when his friends assembled at his house for supper that night, Johanna found, hidden under her napkin, a little gold bracelet engraved with her name and the date, a proof of his satisfaction with her performance which will always be her greatest treasure. Such hopes were founded upon the talents of the young singer that the King of Saxony sent her to Paris to study under Garcia. She left Dresden Feb. 1, 1847, accompanied by her father, who until then had been her instructor. Returning in six months she appeared as Norma, singing in Italian, her uncle conducting. She now added to her repertoire Fidelio, Valentine, Adriano, Susanna, Reiza, Favorita, Donna Anna, Recha, Euryanthe, Ernani, Sextus, Weisse Dame, etc. Her uncle's part in the revolutionary troubles of 1849, and consequent exile, making it unpleasant for her to remain in Dresden, she accepted an engagement at Hamburg; there she created the first German Fides in the 'Prophete,' and sang it fifty times in succession. In 1850 she was permanently engaged at the Royal Opera House in Berlin, with an exceptional contract giving her six months leave each year. King Frederick William IV. and his Queen thoroughly appreciated her talent, and she frequently sang for them in private, accompanied by Meyerbeer, whose faithful friendship she enjoyed from the day he first heard her sing.
In 1852 she came to England, but owing to a lawsuit concerning her contract, she was precluded from singing at either of the opera-houses. In 1856 she appeared at Her Majesty's Theatre, as Tancredi, Lucrezia Borgia, and Romeo. Of the latter, Mr. Lumley, in his 'Reminiscences,' writes:—'Was it possible to listen and not feel every hostile feeling crushed? Gifted with a voice combining the resources of soprano and contralto in one—or rather with two voices (wrote one able critic); a well-accentuated style of declamation; endowed with a grace which made every attitude a pictorial study, no wonder that Mlle. Johanna Wagner took the house by storm.'
In 1859 she married Herr Landrath Jachmann, and two years later had the misfortune to lose her voice suddenly and completely. She then bravely entered upon a second artistic career, as an actress, her very exceptional gifts enabling her to do so with brilliant success. This lasted for eleven years, at the same Theatre at Berlin. Her new répertoire included Marie Stuart, Queen Elizabeth, Lady Macbeth, Antigone, Phædra, Isabella (Bride of Messina), Maid of Orleans, Hermione, Medea, Sappho, etc. In 1870–71, at the request of Grafinn von Roon, wife of the Minister for War, she joined the Red Cross Society, and spent nine months in tending the wounded in the State Hospitals at Berlin. In 1872 she took leave of the stage as Iphigenia, amidst many honours; the Emperor in person presenting her with the Gold Medal for Arts and Sciences. Meantime her voice had returned to a great extent, and on May 22, 1872, at her uncle's request, she went to Bayreuth, to take part in the performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, which he gave to celebrate the laying of the first stone to his theatre there. She sang the solo alto part, as she had done on Palm Sunday twenty-six years before, at his performance of the same Symphony at Dresden. In 1876, at the opening at [App. p.814 "for at read of"] the Wagner Theatre at Bayreuth, she took the minor parts of Walküre and Norn [App. p.814 "for Walküure and Norn read Schwertleite and First Norn"], only regretting she was not able to serve her uncle in a greater part.
However, in 1882 a new sphere of artistic usefulness was opened to her. Baron von Perfall, Intendant of the Royal Opera at Munich, offered her the Professorship of Dramatic Singing, in the Royal School of Music there. This appointment she accepted (to quote her own words) 'in the hope of training young artists in the spirit and traditions of her uncle, to be worthy interpreters of his works.'