The German soprano and mezzo-soprano, whose remarkable stage career spanned several decades, was closely associated with Walter Felsenstein’s Komische Oper Berlin and appeared for seven seasons at the Bayreuth Festival.
German opera singer Anny Schlemm, whose long career took her from lyric soprano roles to some of the great dramatic and character parts of the mezzo-soprano repertoire, has died at the age of 97.
Schlemm died in Graz, Austria. Her death was reported on August 22.
Born in Neu-Isenburg, near Frankfurt, on February 22, 1929, Schlemm grew up in a musical family. Her father, Franz Schlemm, was a chorister at the Frankfurt Opera. After studying singing, she began her professional career in Halle in the 1940s before moving to Berlin, where she became a member of the Staatsoper and was also engaged by Walter Felsenstein’s Komische Oper.
Her association with Felsenstein became one of the defining chapters of her career. At the Komische Oper, she appeared as Desdemona in Verdi’s Otello and as Boulotte in Offenbach’s Ritter Blaubart, one of her signature roles. She performed Boulotte more than 250 times over the following years.
From 1951, Schlemm was also closely associated with Oper Frankfurt while developing an extensive career as a guest artist. Her appearances took her to major European houses and festivals including Munich, Hamburg, Stuttgart, Glyndebourne, the Paris Opéra, the Holland Festival and the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples.
In 1985, she appeared at London’s Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, as Madelon in Giordano’s Andrea Chénier, in a cast that included Plácido Domingo, Anna Tomowa-Sintow and Giorgio Zancanaro.
From soprano to mezzo
One of the most distinctive features of Schlemm’s career was the evolution of her voice and repertoire. Having begun with lyric soprano roles, she gradually moved into dramatic soprano and mezzo-soprano territory, while becoming particularly admired for her abilities as a singing actress.
Her later repertoire included Herodias in Richard Strauss’s Salome, Klytemnästra in Elektra, the Kostelnička in Janáček’s Jenůfa and the Old Countess in Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades.
At the Bayreuth Festival, Schlemm appeared as Mary in Wagner’s Der fliegende Holländer over seven seasons: from 1978 to 1982 and again in 1984 and 1985.
Her career continued well beyond the age at which most singers leave the stage. During the 1990s, she was still appearing in roles including Filipyevna in Eugene Onegin, the Old Countess in The Queen of Spades and the Nurse in Berthold Goldschmidt’s Der gewaltige Hahnrei.
Over a career of exceptional longevity, Schlemm moved across opera and operetta and from Mozart and Verdi to Wagner, Richard Strauss and Janáček, leaving a particularly strong legacy in the German-speaking operatic world.
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