Katharina Klafsky by Bieber (1)

Katharina Klafsky (1855-1896); Hungarian soprano.
In 1874 she started her career as a choir singer at the “Komischen Oper Wien”. After further singing studies, in 1876 she was engaged at the “Opernhaus von Leipzig”, were she sang comprimario roles. She continued her singing study with various teachers and finally the famous teacher Mathilde Marchesi –who was convinced of her great talent- gave her free singing lessons. In 1879 she became “First soprano” at Leipzig. From 1883/86 she was engaged at the “Stadttheater von Bremen” and from 1886/95 at the “Stadttheater von Hamburg”. She made guest appearances at Berlin, Vienna and London (as Wellgunde and Waltraute in Wagner’s Ring-cycle). In the season 1895/96 she sang with the Damrosch Opera Company in the USA. At the end of this tour she was engaged by the Metropolitan Opera of New York for the next season, but this was prevented by her sudden death on September 11, 1896 at the age of 41.
She married three times; her first husband was a merchant called Liebermann, her second husband the baritone Franz Greve (1844-1892) and her third husband the conductor Otto Lohse (1858-1925).

On the photo she is seen as Isolde in Wagner's "Tristan und Isolde".