Clementine Krauss, later Clementine Chmel (25 April 1877 – 18 April 1938) was an Austrian ballerina, actress, opera singer and director. She was a dancer with the Vienna Imperial Opera Ballet until she gave birth to her son,

Clemens Krauss Clemens Heinrich Krauss (31 March 189316 May 1954) was an Austrian conducting, conductor and opera impresario, particularly associated with the music of Richard Strauss, Johann Strauss and Richard Wagner. He founded the Vienna New Year's Concert ...

, at the age of fifteen. Her career then shifted to the theatre, where she performed as a stage actress. After studying music, she became an opera singer and a director at the

Vienna Volksoper The Vienna Volksoper (''Volksoper'' or ''Vienna People's Opera'') is an opera house in Vienna, Austria. It produces three hundred performances of twenty-five German language productions of opera, operetta, musicals, and ballet, during an annual s ...

Family and early life

Krauss was born in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

on 25 April 1877 to Maximilian Krauss and Elisabeth Weber. She was from an artistic family; her sister Helene Krauss was a dancer and mimic at the Vienna Imperial Opera and her aunt was the operatic soprano

Gabrielle Krauss Marie-Gabrielle Krauss (24 March 18426 January 1906) was an important 19th century Austrian-born French operatic soprano. She created major roles in operas by Anton Rubinstein, Charles Gounod, Camille Saint-Saëns, Auguste Mermet, Clémence de Gr ...

. At the age of six, Krauss was sent to study ballet at the Vienna Court Opera's dance school.

Career

In 1888, aged eleven, Krauss joined the Vienna Imperial Opera Ballet as an apprentice. From 1890 to 1892, she was a member of the corps de ballet, and eventually she was promoted to the role of principal ballerina. Her dance career ended after she gave birth to a child, and she became a stage actress. She took speech training with Bernhard Baumeister and became performing on tour in 1894. In 1894 and 1895, she was engaged at the

Lessing Theater The Lessing Theater was a theatre in the Mitte (locality), Mitte district of Berlin, Germany. It opened in 1888 and was destroyed in April 1945 in a Bombing of Berlin in World War II, bombing raid; its ruins were demolished after World War II. ...

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

. She studied singing under

Rosa Papier Rosa Papier, married name ''Paumgartner'' (18 September 1859 in Baden bei Wien – 9 February 1932 in Vienna) was an Austrian people, Austrian operatic soprano and Vocal pedagogy, vocal teacher. Further reading * Ludwig Eisenberg (writer), L ...

and became a celebrated guest on performance tours in

Graz Graz () is the capital of the Austrian Federal states of Austria, federal state of Styria and the List of cities and towns in Austria, second-largest city in Austria, after Vienna. On 1 January 2025, Graz had a population of 306,068 (343,461 inc ...

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

Essen Essen () is the central and, after Dortmund, second-largest city of the Ruhr, the largest urban area in Germany. Its population of makes it the fourth-largest city of North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne, Düsseldorf and Dortmund, as well as ...

, Hermannstadt, and

Olomouc Olomouc (; ) is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 103,000 inhabitants, making it the Statutory city (Czech Republic), sixth largest city in the country. It is the administrative centre of the Olomouc Region. Located on the Morava (rive ...

. From 1908 to 1913, she worked at the

as an operetta singer, stage actress, and stage director.

Personal life

When Krauss was fifteen, and working as a dancer at the Imperial Ballet, she had an affair with Chevalier Hector Baltazzi, a member of a wealthy Greek-Austrian banking family and the brother of Baroness

Helene von Vetsera Baroness Helene von Vetsera (; 1847 – 1 February 1925) was an Austrian noblewoman and socialite. She was the daughter of a wealthy lawyer and financial advisor, and she married Albin Freiherr von Vetsera in 1864. She became a baroness when h ...

. She had a son from their relationship, the conductor and general manager

. She married the opera singer Ottokar Chmel in 1914. After her wedding, she and her husband settled in

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

, where she taught singing lessons. She died on 18 April 1938 in Prague, at the age of 60.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Krauss, Clementine 1877 births 1938 deaths 19th-century Austrian actresses 19th-century Austrian ballet dancers 19th-century Austrian women opera singers Actresses from Vienna Austrian ballerinas Austrian women theatre directors Dancers from Vienna Vienna State Opera