21 Facts About Johanna Geisler

Johanna Geisler appeared as Johanna Klemperer and under stage names Johanna Klee and Hanne Klee.

Johanna Geisler began her career as a member of the opera chorus of the Hofoper Hannover in 1903, and had a solo engagement at the Mainz Municipal Theatre from 1912.

Johanna Geisler moved on to the Cologne Opera where she met her future husband, the conductor Otto Klemperer.

Johanna Geisler followed him to the Kroll Oper in Berlin in 1927.

Johanna Geisler was raised by elderly poor foster parents by the name of Geisler, and she took their name.

Johanna Geisler sang in a church choir as a child, where she was recommended to volunteer at the theatre chorus.

Johanna Geisler was able to present 14 parts from opera choruses in an audition.

Johanna Geisler's contract called for readiness to perform a new part within three days, and required her to supply her own costumes.

Johanna Geisler's voice was trained by O Suesse and Clara Schroeder-Kaminsky.

Johanna Geisler left her foster parents a year later, and moved to the Theater Dessau in 1905 and the Theatre in Wiesbaden the following year, singing in the opera chorus.

Unlike her own mother, Geisler raised her daughter herself, but passed her in society as her little sister.

Johanna Geisler sang both minor and larger roles, such as Papagena in Mozart's Die Zauberflote and the title role in Jarno's operetta Die Forsterchristl, participating in Wagner's Gotterdammerung and Nicolai's Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor.

On 1 September 1916, Johanna Geisler began at the Cologne Opera, where she was successful in roles such as the Queen of the Night in Mozart's Die Zauberflote, Micaela in Bizet's Carmen and Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos by Richard Strauss.

Johanna Geisler spent the Holy Week of 1919 at Maria Laach Abbey, where he composed a setting of the mass, Missa sacra.

Johanna Geisler was very successful as Marietta in the world premiere of Korngold's Die tote Stadt on 4 December 1920, an opera that had a simultaneous premiere at the Hamburg Opera.

Johanna Geisler was the soprano soloist when Klemperer conducted the first public performance of his Missa sacra on 13 May 1923.

Johanna Geisler performed there, sometimes using the pseudonym Hanne Klee, roles including Susanna, Donna Elvira, Marzelline, Verdi's Luisa Miller, Marie in Smetana's The Bartered Bride, Puccini's Madama Butterfly, Hindemith's Helene again, and Adele in Die Fledermaus by Johann Strauss.

Johanna Geisler toured with a company named Deutsche Musikbuhne as Mozart's Countess and the Witch in Humperdinck's Hansel und Gretel to Leipzig, Trier, Riga and Reval.

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

Under the Nazi regime, Johanna Geisler's family had to leave Germany.

Johanna Geisler Klemperer died in a hospital in Munich on 3 November 1956.