Open Features: Pauline de Ahna
Peter Wintersgill presents a potted biography of the singer Pauline de Ahna.
Born
1863 in Ingoldstadt, Germany.
Father
A general.
Adult life
In 1894 Pauline de Ahna married Richard Strauss, who wrote many of his songs for her. In Weimar in the same year she created the role of Freihild in his opera Guntram. Christine in his Intermezzo is a portait of his wife, as less directly are several of his operatic heroines.
Known for her waspish tongue, Pauline de Ahna's coquettish nature is portrayed in Strauss's Eim Heldenleben & Symphonia Domestica.
She died in 1950 in Garmish aged 47.
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