Caroline Willmann (full name Maria Anna Magdalena Caroline Willmann; 25 February 1796 – c. 1860) was a German operatic soprano, and in her early career a pianist. She was one of a family of musicians.

Life

Caroline was the daughter of Johann Ignaz Willmann (1739–1815), a musician, playing flute, violin and cello; and his second wife Marianne de Tribolet, an opera singer. Caroline was the half-sister of

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and

Magdalena Willmann Johanna Magdalena Willmann (13 September 1771 – 23 December 1801) was a German soprano, one of a family of musicians. She appeared in Bonn and at the court opera in Vienna. Life Willmann's father, Johann Ignaz Willmann (1739–1815) was a musicia ...

."Willmann, Familie"
''Oesterreichisches Musiklexikon online'', 15 May 2006. Retrieved 21 February 2023. She was a pupil of

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. An early appearance in a concert in Kassel with her mother in February 1811 was reviewed in the ''

Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung The ''Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung'' (''General music newspaper'') was a German-language periodical published in the 19th century. Comini (2008) has called it "the foremost German-language musical periodical of its time". It reviewed musical e ...

'': "As a pianist, she has several times received well-earned applause. On this occasion she appeared for the first time as a singer in a grand and effective scena; the execution and fine intonation already acquired, under the instruction of her mother, justify the expectation that, if she so continues, we shall have in her a very fine singer. She deserves all encouragement, and received it in loud applause". After her mother's death, she sang in

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, at the court opera in Vienna, and in Breslau (now

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Alexander Wheelock Thayer Alexander Wheelock Thayer (October 22, 1817 – July 15, 1897) was an American librarian and journalist who became the author of the first scholarly biography of Ludwig van Beethoven, still after many updatings regarded as a standard work of refer ...

wrote: "Her voice—she was but eighteen years old—was not powerful, but very pure and sweet, except in the middle tones, and of remarkable extent in the upper register." At Breslau, wrote Thayer, "the great beauty of her voice, its excellent cultivation by her mother and Blangini, her fine taste, her charming acting and her beauty, made her a general favourite." In 1816 to 1818 she appeared at the

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in Vienna; roles included the Queen of the Night and Elvira in Mozart's operas ''

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'' and ''

Don Giovanni ''Don Giovanni'' (; K. 527; Vienna (1788) title: , literally ''The Rake Punished, or Don Giovanni'') is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. Its subject is a centuries-old Spanis ...

''. She appeared in 1819 in Munich and Stuttgart, 1820 in Dresden, 1823 in Kassel, and 1825 in Berlin; Thayer commented "with varied success"."Willmann, (Maria Anna Magdalena) Caroline"
''Sophie Drinker Institut''. Retrieved 21 February 2023. Her life after 1825 is mostly unrecorded; she is known to have been a singing teacher in

Bayreuth Bayreuth (, ; bar, Bareid) is a town in northern Bavaria, Germany, on the Red Main river in a valley between the Franconian Jura and the Fichtelgebirge Mountains. The town's roots date back to 1194. In the 21st century, it is the capital of U ...

in 1830. She is thought to have died in Vienna about 1860.

References

Attribution * {{DEFAULTSORT:Willmann, Caroline 1796 births 1860 deaths German operatic sopranos 19th-century German women opera singers