Schröder-Devrient Wilhelmine, *6 December 1804 Hamburg, †26 January 1860 Coburg, German singer (soprano). She grew up in a theatrical environment.; her father was Friedrich Schröder (1759–1818), singer (baritone), who was the first German performer of the title role in W.A. Mozart’s Don Giovanni (Mainz, 1789); her mother was Sophie Bürger-Schröder (1781–1868), singer (soprano), and later a famous actress in Burgtheater in Vienna; from an early age they prepared Schröder-Devrient for a stage career. In the beginning, she performed in dramatic roles (including the role of Ophelia in Shakespeare’s Hamlet). She later studied voice with G. Mozatti and G. Radichi in Vienna, where she began her singing career. There she made her stage debut at the Kärntnertortheater in 1821 as Pamina in Mozart’s The Magic Flute. In 1822 she made a successful performance in C.M. von Weber’s The Marksman under the baton of the composer, as, in his opinion, “the best Agatha” and in Beethoven’s Fidelio, delivering a historic creation of Leonore, not only impressed the composer, but also opened the door for Schröder-Devrient to a European career. She was prima donna of the Hofoper Dresden from 1823–47. In 1828 she sang as a guest on the stage of the Hofoper in Berlin. She made her debut at the Grand Opéra in Paris in 1830 with the roles of Agatha and Leonore (6 and 8 May), and in 1831–32 appeared alongside M. Malibran in Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Rossini’s Otello at the Théâtre Italien in Paris. In 1832–33 and 1837 she sang on the stage of the King’s Theatre in London, including Fidelio (Leonore), Don Giovanni (Donna Anna), H. Chelard’s Makbet (Lady Makbeth), Otello (Desdemona), The Sleepwalker (Amina), and V. Bellini’s Norma (title role). She had her most vivid stage and concert career in Germany; on the stage of Hoftheater in Drezno she appeared in operas written by authors, such as: C.M. von Weber (as Rezia in german premiere of Oberon, 1828; and as the title Euryanthe), L. Spohr (Jessonda), L. Cherubini (Faniska), G. Spontini (Olympia); she also performed in the premieres of R. Wagner’s operas – as Adriano (Rienzi, 1842), as Senta (The Flying Dutchman, 1843) and as Venus (Tannhäuser, 1845). Furthermore, she appeared, among others, in Berlin, Leipzig, Magdeburg and Wrocław, where, at the concert in the Breslauer Theater (27 IV 1836), she sang the part of Małgorzata in A.H. Radziwiłł’s Faust. In 1847 she ended her theatrical career performing the title role of C.W. Gluck’s Iphigénie en Aulide, limiting her career to appearing only as herself. For her participation in the May Uprising in Dresden in 1849, she – like R. Wagner – was exiled from Saxony; this decision was later reversed. Her last public performance took place at a recital in Berlin in 1856.
Schröder-Devrient made a breakthrough in operatic performance art. In Germany, she was compared with A. Patti, whereas in England she was hailed as the successor to M. Malibran; Schröder’s vocal qualities and technique were similar to them, but her dramatic talent was immeasurably superior. She was the first singer who consciously transformed a role with acting techniques into a stage character of unprecedented expressiveness and impact. She was admired, among others, by L. v. Beethoven, C. M. von Weber, I. Moscheles, R. Schumann (he dedicated Ich grolle nicht even intended to write an opera for her) and J. W. Goethe, whom she convinced to the works of F. Schubert with her performance of Erlkönig in Weimar (1830). Schröder-Devrient had a decisive influence on the work of R. Wagner; her creation of Leonora in Fidelio in 1829 moved the composer. “Any one who can remember that wonderful woman at this period of her life must to some extent have experienced the almost Satanic ardour which the intensely human art of this incomparable actress poured into his veins. After the performance I […] wrote a short note to the singer, in which I briefly told her that from that moment my life had acquired its true significance, and that if in days to come she should ever hear my name praised in the world of Art, she must remember that she had that evening made me what I then swore it was my destiny to become.” (My Life, German original title Mein Leben, Munich, 1911) The turbulent professional and emotional life of Schröder-Devrient, who was married three times (her first marriage to Karl Devrient produced a son, Friedrich, who also became an actor), gave rise to various suspicions and slanders. One such rumour is the attribution to Schröder-Devrient of the authorship of the celebrated erotic literature title Memoiren einer Sängerin (Altona, 1861). Despite the publisher’s acknowledged forgery, Wspomnienia śpiewaczki continues to appear, for example in Poland, under her name.
Literature: C. v. Glümer Erinnerungen an Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient, Leipzig 1862, 3rd edition 1905; A. v. Wolzogen Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient, Leipzig 1863; R. Wagner Über Schauspieler und Sänger (with dedication „Dem Andenken der grossen Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient”), Leipzig 1872; G. Bonacci Guglielmina Schröder-Devrient e Gaspare Spontini, „Nuova antologia” CXC, 1903; C. Hagemann Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient, Berlin 1904, new edition 1947; J. Bab Die Devrients, Berlin 1932; A. Pohl Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient, „Zeitschrift für Musik” XCI, 1935; M. Walter Tragödin und Sängerin, published in: Miszellen zur Musikgeschichte, edited by H. Ehinger, H.P. Schanzlin, Bern 1967.
