Johanna Jachmann-Wagner or Johanna Wagner (13 October 1828 – 16 October 1894) was a mezzo-soprano singer, tragédienne in theatrical drama, and teacher of singing and theatrical performance who won great distinction in Europe during the third quarter of the 19th century. She was a niece of the composer Richard Wagner and was the original performer, and in some respects the inspiration, of the character of Elisabeth in Tannhäuser. She was also the original intended performer of Brünnhilde in Der Ring des Nibelungen, but in the event assumed other roles.
Early career
Johanna Wagner was born in Seelze, Hanover. She was the natural daughter of a soldier named Bock von Wülfingen, and was adopted by Albert Wagner (1799–1874) (eldest brother of Richard) and his wife Elise (1800–1864). They had two other daughters. From Seelze the family moved to Würzburg in 1830, where both parents worked in the Royal Bavarian Theatre, father being an actor, singer and stage-manager. She received piano lessons from her mother, a Roman Catholic, and sang duets with the Landgräfin of Hessen, who took singing lessons from her father. Richard Wagner visited in 1833 (while composing Die Feen) and often accompanied her singing Carl Loewe's ballad "Edward". Johanna knew the young Marie Seebach (later wife of Wagnerian singer Albert Niemann), who attended the same confirmation class.
She showed aptitude for the stage as a child. Owing to poor health she went to stay with her aunt Christine Gley, a singer and mother of the Vienna actress (1809–1866). In 1842 she accepted a contract as actress at Bernburg and Ballenstedt, and her father undertook her training as a singer. After appearing as a page in the new opera Les Huguenots at Ballenstedt, she began to give concerts with much success. In Bernburg she gained favourable notice by standing in to take the role of Marguerite de Valois in a performance attended by Duke Leopold.
The managing director moved his company to Halle during the summer, and Johanna studied Friedrich Schiller roles for the theatre, and operatic roles with her father in Daniel Auber's Maurer und Schlosser, Albert Lortzing's Der Wildschütz and in Don Giovanni. Her first important operatic appearance was as Catherina Cornaro in Fromental Halévy's La reine de Chypre. In May 1844 Richard Wagner arranged an audition for her at the Dresden Royal Opera, where she gave guest appearances in these operas and received a three-year contract, being engaged as a Royal Saxon Kammersängerin before the age of 18.
Dresden and Paris
At the time of her arrival in 1844, Dresden had recently witnessed the world premieres of Rienzi (1842) and Der fliegende Holländer (1843), and the singers Josef Tichatschek (tenor, the first Rienzi)), the baritone Anton Mitterwurzer, bass , and the celebrated dramatic soprano Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient (the original Adriano and Senta) were the principals with whom she worked. The latter (whom Johanna had first met in Ballenstedt) was an especially inspiring example, and Tichatschek became a lifelong friend. She also befriended Ferdinand Heine, an actor with great knowledge of theatrical costume, and Countess Helene Kaminska, who made several portraits of her.
Johanna studied several roles with her uncle, especially Irene in Rienzi, and as her family moved to the city they became part of Richard Wagner's circle there. As he was now composing Tannhäuser, following his new musical conceptions, Johanna and Tichatschek sang the music of Elisabeth and Tannhäuser for him as it evolved. He had intended to premiere the opera to mark her 17th birthday, 13 October 1845, but she was ill, which forced its postponement for six days. The first performance, on 19 October, a six-hour staging beside Devrient as Venus, and with Dettmer and Mitterwurzer, was followed by a shortened version, with altogether eight repeats by the following January.
In 1846, after singing excerpts from Christoph Willibald Gluck's Orpheus in concert, with financial support from the King of Saxony she left for Paris to study with Manuel Patricio Rodríguez García (and/or with Pauline García-Viardot) for whom she sang Agathe's first aria in Der Freischütz to audition. After hearing Giulia Grisi as Norma she studied the role with him (in Italian), and also Valentine in Les Huguenots (in French), though his attempt to teach her Rosina met with less success. He suggested she should sing in Paris: she declined, but while there she saw Frédéric Chopin play, saw Rachel as Jean Racine's Phèdre, and Habeneck conduct Ludwig van Beethoven's 7th Symphony. At the end of the year she returned to Dresden, to perform Norma and Valentine, under a new contract.