Antonia Mielke

Antonie Mielke, sometimes given as Antonia Mielke (14 April 1856 – 15 November 1907), was a German soprano who had an active international career in operas and concerts. She was particularly celebrated for her interpretations of characters in Richard Wagner's stage works. She then was active as a guest singer at opera houses in Berlin, Cologne, Strasbourg, and Würzburg, before being hired by Franz von Jauner to the roster of principal artist at the Vienna Hofoper to fill the vacancy left by Marie Wilt. She was hired to replace Lilli Lehmann's position with the company. The New York Times wrote in its review of her Met debut:Frau Antonia Mielke made her first appearance before an American audience as Elizabeth. She comes from the Stadt Theatre of Cologne, where she is a great favorite. She is a dramatic soprano with a rich, powerful, and resonant voice. It is not so mellow a voice as that of Lilli Lehmann, but it is equally forcible and somewhat more penetrating. Frau Mielke is unquestionably an experienced and splendidly trained artist. Her phrasing is most admirable, especially in recitative passages, which she read last night with splendid intelligence and true eloquence. Her cantabile is broad and expressive, and in her first scene last evening she moved her audience to enthusiasm and gave promise of ability to handle such roles as Brünnhilde in an impressive manner. She is a tall and dignified woman, who treads the stage with fine poise and shows the results of experience and study as an actress.

Mielke was celebrated in New York in the dramatic soprano repertoire. Her final performance at the Met was in a concert honoring the Met's director Edmund C. Stanton on 9 April 1891. She also appeared in New York as Kundry in Wagner's Parsifal at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in March 1891 with Anton Seidl conducting. In May 1891 she toured to Boston with the Met to perform the part of Leonora in the fourth act of Verdi's Il trovatore which was performed in German at Boston Music Hall. Victor Herbert conducted the concert, which also included excerpts from operas by other Italian composers. Boston critic Philip Hale, while acknowledging her earlier success in Boston singing Wagner, was particularly critical of Mielke's singing in the Italian repertoire.

In March 1891 Mielke sang a program of excerpts from operas by Wagner with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, tenor Andreas Dippel, and conductor Arthur Nikisch for performances at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia, the Concordia Opera House in Baltimore, Lincoln Music Hall in Washington, D.C., and Boston Music Hall. In May 1891 she participated in The Damrosch Festival which was created to inaugurate the newly built Carnegie Hall (CH) in a series of concerts presented over a five day period from 5 May 1891 through 9 May 1891. Mielke performed in the second concert performed at the CH, She later repeated Elijah at Pittsburgh's May Festival later that month.

In late May 1891 Mielke left the United States for Germany. By April 1892 she was back in New York City performing in concerts with the New York Symphony Orchestra led by Walter Damrosch. She returned to the Metropolitan Opera House that same month to sing with the Met's orchestra led by Anton Seidl in a benefit concert for the YWCA. She also gave a concert under Seidl at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on 3 May 1892, in which she performed opera excerpts with Dippel and Fischer. The following day she went to Boston to sing the part of Kundry in both matinee and evening performances of Parsifal at the Boston Music Hall under conductor Benjamin Johnson Lang. Later in the month she was a soloist with the New York Philharmonic for performances at the Cincinnati May Festival and the Rochester Music Festival.

In 1892 Mielke sang the recitative and aria "Ocean, thou mighty monster" from Weber's Oberon in the 50th anniversary concert of the New York Philharmonic (NYP), a concert which recreated the program presented by the NYP (then called the Philharmonic Society of New York) for its very first concert in 1842.

Later life and career In October 1892 Mielke performed at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich and was briefly under consideration as a replacement for Therese Vogl, who had just retired from that theatre. Following this she successfully obtained a position as the prima donna at the Breslau Opera House where she sang from 1892-1895. She left there to join the roster of principal singers at the where she was in residence for the 1895–1896 season. From 1896 to 1898 she was a leading soprano at the . After this she was at the Cologne Opera House again, in 1899–1900, and in March 1900 she performed the role of Selika in L'Africaine at the Strasbourg Opera House.

Mielke died in Berlin on 15 November 1907 at the age of 51.