Clementine Krauss

Clementine Krauss, later Clementine Chmel (25 April 1877 – 18 April 1938) was an Austrian ballerina, actress, opera singer and director. She was a dancer with the Vienna Imperial Opera Ballet until she gave birth to her son, Clemens Krauss, at the age of fifteen. Her career then shifted to the theatre, where she performed as a stage actress. After studying music, she became an opera singer and a director at the Vienna Volksoper.

Family and early life Krauss was born in Vienna on 25 April 1877 to Maximilian Krauss and Elisabeth Weber. She was from an artistic family; her sister Helene Krauss was a dancer and mimic at the Vienna Imperial Opera and her aunt was the operatic soprano Gabrielle Krauss.

Career In 1888, aged eleven, Krauss joined the Vienna Imperial Opera Ballet as an apprentice. She studied singing under Rosa Papier and became a celebrated guest on performance tours in Graz, Cologne, Essen, Hermannstadt, and Olomouc.

Personal life When Krauss was fifteen, and working as a dancer at the Imperial Ballet, she had an affair with Chevalier Hector Baltazzi, a member of a wealthy Greek-Austrian banking family and the brother of Baroness Helene von Vetsera. After her wedding, she and her husband settled in Prague, where she taught singing lessons.