lit a candle 1h ago97 years old. That's a career.
Their story
Anny Schlemm was a German opera and operetta singer whose voice moved, over nearly six decades on stage, from lyric and youthful-dramatic soprano through mezzo-soprano to dramatic alto. Born on 22 February 1929 in Neu-Isenburg, near Frankfurt, she grew up in a household already tuned to the theatre. Her father,…
Anny Schlemm was a German opera and operetta singer whose voice moved, over nearly six decades on stage, from lyric and youthful-dramatic soprano through mezzo-soprano to dramatic alto. Born on 22 February 1929 in Neu-Isenburg, near Frankfurt, she grew up in a household already tuned to the theatre. Her father, Friedrich Schlemm, worked as a hairdresser and sang in the chorus of the Frankfurt Opera after the Neu-Isenburg tenor Franz Völker steered him toward serious vocal study. The family later moved to Halle (Saale) for his chorus engagement. Schlemm liked to say, with a wink, that if Völker had not tempted her father into singing she might have become a hairdresser herself.
As a child in Neu-Isenburg she sang so loudly in the lanes that neighbours nicknamed her "die Krischern aus de Herdegass," the screecher from Hirtengasse. Formal training followed in Halle and Berlin. On 21 June 1946, at seventeen, she made her professional debut at the Landestheater Halle as Bastienne in Mozart's Bastien und Bastienne. Later that year Nanette in Lortzing's Der Wildschütz marked an early breakthrough. By 1949 Ernst Legal had engaged her at the Berlin State Opera while Walter Felsenstein brought her into the Komische Oper Berlin. Felsenstein's insistence that singing and acting form one craft shaped her stage presence for life. In his productions she sang Cherubino, Micaëla, Agathe, Desdemona and other roles that demanded both vocal line and dramatic truth.
From 1951 she spent a season in Cologne at the invitation of Georg Solti, then from 1952 became a long-serving member of the Oper Frankfurt, which named her Kammersängerin in 1963. Frankfurt remained a home base even as guest appearances took her to Munich, Stuttgart, Hamburg, Dresden, Vienna, Paris, London, Amsterdam, Geneva, Stockholm, Toronto, San Francisco and the festivals of Schwetzingen, Edinburgh and Glyndebourne. Between 1978 and 1985 she returned each summer to the Bayreuth Festival as Mary in Wagner's Der fliegende Holländer, including Harry Kupfer's celebrated production captured on film in 1985.
One of her signature parts was Boulotte in Offenbach's Ritter Blaubart (Barbe-bleue) in Felsenstein's Komische Oper staging. She sang the role from 1963 into the early 1990s, more than 250 times by various counts, and DEFA filmed the production. Another defining later role was Klytämnestra in Strauss's Elektra, which she performed well over 170 times. As her voice darkened she took on Herodias in Salome, the Kostelnička and the Old Buryja in Jenůfa, Mrs Quickly in Falstaff, the Countess in The Queen of Spades, Ulrica in Un ballo in maschera and the Mother in Fortner's Bluthochzeit (having sung the Bride in that opera as a young woman in Stuttgart in 1964). In 1989 she took part in the world premiere of John Cage's Europeras 1 and 2. She officially left the Frankfurt stage in April 2003 as Mama Lucia in Cavalleria rusticana, still appearing thereafter in Vienna as the Old Buryja.
Schlemm was briefly married to the conductor Wolfgang Rennert (1922-2012). Their son, the jazz pianist and teacher Uli Rennert (1960-2021), settled in Graz; her granddaughter is the mezzo-soprano Sophie Rennert. From 2007 she lived in Graz, first with her son and later in a residence. Neu-Isenburg never left her story: the city made her an honorary citizen, named a street for her, kept an archive of her career in the Stadtmuseum Haus zum Löwen, and for years hosted her Christmas readings. She died in Graz on 20 August 2026, aged 97. Her birthplace mourned an Ehrenbürgerin whose voice and presence had carried Neu-Isenburg onto the world's opera stages.
Critics and colleagues remembered her less as a single-fach specialist than as a theatre musician who accepted the long arc of a German house career. She could open a night as a sparkling operetta empress and, years later, terrify as Herodias or Klytämnestra. That range was not accidental. Felsenstein's Berlin rehearsals taught her that gesture, text and tone had to arrive together; Frankfurt's repertory system then demanded she refresh dozens of parts season after season. International guesting never fully replaced those ensemble roots. Even after she settled in Graz she returned to Neu-Isenburg for readings and anniversaries, handing personal papers to local keepers so that programmes, letters and photographs would remain public. When she died in August 2026, the obituaries in OperaWire, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and her hometown's press read like a single continuous theatre biography: Halle debut, Berlin schooling, Frankfurt home, Bayreuth summers, Graz quiet years, and a city that still says her name on a street sign.
Biography adapted from English and German Wikipedia; Stadt Neu-Isenburg official obituary (2026-08-26); OperaWire obituary (2026-08-24); FAZ; annyschlemm.de.
In their own words
“Wenn Franz Völker meinen Vater nicht zum Singen verleitet hätte, wäre ich heute Friseuse.”
Often-repeated joke about Franz Völker recruiting her father, quoted in Neu-Isenburg's official obituary (German).
“If Franz Völker had not tempted my father into singing, I would be a hairdresser today.”
English rendering of her familiar remark about the tenor Franz Völker and her father's career turn.
“She was an extraordinary artist who was at home on the great stages of the world and never forgot her Neu-Isenburg roots.”
Paraphrase of the joint statement by Mayor Dirk Gene Hagelstein and First City Councillor Stefan Schmitt, Neu-Isenburg, August 2026.
“With her voice, her strong stage presence and her unmistakable personality she inspired generations of opera lovers.”
From Neu-Isenburg's official mourning statement, August 2026.
“Her name belongs to the history of our city.”
Neu-Isenburg civic tribute after her death, August 2026.
“Gesang und Schauspiel zu einer außergewöhnlichen Bühnenpräsenz zu verbinden.”
Neu-Isenburg necrology describing the Felsenstein legacy in her work (German phrasing from the city timeline narrative).
“One of the most versatile artists of German music theatre.”
Characterisation echoed in Neu-Isenburg's chronological memorial biography.
“More than 135 parts across nearly sixty years.”
Career span summarised on her official site and in German encyclopedic biographies.
Photos
2Anny Schlemm in later years
by People Forever
Anny Schlemm (1929-2026)
by People Forever
