Adrienne Osborne (née Auguste Eisbein)
2 December 1873 | Buffalo – 15 June 1951 | Zell am Ziller
Opera and oratorio singer, music teacher
Adrienne Osborne; her father was a general practitioner; no information about her mother has been recorded in public biographical sources. Together with her younger sister Christine, she moved to Leipzig, where they trained their voices under the renowned Leipzig singing teacher (‘Gesangsmeisterin’) and Kammersängerin Auguste Götze. The two girls lived with Henriette Goldschmidt, the women’s rights activist and widow of the liberal rabbi Abraham Goldschmidt. On the advice of her singing teacher, Auguste Eisbein changed her birth name to pursue a singing career. Thus, in 1893, she made her operatic debut at the Leipzig Opera House under the name Adrienne Osborne. She sang the title role in Ambroise Thomas’s opera Mignon.
The young singer immediately became a favourite with the audience, not only for her singing but also for her grace and beauty. The Germanist Georg Witkowski recounts in his memoirs that, as a student, he had fallen seriously in love with her.
In Leipzig, Adrienne Osborne mainly sang mezzo-soprano roles such as Carmen and Hänsel. At the same time, she also gave concerts as a lieder and oratorio singer. She made guest appearances on the stages and in the concert halls of major cities (Vienna, Berlin, Dresden, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Bremen) and also went on concert tours to the Netherlands, England and the USA. In 1899 she made a guest appearance at the Bayreuth Festival – where her husband, the Wagnerian singer Felix von Kraus, was also engaged. The couple had married that same year. In 1903, their daughter Felicitas von Kraus was born. In 1905, Max Reger dedicated two songs to the singer. The popular singer remained under contract in Leipzig until 1908. She lived at 5 Beethovenstrasse in Leipzig, later moving to 8 Beethovenstrasse. In 1908, Adrienne and her husband moved to the Munich Court Opera, where Felix von Kraus took over as musical director.
Adrienne Osborne later turned to teaching singing. In the 1920s, the family moved to Zell am Ziller, near Innsbruck. Felix von Kraus died there in 1937, and her sister Christine two years later. Adrienne Osborne died in Zell am Ziller in 1951. Her daughter, Dr Felicitas von Kraus, lived until 1990 and was buried alongside her parents. *) Her Jewish heritage cannot be conclusively proven, as almost no biographical details of her mother are known.
NOTE: *) Due to the exhibition format, the biographical details given above have necessarily been abridged. Exhibition visitors have the opportunity to read a more detailed version of the biographical information in the exhibition folders provided. The entire, very extensive project includes further biographies, additional content and research … is in progress – also online…