Anna Bellschan von Mildenburg, to give her full maiden name, was born in
Vienna, the Austrian capital. She studied voice with
Rosa Papier and Johannes Ress at the Conservatory of
Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna (now the
University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna), and then privately with
Cosima Wagner and Mahler. She had an affair with the latter which lasted until 1897. Von Mildenburg made her operatic debut in 1895 at
Hamburg, singing the role of
Brünnhilde in
The Ring Cycle under Mahler's baton. Then, in 1897, she performed the role of Kundry in
Parsifal at the
Bayreuth Festival, and also took on the
mezzo-soprano part of Ortrud in
Lohengrin. Cosima Wagner, the composer's widow, became her mentor at Bayreuth, and she proceeded to perform all the main Wagnerian soprano parts at the festival prior to the outbreak of
World War I in 1914. She first sang at the Vienna Hofoper on 8 December 1897, when she took the role of Brünnhilde in Die Walküre under Hans Richter. Mahler put her on a contract and she soon experienced enormous success. In her first season alone she earned 14,000
florins (about €112,000 in 2008). Her stature at the opera house equaled that of Mahler, who was then the establishment's director of music. She would perform at the Vienna State Opera until 1917, and then again in 1919-1920. Among her most celebrated performances during this period was an assumption of Isolde's role in a famous production of
Tristan und Isolde mounted under Mahler's leadership. Away from Vienna, von Mildenburg sang to acclaim in London at the
Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, performing Isolde and Elizabeth in
Tannhäuser there in 1906, as well as Klytemnestra in the first London production of
Richard Strauss'
Elektra. Her repertoire was not confined, however, to works by Strauss and Wagner. She also appeared in
Beethoven's
Fidelio,
Bellini's
Norma,
Mozart's
Don Giovanni and
Weber's
Oberon during the course of her career. From 1922 to 1927, von Mildenburg was a guest artist at the
Salzburg Festival, appearing in
Hugo von Hofmannsthal's stage work
Das Salzburger große Welttheater, among other productions. After retiring from opera, she gave singing lessons in
Munich. Among those she instructed in Munich were
Lilian Benningsen, Fritz Schaetzler, and the renowned Wagnerian
tenor,
Lauritz Melchior, who consulted her in 1922. After 1929, she taught voice at the
International Mozarteum Summer Academy in Salzburg, but she returned briefly to the stage in 1930 to sing one last Klytemnestra at
Augsburg. She eventually retired from teaching because of the exigencies of the
Second World War and died in 1947. Together with her husband, the Austrian author, playwright and critic
Hermann Bahr, she is buried in a place of honor in the Salzburg Community Cemetery. Between 1912 and 1922 they lived together in Salzburg at
Arenberg Castle, where one of the
Frauenspuren memorial plaques commemorates the singer. ==Her sole recording & histrionic style==