Johanne Elisabeth Meyer was born in
Hanover on 28 May 1888, the daughter of seamstress Sofie Dora Meyer. She was raised by elderly poor foster parents by the name of Geisler, and she took their name. She sang in a church choir as a child, where she was recommended to volunteer at the theatre chorus. From 1902, at age 14 she was a paid chorus singer of the
Hofoper Hannover. She was able to present 14 parts from opera choruses in an audition. Her contract called for readiness to perform a new part within three days, and required her to supply her own costumes. Her voice was trained by O. Suesse and Clara Schroeder-Kaminsky. She left her foster parents a year later, and moved to the
Theater Dessau in 1905 and the
Theatre in Wiesbaden the following year, singing in the opera chorus. In 1906, at age 18, she gave birth to a daughter, Carla, whose father, an officer, was not willing to marry her. Her widowed foster mother moved in with her. Unlike her own mother, Geisler raised her daughter herself, but passed her in society as her little sister. A second child, born when she was 21, died shortly afterwards. In Wiesbaden she occasionally sang small solo roles, of servants and maids.
Mainz With the 1912/13 season, Geisler became a member of the
Mainz Municipal Theatre, now engaged as a soloist. Beginning as a
soubrette in opera and
operetta, she developed a
coloratura soprano repertoire. She sang both minor and larger roles, such as Papagena in Mozart's
Die Zauberflöte and the title role in Jarno's operetta
Die Försterchristl, participating in Wagner's
Götterdämmerung and Nicolai's
Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor. The theatre's records show her busy in 23 of the 44 productions of the 1915/16 season alone. Her last performance there was appearing as all three women Hoffmann loves in Offenbach's
Hoffmanns Erzählungen.
Cologne On 1 September 1916, Geisler began at the
Cologne Opera, where she was successful in roles such as the Queen of the Night in Mozart's
Die Zauberflöte, Micaela in Bizet's
Carmen and Zerbinetta in
Ariadne auf Naxos by Richard Strauss. In 1917
Otto Klemperer conducted Beethoven's
Fidelio in Cologne, with her as Marzelline. In the winter of 1918, she had a relationship with the baritone
Friedrich Schorr, which was close enough for him to expect her to marry him. Klemperer, born into a Jewish family, converted to the
Catholic Church. He spent the
Holy Week of 1919 at
Maria Laach Abbey, where he composed a setting of
the mass,
Missa sacra. Geisler visited him there. It is unknown when they decided to get married. Marianne Klemperer, the conductor's sister, described her as with "a very lively face with expressive nose and lips, but not particularly slender", and later "she must have nerves of steel, she has a lot of humour and is very jolly". They married on 16 June 1919 in a Jesuit chapel in Cologne, with a small group of family and friends attending, including the philosopher
Max Scheler. After the ceremony, they performed together in a private rehearsal of the
Missa sacra at the . The couple had two children,
Werner, born in 1920, who became an actor, and Lotte, born in 1923. With her husband as chief conductor in Cologne, she appeared in leading roles of a broad repertoire including Mozart's Despina in
Così fan tutte, Susanna, Cherubino and the Countess in
Le nozze di Figaro, and Donna Elvira in
Don Giovanni. She was very successful as Marietta in the world premiere of Korngold's
Die tote Stadt on 4 December 1920, an opera that had a simultaneous premiere at the
Hamburg Opera. In 1921 she appeared at the
Berlin State Opera in
Die Vögel by Walter Braufels. In the second world premiere conducted by Klemperer in Cologne, Zemlinsky's
Der Zwerg on 28 May 1922, she had a minor role. She was the soprano soloist when Klemperer conducted the first public performance of his
Missa sacra on 13 May 1923. A reviewer noted that she "astonishingly mastered the exorbitantly difficult first soprano part" ("... den exorbitant schweren ersten Sopranpart erstaunlich beherrschte"). In July 1927 she performed, as Johanna Klemperer, the leading role of Hèlene in the world premiere of Hindemith's short opera
Hin und zurück at the
Baden-Baden Music Festival.
Berlin When Otto Klemperer moved to the
Kroll Oper in Berlin, in 1927, she became a member of the ensemble. She performed there, sometimes using the pseudonym Hanne Klee, roles including Susanna, Donna Elvira, Marzelline, Verdi's
Luisa Miller, Marie in Smetana's
The Bartered Bride, Puccini's
Madama Butterfly, Hindemith's Hèlene again, and Adele in
Die Fledermaus by Johann Strauss. A reviewer of
Die Fledermaus noted: "Her singing and acting skills combine to form an inseparable whole and a unified and first-class performance" ("Gesang und schauspielerisches Können vereinigen sich bei ihr zu einem untrennbaren Ganzen und zu einer einheitlichen und erstklassigen Leistung"). She also performed at the
Große Volksbühne, in roles such as Gilda in Verdi's
Rigoletto and Adele. She toured with a company named Deutsche Musikbühne as Mozart's Countess and the Witch in Humperdinck's
Hänsel und Gretel to
Leipzig,
Trier, Riga and Reval. Her natural voice, never professionally trained, weakened, also due to her "incautious willingness" to take a wide range of heavy roles. She rarely performed after a vocal crisis. Geisler had shown talent for acting early, and therefore had performed not only solo roles from the chorus, but also acted in dramas. In 1928 she performed as Amalie in Schiller's
Die Räuber at the Theater Coburg. In 1929 she had a small role in Wilhelm Dieterle's last
silent film,
Ludwig der Zweite, König von Bayern.
Exile Under the Nazi regime, Geisler's family had to leave Germany. They moved to
Zürich, Switzerland, in 1933, and in 1935 to the U.S. after Klemperer accepted the offer to become chief conductor of the
Los Angeles Symphony. They returned to Europe in 1947, where he was director of the
Hungarian State Opera until 1950. In the 1950s, the family settled in Zürich again. Johanna Klemperer died in a hospital in
Munich on 3 November 1956. The last time she heard her husband conducting was in hospital over the radio on 19 October, when he led the
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. They played Haydn's
Symphony No. 101 "The Clock" and Mahler's
Symphony No. 4, with the soprano solo "Wir genießen die himmlischen Freuden" (We enjoy Heavenly bliss). Bach's "
Bist du bei mir" and "
Wenn ich einmal soll scheiden" were performed at her funeral. == Legacy ==