Onegin, Sigrid

SINGER (GERMANY)
BORN 1 Jun 1889, Stockholm - DIED 16 Jun 1943, Magliaso, Ticino
BIRTH NAME Hoffmann, Elisabeth Elfriede Emilie Sigrid
GRAVE LOCATION Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg: Waldfriedhof (Abteilung 07 c)

Daughter of a German father and a French mother. She grew up in Wiesbaden. She studied under Luise Ress in Frankfurt am Main, under Eugen Robert Weiss in Munich and under Silvio de Ranieri in Milan. Lilli Lehmann and Margarethe Siems were further teachers and she also learnt from her husband, the Russian pianist and composer Eugene Borisov Lvov Onegin (1870-1919). They married in May 1913.

In 1911 she debuted under the name of Lilly Hoffman as a concert singer. In 1912 she appeared at the Court Opera in Stuttgart as Carmen. She worked there until 1919 and sang with Enrico Caruso and many others. In 1912 she was Dryade in the premiere of "Ariadne auf Naxos" by Richard Strauss. During the first World War she hid her husband in her house until it was guaranteed that he wouldn't be arrested. In 1917 she sang in the premiere of "An allem ist Hütchen schuld" by Siegfried Wagner.

In 1919 her husband died of tuberculosis and in 1920 she married the physician and author Fritz Penzoldt (1887-1959). From 1919 to 1922 she was a member of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich and from 1922 to 1924 she worked for the MET in New York. From 1926 to 1931 she was engaged at the State Opera in Berlin and she made guest appearances in Zurich between 1931 and 1935. In 1933 and 1934 appeared at the Festspiele in Bayreuth.

Her last concert was in 1938 in the USA. In 1939 Penzoldt published "Alt-Rhapsodie, Sigrid Onegins Leben und Werk". She died in 1943 in Magliaso, Ticino.

Related persons
• was pupil of Lehmann, Lilli

Events
25/10/1912Premiere at Stuttgart of "Ariadne auf Naxos" by Richard Strauss. The libretto was by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Ariadne was performed by Maria Jeritza. Sigrid Onegin was Dryade. Erna Ellmenreich was Echo. [Hofmannsthal, Hugo von][Strauss, Richard]
6/12/1917Premiere of Siegfried Wagner's "An allem ist Hütchen schuld!" at the Hoftheater in Stuttgart. It was based on the fairy tales of the brothers Grimm and others. The music was based on Italian and French operas as well as on the orchestral works by Franz Liszt. The conductor was Erich Band. Helene Heim was Hütchen, Erna Ellmenreich was the fairy tale woman and Siegfried Onegin sang the part of Trude. It was performed in Halle in 1929 (again conducted by Band) and in Leipzig in 1939 in a stage set by Wieland Wagner. The first full performance of the opera after the Second World War took place in Hagen in 1996. In 2015 is was produced in Bochum. [Wagner, Siegfried]

Images

Sigird Onegin.
Picture by Photo Becker & Maass

 

The grave of Sigrid Onegin at the Waldfriedhof, Stuttgart.
Picture by Androom (06 Mar 2015)

 

The grave of Sigrid Onegin at the Waldfriedhof, Stuttgart.
Picture by Androom (06 Mar 2015)

 

Sources
• Aubert, Joachim, Handbuch der Grabstätten berühmten Deutscher, Österreicher und Schweizer, Deutscher Kunstverlag, München, 1973
Sigrid Onégin – Wikipedia
An allem ist Hütchen schuld! - Wikipedia


O'Neill-Chaplin, Oona

Published: 18 Apr 2018
Last update: 05 Apr 2022