Lucca, Pauline (1841-1908)

Lucca, Pauline

OPERA SINGER (AUSTRIA)

BORN 25 Apr 1841, Wien - DIED 28 Feb 1908, Wien
BIRTH NAME Lucka, Pauline
GRAVE LOCATION Baden (near Wien), Niederösterreich: Stadtpfarrfriedhof St.Stephan (Gruppe 06, Reihe 1, Nummer 15 (ashes))

Pauline Lucca was the daughter of the merchant Joseph Koppelmans and his wife Barbara Willer. In 1834 the family converted from the Jewish to the Catholic faith and adapted the name Lucca. The authors Emil Lucka and Mathilde Prager were her cousins. She received singing lessons from Joseph Rupprecht, Otto Uffmann and Richard Lewy. After several small parts at the Court Opera in Veinna she was engaged as a solo singer at the Theater in Olmütz (Olomouc) in 1859. In 1860 she successfully appeard in Prague and in 1861 she went to the Court Opera in Berlin where she was taught by Giacomo Meyerbeer, who also gave her employment for life. In 1868/1869 she performed in Russia and she made many guest appearances in London. She hated Richard Wagner's music and her contract released her explicitly from performing his works.

On 25/ November 1865 she married the Prussian officer and landowner Adolf von Rhaden. They had a daughter, but when she toured in the USA in 1873 she divorced him from there. She married her second husband Matthias von Wallhofen on 24 March 1874. After Mathilde Mallinger was contracted by the Court Opera in 1869, Lucca saw her as a rival and in 1872 she resigned. She worked in the USA and from 1874 to 1889 she was honorary member of the opera in Vienna. After 1880 she also performed in Berlin again. In 1889 she retired from the stage and settled at her estate near Zurich.

She died in 1908 in Vienna and was cremated in Gotha. Her ashes were buried at the Stadtpfarrfriedhof in Baden near Vienna.

Related persons
• was rival of Mallinger, Mathilda
• was pupil of Meyerbeer, Giacomo

Images

The grave of Pauline Lucca at the Stadtpfarrfriedhof in Baden, Niederösterreich.
Picture by Androom (05 Sep 2022)