Claire Dux

Claire Dux (2 August 1885 – 8 October 1967), was an operatic and concert soprano with a successful career in continental Europe, England, and the United States.

Early life

Clara Auguste Dux was born in the village Witkowo in the county of Gnesen (today Gniezno); that area was part of the Kingdom of Prussia's Province of Posen from 1815 until 1920. Alan Blyth calls her Polish, other sources call her German,The New York Times called her Swiss in 1920. Both of her parents were musical, her mother was related to Clara Schumann. At the age of 12, Dux sang Gretel in a school production of Humperdinck's Hänsel und Gretel.

Career

She went to Bromberg (today Bydgoszcz) where she start to studied singing. Later she went to Berlin where she studied singing with Adolf Deppe and Maria Schwadtke, a student of Marianne Brandt, and to Milan where she studied with Teresa Arkel. Dux made her professional debut in 1906 at the Cologne Opera as Pamina in Mozart's The Magic Flute. Other roles in Cologne included Mimì in Puccini's La bohème, and she gained international reputation through European tours.