Karoline Jagemann

Karoline Jagemann von Heygendorff (full Name: Henriette Karoline Friedericke Jagemann von Heygendorff) (25 January 1777, Weimar - 10 July 1848, Dresden) was a major German tragic actress and singer. Her great roles included Elisabeth in Mary Stuart (1800) and Beatrice in The Bride of Messina (1803). She is also notable as a mistress of grand-duke Charles Augustus and she bore three children that he fathered. Charles Augustus and Karoline both had their portraits painted by Heinrich Christoph Kolbe.

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Family

She was the daughter of the scholar and librarian Christian Joseph Jagemann (1735-1804), and sister of the painter Ferdinand Jagemann (1780-1820).

Life

She studied first at the Fürstliche freie Zeichenschule Weimar, where her brother was later a lecturer. From 1790 she trained in acting and singing in Mannheim under August Iffland and Heinrich Beck. She made her debut in 1792 in the title role of the opera Oberon - the fairy king by Pavel Wranitzky at Mannheim's Nationaltheater and was engaged as a court-singer in Weimar in 1797.

Jagemann, the soprano Henriette Eberwein, the tenor Carl Melchior Jakob Moltke and the bass Karl Stromeier made up the "Wemiar Quartet". She was guest-singer in 1798 at Berlin, in 1800 at Vienna, and later in Stuttgart, Frankfurt am Main and Leipzig.

In 1809 her lover, grand-duke Charles Augustus, made her "freewoman of Heygendorff" and left her Heygendorf manor. Witnessed by the grand-duke, their son Karl was officially granted the title of Heygendorff on 16 May 1809 and he and his children entered the Saxon grand-ducal nobility.

In the same year Karoline Jagemann von Heygendorff was made director of the opera and - after Goethe's retirement from theatre - took over as sole director of the court theatre, from 1824 as Oberdirektor. After Charles Augustus's death in 1828, Karoline retired from the stage and lived out her last years with her son in Dresden.

Issue with Charles Augustus

  1. Carl of Wolfgang (b. Weimar, 25 December 1806 - d. Dresden, 17 February 1895).
  2. August of Heygendorff (b. Weimar, 10 August 1810 - d. Dresden, 23 January 1874).
  3. Mariana of Heygendorff (b. Weimar, 8 April 1812 - d. 's Gravenhage, 10 August 1836), married on 15 October 1835 to Daniel, Baron Tindal.

Bibliography

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