Clementine Krauss

Krauss was born in Vienna on 25 April 1877 to Maximilian Krauss and Elisabeth Weber.[1] She was from an artistic family; her sister Helene Krauss was a dancer and mimic at the Vienna Imperial Opera and her aunt was the operatic soprano Gabrielle Krauss.[1][2]

At the age of six, Krauss was sent to study ballet at the Vienna Court Opera's dance school.[2]

In 1888, aged eleven, Krauss joined the Vienna Imperial Opera Ballet as an apprentice.[2] From 1890 to 1892, she was a member of the corps de ballet, and eventually she was promoted to the role of principal ballerina.[1][2] Her dance career ended after she gave birth to a child, and she became a stage actress.[2] She took speech training with Bernhard Baumeister and became performing on tour in 1894.[2]

In 1894 and 1895, she was engaged at the Lessing Theater in Berlin.[3] She studied singing under Rosa Papier and became a celebrated guest on performance tours in Graz, Cologne, Essen, Hermannstadt, and Olmütz.[1] From 1908 to 1913, she worked at the Vienna Volksoper as an operetta singer, stage actress, and stage director.[1][4]

When Krauss was fifteen, and working as a dancer at the Imperial Ballet, she had an affair with Chevalier Hector Baltazzi, a member of a wealthy Greek-Austrian banking family and the brother of Baroness Helene von Vetsera.[1] She had a son from their relationship, the conductor and general manager Clemens Krauss.

She married the opera singer Ottokar Chmel in 1914.[5] After her wedding, she and her husband settled in Prague, where she taught singing lessons.[1]

She died on 18 April 1938 in Prague, at the age of 60.[1][6]