Claire Born was born on February 17, 1898, in Bayreuth. Her father was
the director of the local cotton spinning mill. After studying in
Chemnitz and Vienna, she debuted as a soprano at the Chemnitz
Stadttheater on December 22, 1916, in the role of Agathe in Carl Maria
von Weber’s Der Freischütz. This was followed by roles such as
Waltraute in Die Walküre, Pamina in The Magic Flute, Desdemona in
Othello, and Marguerite in Gounod’s Faust. In 1920, she joined the
Vienna State Opera, where she remained a member of the ensemble until
1929. There she appeared frequently in Wagner operas, singing the roles
of Elsa, Senta, Irene, Elisabeth, Sieglinde, Eva, and Freia. In 1922 she
became a regular guest at the Salzburg Festival.
In 1924 she performed at the Städtische Oper in Berlin and in Amsterdam,
where she sang the title role in Ariadne auf Naxos.
In 1925 she appeared at the Bayreuth Festival as Eva in Die Meistersinger and Gutrune in Götterdämmerung. Critics praised her performances, describing her portrayal of Gutrune as “charmingly portrayed and excellently sung,” while her portrayal of Eva was praised as “an outstanding performance […] which, through superb musicianship, was able to shape the quintet in the third act into a highly effective climax.”
From 1926 to 1932, she was also a member of the Dresden State Opera, where she participated in the world premiere of Paul Hindemith’s Cardillac in 1926 and became one of the company’s leading artists.
After the Nazis came to power in 1933, she was no longer allowed to perform in Germany because her husband, Richard Kronstein, was Jewish. She returned to Vienna and fled to Switzerland after the annexation of Austria in 1938. While her husband remained in Switzerland, Born emigrated to London, where she worked as a voice teacher. After the war, she returned to Vienna and continued teaching. She died there on December 28, 1965.
1898 Bayreuth
1965 Vienna