Corona Elisabeth Wilhelmine Schröter (14 January 1751 â€" 23 August
1802) was a German musician best known as a singer. She also composed
songs, setting texts by Friedrich Schiller and Johann Wolfgang von
Goethe to music.Schröter was born in Guben. In her early years she
studied many instruments, which included the keyboard and guitar. Her
father, Johann Friedrich Schröter, an oboist, was her first teacher,
who also taught his three other children music. Her brothers, Johann
Samuel and Johann Heinrich, were a pianist and a violinist
respectively, and her sister, Marie Henriette, was also a singer.
While she received early musical training which contributed to her
skill in performance and composition, Corona's early vocal training
was damaging to her singing voice.When she was thirteen, Schröter and
her family moved to Leipzig. It was there that she caught the
attention of composer Johann Adam Hiller (it is thought that Hiller's
wife was Corona's godmother). Hiller, an operatic and singspiel
composer, had become seriously frustrated with the inadequate
education offered to women. To remedy this, in 1771 Hiller opened his
own school. In this coeducational setting, students learned a wide
variety of musical subjects, including solfège, diction, technique,
Italian, and the keyboard. Schröter flourished as a singer, and
benefited from the non-damaging technique she learned. Corona was a
powerful performer, but was often compared to her fellow student and
rival, Gertrud Schmeling (Madame Mara) in Hiller's Grosse Konzerte
series. Schröter's voice was not as powerful as Schmeling's, due to
her poor early training. However, she had an intensity which her
admirers considered to be unrivaled.During her time at Hiller's
school, Schröter became good friends with Johann Wolfgang von Goethe,
and when he moved to Weimar in 1775 he brought her along as a court
singer for Duchess Anna Amalia. She first performed in the court on 23
November 1776. However, while she was employed as a singer, Corona
became involved with the amateur court theatre, performing in at least
eighteen productions, many of which were written by Goethe himself.
Corona and Goethe collaborated on many of his most popular plays. On a
few occasions, he starred opposite her, as in the performance of his
play Iphigenie auf Tauris in 1779. Goethe's singspiel Die Fischerin
was especially important to Schröter. She not only starred in the
leading role of Dortchen, but composed incidental music for the play,
including the famous opening song Der Erlkönig, which is quite
different from the version composed by Franz Schubert over 30 years
later - unsurprisingly, Schröter's version is closer to the early
Classical era lied tradition in the style of Zelter than to the
Romantic version of Schubert. Corona also starred in Goethe's drama
Proserpina in which she drew crowds for this "virtuosic solo work."
1802) was a German musician best known as a singer. She also composed
songs, setting texts by Friedrich Schiller and Johann Wolfgang von
Goethe to music.Schröter was born in Guben. In her early years she
studied many instruments, which included the keyboard and guitar. Her
father, Johann Friedrich Schröter, an oboist, was her first teacher,
who also taught his three other children music. Her brothers, Johann
Samuel and Johann Heinrich, were a pianist and a violinist
respectively, and her sister, Marie Henriette, was also a singer.
While she received early musical training which contributed to her
skill in performance and composition, Corona's early vocal training
was damaging to her singing voice.When she was thirteen, Schröter and
her family moved to Leipzig. It was there that she caught the
attention of composer Johann Adam Hiller (it is thought that Hiller's
wife was Corona's godmother). Hiller, an operatic and singspiel
composer, had become seriously frustrated with the inadequate
education offered to women. To remedy this, in 1771 Hiller opened his
own school. In this coeducational setting, students learned a wide
variety of musical subjects, including solfège, diction, technique,
Italian, and the keyboard. Schröter flourished as a singer, and
benefited from the non-damaging technique she learned. Corona was a
powerful performer, but was often compared to her fellow student and
rival, Gertrud Schmeling (Madame Mara) in Hiller's Grosse Konzerte
series. Schröter's voice was not as powerful as Schmeling's, due to
her poor early training. However, she had an intensity which her
admirers considered to be unrivaled.During her time at Hiller's
school, Schröter became good friends with Johann Wolfgang von Goethe,
and when he moved to Weimar in 1775 he brought her along as a court
singer for Duchess Anna Amalia. She first performed in the court on 23
November 1776. However, while she was employed as a singer, Corona
became involved with the amateur court theatre, performing in at least
eighteen productions, many of which were written by Goethe himself.
Corona and Goethe collaborated on many of his most popular plays. On a
few occasions, he starred opposite her, as in the performance of his
play Iphigenie auf Tauris in 1779. Goethe's singspiel Die Fischerin
was especially important to Schröter. She not only starred in the
leading role of Dortchen, but composed incidental music for the play,
including the famous opening song Der Erlkönig, which is quite
different from the version composed by Franz Schubert over 30 years
later - unsurprisingly, Schröter's version is closer to the early
Classical era lied tradition in the style of Zelter than to the
Romantic version of Schubert. Corona also starred in Goethe's drama
Proserpina in which she drew crowds for this "virtuosic solo work."
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