A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Loewe, Johanna
LOEWE, Johanna Sophie, dramatic singer, granddaughter of Friedrich August Leopold Loewe (who died 1816 as director of the Lübeck theatre) and daughter of Ferdinand Loewe, an actor, was born at Oldenburg in 1815 [App. p.705 "March 24, 1816"], and accompanied her father to Mannheim, Frankfort, and Vienna, where he was engaged at the Burg Theater, through the influence of his sister, Julie Loewe, a celebrated actress. Here Sophie studied singing under Ciccimara and other good masters. Her début as a concert-singer was so successful that she was at once engaged for the court opera, and first appeared on the stage in 1833 in a German version of Donizetti's 'Otto mese in due ore.' A contemporary report speaks of 'her voice as not powerful, but cultivated and sympathetic, her personal appearance prepossessing, and her acting as evincing dramatic ability much above the common.' Towards the close of 1836 she went to Berlin, where she created a furore as Isabella in 'Robert le Diable,' and was at once engaged at a high salary, appearing as Amina in the 'Sonnambula' on April 28, 1837. In 1838 she was appointed chamber-singer to the king, but soon resigned, and travelled to London, Paris, and Italy. In London she appeared at Covent Garden, May 13, 1841, in Bellini's 'Straniera,' but her success was only temporary. According to Chorley she had been puffed as a new Grisi, there being an idea that Grisi had lost her voice, and he says that the public were grievously disappointed; but he allows that she was the best Elvira he had ever seen, and that her manner was sprightly, graceful, and intelligent, her 'demeanour unimpeachable, and her costume superb' as the Dogaressa in 'Marino Falieri' (Mod. German Music, i. 210–213). She never returned to England. She failed to obtain an engagement in Paris, and in 1845 sang again in Berlin, but coming just after Jenny Lind, was only moderately received. In 1848 she married Prince Lichtenstein and retired. She died at Pesth, Nov. 29, 1866. Her special characteristic was the singular harmony between her bodily and mental gifts. In conversation she was witty and intellectual, and as a singer had a great diversity of rôles, playing both Elvira and Donna Anna, Jessonda and Madeleine ('Postilion'), Lucrezia and Adine ('Elisir'). An admirable portrait of her was painted by Krüger, and engraved by Sachse of Berlin.
Her niece and namesake, Sophie Löwe, a soprano, daughter of the regisseur of the Court Theatre at Stuttgart, and pupil of Stockhausen, made her first appearance in London in 1871, and sang at the concerts for several seasons with success, till her marriage in 1877.[ F. G. ]