Name Elisabeth Kulmann | Role Poet | |
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Died 1825, Saint Petersburg, Russia | ||
Elisabeth Kulmann, Mezzosopran
Elisabeth Kulmann (Russian: Елисавета Борисовна Кульман/Jelissaweta Borissowna Kulman, July 17 [O.S. 7] 1808 - December 1 [O.S. November 25] 1825) was a Russian, German and Italian poet and translator.
Contents
- Elisabeth Kulmann Mezzosopran
- Biography
- Elisabeth Kulmann works
- Musical works in Kulmann verses
- References
Biography
She was born in the Russian Empire as one of the several children of Boris Fedorovich, and Mary (née Rosenberg) Kulmann, of German origin. Her father, a collegiate councilor and a retired captain, died early. The family lived on Vasilyevsky Island in St. Petersburg. As a child, she showed phenomenal philological abilities, learning ancient and modern languages under the direction of Karl Grosgeynrikh.
Fluent in 11 languages, she wrote over 1,000 poems before her death at age 17. Robert Schumann considered her a wunderkind and set some of her poems to music including "Mailied" ["May Song"] and "An den Abendstern" ["To the Evening Star"].
She was buried in the Smolensky Cemetery in St. Petersburg, ina tomb bearing a carving by Alexander Triscorni - a marble sculpture of a girl on a bed of roses. The monument bears inscriptions in several languages, including Latin: Prima Russicarum operam dedit idiomati graeco, undecim novit linguas, loquebatur octo, quamquam puella poetria eminens (The first Russian young girl, who knew the Greek language, and learned eleven languages, spoken in eight, and was an excellent poet).
In the 1930s her remains were moved by the Soviet authorities to the Lazarevsky Cemetery in the Alexander Nevsky monastery.