Agnes Elisabeth Overbeck

Agnes Elisabeth Overbeck, pseudonym Baroness Ella Overbeck (nicknamed Jimmy) and Baron Eugen Borisowitsch Lhwoff-Onégin, (10 October 1870 – 12 November 1919) was a German composer and pianist.

Life and career

Born in Düsseldorf, Overbeck was a great-granddaughter of the Lübeck mayor Christian Adolph Overbeck, a great-niece of the painter Friedrich Overbeck and a niece of the archaeologist Johannes Overbeck. After the separation of her parents in 1866, the mother moved with her and her siblings to London.

She received an education at the London Royal College of Music and obtained a diploma in conducting, organ playing, piano playing and composition.[1] She was piano accompanist to Clara Butt and students of Manuel Patricio Rodríguez García in London.[2] In the 1890s she made friends with Edward Gordon Craig and wrote the stage music for his adaptation of Alfred de Musset's On ne badine pas avec I'amour, which was performed in Uxbridge in 1894. In 1898 she studied in Taormina with Zinaida Hippius and began an affair with her. With Hippius she came to Saint Petersburg, where in 1902/03 she wrote music for the Alexandrinsky Theatre overtures Antigone, Phedre and Danse russe).[3] On 21 February 1904 there was a performance of her Petersburg stage music in East Stonehouse at Plymouth, which Baroness Overbeck conducted herself.[4]

She returned from Petersburg under the name "Baron Eugene Borisovich Onégin" (also "Baron Eugene Borisovich Lhwoff-Onégin") and stated to be a grand-nephew of the Russian Grand Duke Alexei Lvov, composer of the Russian national anthem God Save the Tsar!. The extent to which Overbeck was inspired to create this masquerade by Clara Butt, who liked to wear men's trousers and smoke cigars, remains unclear. Overbeck was responsible for the vocal training of the then young song artist and later opera singer Sigrid Onégin, who at the time still performed under her middle-class name Lilly Hoffmann. Overbeck accompanied her at the same time during piano performances. She had discovered Hoffmann during an audition at the Spangenberg Conservatory, the forerunner of today's Wiesbaden Music Academy. The two entered into a relationship - "the unequal couple, the almost stately seventeen-year-old, who almost towers over the nine year older one by the main length, and the dainty, almost overly tender companions... She knew that people were surprised that she, who had beaten out so many clients, now felt attached to a man... Even though Lilly had a tender love for children from an early age... she was not allowed to think of herself now."[1] On 25 January 1913, Overbeck married Lilly Hoffmann in London under the name Baron Onégin.[5] Hoffmann's mother had "not yet overcome her aversion to him... Here there was only one solution to withdraw the girl from her mother's will... Without informing her mother, they leave, are secretly married in London."[6] From 1912 until her death in 1919 she lived with Hoffmann in Stuttgart, where she had an engagement at the opera and now appeared under the name Sigrid Onégin. During the First World War, Overbeck had to hide as an alleged "Russian man" from the authorities until "he" was denounced and arrested in 1916. Sigrid Onégin was supposedly released because of her influence.[7]

What is preserved is a recording of the Ave Maria, composed by Overbeck and sung by Sigrid Onégin.

Overbeck died in Stuttgart at age 49.

Work

• Eleanore. Song, words by E. Mackay. London: C. Woolhouse, [1893]
• [Two Songs.] London : R. Cocks & Co, 1894.

I've wept in Dreams. Words by Heine.

A Slave Girl's Song. Words by C. Kingsley.

• Parted. Song, words by T. Hood. London : C. Woolhouse, [1893]
• Since my Love now loves me not. [Song.] Words by Heine, translated by F. Johnson. London : C. Woolhouse, [1893]
• Toi. Old French poetry. [Song.] London : C. Woolhouse, [1893]
• The Voice of the Beloved. [Song.] Poetry ... from Marie Corelli's "Soul of Lilith". London : C. Woolhouse, [1893]
• Four Lyrics. London : J. Williams 1903.

1. Les Sanglots longs. With long-drawn Sobs. French words P. Verlaine, English words M. C. Gillington.

2. Peu de Chose. Life's a Bubble. French words L. de Montenaeken, English words M. C. Gillington.

3. Butterflies, from J. Davidson's adaptation of F. Coppée's "Pour la Couronne".

4. Chanson d'Aspiration. Song of Aspiration. French words by E. Overbeck ... English words by M. C. Gillington.

• Sonate pour piano et violon. London: Charles Woolhouse [o. J.]

Further reading

• Sophie Fuller: „Devoted Attention“: Looking for Lesbian Musicians in Fin-de-Siècle Britain, in: Sophie Fuller und Lloyd Whitesell (edit.): Queer Episodes in Music and Modern Identity,[8] Urbana und Chicago 2002, p. 79–101
• Fritz Penzoldt: Sigrid Onégin – Leben und Werk,[9] Magdeburg 1939; New edition under the title: Alt-Rhapsodie, Neustadt an der Aisch 1953
• Isabel Sellheim: Die Familie des Malers Friedrich Overbeck (1789–1869) in genealogischen Übersichten.[10] Neustadt an der Aisch 1989, Deutsches Familienarchiv, volume 104, ISBN 3-7686-5091-X, GW ISSN 0012-1266

References

1. Fritz Penzoldt, Sigrid Onégin, Magdeburg 1939, p. 45
2. Ebendort
3. Sophie Fuller: "Devoted Attention": Looking for Lesbian Musicians in Fin-de-siecle Britain, in Queer episodes in music and modern identity. University of Illinois Press, 2002 ISBN 9780252027406, p. 87. Fuller, however, knows nothing about her later life and considers her a real Russian noblewoman.
4. See The Strad 16 (1904), p. 375, also discussed in Musical Times. There was a real Baroness Overbeck at that time: Romaine von Overbeck, née Goddard, the wife of Gustav Freiherr von Overbeck (1830-1894) and temporary lover of Hans von Bülow.
5. Isabel Sellheim, The family of the painter Friedrich Overbeck (1789-1869) in genealogical overviews. Neustadt an der Aisch 1989, Deutsches Familienarchiv Vol 104, ISBN 3-7686-5091-X, GW ISSN 0012-1266, p. 189
6. Fritz Penzoldt, Sigrid Onégin, Magdeburg 1939, p. 49f
7. The absence of a scandal and the uncritical mention as "husband" in later reference works suggest that the fictitious marriage did not become public.
8. Queer episodes in music and modern identity on WorldCat
9. Sigrid Onégin – Leben und Werk on WorldCat
10. Die Familie des Malers Friedrich Overbeck (1789–1869) in genealogischen Übersichten on WorldCat