Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient

As a singer, she combined a rare quality of tone with dramatic intensity of expression, which was as remarkable on the concert platform as in opera.

He did hear (and conduct) her in numerous roles after 1834, however, and continued to laud her stage artistry right up until his essay "On Actors and Singers" (1872) which is dedicated to her memory.

She created several roles for Wagner – Adriano in Rienzi, Senta in Der fliegende Holländer and Venus in Tannhäuser.

In 1850 she married Heinrich von Bock [de], a wealthy Livonian land owner, who was 14 years her junior.

They settled first in Trikāta, Latvia, relocating later to von Bock's ancestral home in Loodi (Kersel) in Estonia.