Daniza Ilitsch

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Daniza Ilitsch

Daniza Ilitsch , born as Danica Ilić (born February 21, 1914 in Belgrade , Kingdom of Serbia ; † January 15, 1965 in Vienna , Austria ) was a Yugoslav opera and lieder singer ( soprano ).

Life

career

Danica Ilić completed her vocal studies as a lyrical-dramatic soprano at the Kornelije Stanković Conservatory in Belgrade and then in Berlin. She made her debut on November 6, 1936 at the State Opera Unter den Linden in Berlin as Nedda in Leoncavallo's " Pagliacci " and performed there until 1939. In 1938 she sang for the first time at the Vienna State Opera , where she was very popular and was a member of the ensemble until 1951 .

During the Second World War , Daniza Ilitsch was close to the anti-Nazi Austrian underground , which almost cost her her life towards the end of the war. She and her sister Rada hid the Vienna-born Jew and British citizen Kurt Erich Glauber, who worked for the British secret service MI6 , in their apartment for almost half a year. When Glauber left his apartment for a walk in January 1945, he was picked up (and later, probably on April 1, 1945, murdered in Mauthausen concentration camp ). Gestapo people took the two sisters out of their apartment that same night for interrogation and subsequent admission to a subcamp near Vienna. The two survived, as Vienna was conquered by Soviet troops in April .

Just six weeks after her liberation from the Gestapo camp, Daniza Ilitsch sang Cio-Cio-San in Puccini's “ Madama Butterfly ” at the Vienna State Opera, where she was celebrated with standing applause. Vienna remained the center of her artistic life in the first post-war years and then again from 1948 onwards. She sang in the State Opera, the Volksoper and in the Theater an der Wien .

She was soon courted by the Metropolitan Opera in New York to replace Zinka Milanov , who wanted to leave the Met for the 1947/48 and 1948/49 seasons. Ilitsch sang at the Met during the two seasons 1946/47 and 1947/48, but made her New York debut on March 12, 1947 as Desdemona in Verdi's “ Otello ”. With the Met she also sang Cio-Cio-San, Amelia in Verdi's “ Un ballo in maschera ”, Aida , Leonora in “ Il trovatore ” and Ponchielli's “ La Gioconda ”. (In the summer of 1947 she sang in several operas in the Ópera Nacional in Mexico City .) From her time at the Met there are recordings of arias and duets with Kurt Baum and Richard Tucker , each with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra under Max Rudolf , as well complete recordings and highlight versions of “ La Bohème ” and “Madama Butterfly”. The radio broadcast of “ Ballo in Mascera ” from 1947 from the Met with Jan Peerce and Leonard Warren was also released as a record and later also on a compact disc .

Your reviews from this time were not without blame, especially with regard to their not always perfect technique, their lack of acting skills and their unappealing, small and stocky appearance. In the spring of 1948, her engagement at the Met came to an abrupt end: during a performance of Aida, her voice broke in the third act of the high C in the aria "O patria mia". In the next act one of the jumpers was already singing . It is not known to what extent health problems as a result of the difficult months in the concentration camp played a role.

Ilitsch returned to Vienna, where she had great success at the State Opera until 1954. As an interpreter of the roles of the lyrical and dramatic Italian subject, she was still appreciated internationally, but she was no longer a sought-after diva . Guest performances have taken her to Germany, Italy, Czechoslovakia, South Africa, South America and the USA. Her main roles were Aida, Amelia, Butterfly, Santuzza in Mascagni's “ Cavalleria rusticana ”, Nedda, Turandot and Tosca von Puccini, Marie in Smetana's “ Bartered Bride ” and Giulietta in Offenbach's “ Hoffmanns Erzählungen ”. In 1950 she sang Chrysothemis in “ Elektra ” by Richard Strauss at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Florence and as a guest at the Teatro Comunale in Bologna she sang Turandot, in 1951 the same role at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden in London .

In 1955, at a recital in New York where she sang songs by Johannes Brahms , Franz Schubert , Hugo Wolf , Petar Konjović, and Jakov Gotovac, she was warmly received by the audience that remembered her. In 1957 she gave a concert in Los Angeles, and in 1958 she was still a guest at the Stadttheater in Graz .

Danitsa Ilich grave site

The End

A serious illness ended her artistic career in 1959. She went back to Vienna and lived there largely withdrawn. She died on January 17, 1965, a few weeks before she would turn 51. Her grave is in the cemetery of the Simmering fire hall (section ML, group 184, number 6) in Vienna.

In what was once Yugoslavia and what is now Serbia , she was and is hardly ever mentioned, although she was possibly the best-known Serbian opera singer outside of Serbia.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kornelije Stanković (1831-1865) was a Serbian pianist and composer.
  2. ↑ http://www.klaus-stuebiger.de/deutsch-j%C3%BCdisch-britische-zeitgeschichte/die-otto-hess-story/erinnerung-und-w%C3%BCrdigung/
  3. ^ Peter Pirker: Subversion of German Rule: The British War Intelligence Service SOE and Austria. V&R unipress, Göttingen, 2012, ISBN 978-3-86234-990-6 (e-book), p. 442, fn. 1638
  4. ↑ Dorothea Muthesius (ed.): “What a shame about all the voices ...”: memories of music in everyday life. Böhlau, Vienna / Cologne / Weimar, 2001, ISBN 3-205-99135-4 , p. 133
  5. ↑ This performance under Dimitri Mitropoulos was released on record and CD.
personal data
SURNAME Ilitsch, Daniza
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ilić, Danica (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Yugoslav opera and lieder singer (soprano)
DATE OF BIRTH February 21, 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH Belgrade
DATE OF DEATH January 15, 1965
Place of death Vienna