Edita Gruberová

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Edita Gruberová (2008)

Edita Gruberová (born December 23, 1946 in Bratislava-Rača , Czechoslovakia ; † October 18, 2021 in Zurich , Switzerland ) was a Slovak opera singer ( soprano ). She was one of the leading coloratura sopranos , which earned her nicknames like “Queen of Coloratura ”, “High Priestess of Belcanto ” or “Slovak Nightingale ”.

Life

Edita Gruberová grew up as the daughter of a Hungarian mother (Etelka) and a father of German descent (Gustav Gruber) speaking the Slovak language. Her family belonged to the local Hungarian minority. Her voice was already noticed at school performances, whereupon the pastor recommended that the parents receive professional musical training for their only daughter. Edita Gruberová, who actually wanted to become a nurse , began her six-year studies at the age of 15 at the Bratislava Conservatory; her singing teacher was Mária Medvecká. On February 19, 1968, the 21-year-old made her debut in the role of Rosina in the Barber of Seville in Bratislava, where she had already participated as a student in choral ensembles. She made her first professional stage appearances in the years 1968 to 1971 in the provincial town of Banská Bystrica . There she sang Eliza in My Fair Lady , Violetta in Verdi's La traviata and the four female roles Olympia, Giulietta, Antonia and Stella in Hoffmann's stories by Jacques Offenbach .

Enter Queen of the Night. Stage design by Karl Friedrich Schinkel , 1802

In 1970 Gruberová made her debut at the Vienna State Opera as Queen of the Night in Mozart's Magic Flute . On March 23, 1971, she fled socialist Czechoslovakia and went to Vienna, where she worked with the chamber singer Ruthilde Boesch on perfecting her voice and repertoire. "She taught me the technique that I can use today," confirmed Edita Gruberová in an interview about her singing teacher. At the Vienna State Opera she first appeared in small roles, such as milliner in Rosenkavalier , as Kate Pinkerton in Madame Butterfly , later also as Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos , Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail , Olympia in Les Contes d'Hoffmann and Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia .

In 1986 she became a permanent member of the Zurich Opera House and Zollikon their center of life. Her two daughters went to school in Switzerland and their grandchildren still live in Switzerland.

Edita Gruberová was the special ambassador for the Swiss Friends of SOS Children's Villages . She was married to the Slovak musician Štefan Klimo († 1983) until the divorce in 1983. Longer time she was with Friedrich Haider dating, A1 with whom she worked closely and professionally. Both of them founded a music label in 1992 that published Gruberová's bel canto parts. The two separated in 2007.

Gruberová died on October 18, 2021 at the age of 74 in Zurich, her adopted home.

Career

Gruberová's international career as a coloratura singer, especially in the Belcanto class , began in 1974 when she appeared as Queen of the Night in the Magic Flute at the Glyndebourne Festival and under Herbert von Karajan in Salzburg .

Further milestones in her career were the premiere of Ariadne auf Naxos under Karl Böhm in 1976 , when she sang Zerbinetta , a role in which she appeared in Vienna for the hundredth and last time on December 6, 2009, and in 1978 as Lucia in Lucia di Lammermoor , which she sang about 90 times at the State Opera. It followed at the Vienna State Opera, inter alia. Premieres by Die Fledermaus (1979), Rigoletto (1983), Maria Stuarda (1985), Lucio Silla (1991), I puritani (1994), Linda di Chamounix (1997) and Roberto Devereux (2000). In the Theater an der Wien in 2015 was followed by a premiere of La straniera .

“Since then, Edita Gruberová has become a much sought-after singer in Vienna and around the world, and it is said that no coloratura was too difficult and no height too high. Her effortless high 'f's' as Queen of the Night were unparalleled and made Edita Gruberová the epitome of the ideal coloratura soprano. "

This was followed by appearances at La Scala in Milan , the Royal Opera House in London, the Paris Opera (for two concerts with piano accompaniment in 1980 and 1990), the Bavarian State Opera , the Vienna State Opera, the Zurich Opera House (1986) and numerous other theaters . One of her most important roles was Lucia di Lammermoor , whose insane aria she performed partly with the original glass harmonica part adapted for verrophone and flute . Another highlight of her career was her performance in La traviata in October 1989 under the direction of Carlos Kleiber and directed by Franco Zeffirelli at the New York Metropolitan Opera . The last time she appeared in this role as part of a concert performance was on December 21, 2010 at the Wiener Musikverein . On April 24th and May 1st, 2004 Gruberová sang for the first time in the role of Norma in the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden , on February 22nd, 2008 in the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona as Lucrezia Borgia , on July 5th, 2012 in the Philharmonie in Munich's Gasteig La straniera .

Edita Gruberová earned special merits through her commitment to seldom played - and until then only little appreciated in the German-speaking area - operas by Donizetti and Bellini with their extraordinarily demanding female leading roles, such as Maria Stuarda , Beatrice di Tenda , La straniera , Anna Bolena , Roberto Devereux or Linda di Chamounix . There were also numerous CD recordings under her label Nightingale .

In the course of her long singing career, Edita Gruberová worked with many great conductors of the time, such as Karl Böhm , Richard Bonynge , Sir Colin Davis , Kurt Eichhorn , Friedrich Haider , Nikolaus Harnoncourt , Herbert von Karajan , Carlos Kleiber , Kurt Masur , Zubin Mehta , Riccardo Muti , Seiji Ozawa , Nicola Rescigno , Giuseppe Sinopoli , Sir Georg Solti , and performed with well-known singers such as Agnes Baltsa , Lucia Popp , Gundula Janowitz , Mirella Freni , Illeana Cotrubas , Katja Ricciarelli , Vesselina Kasarova , Elina Garansa, Brigitte Fassbaender , Reri Grist , Jessye Norman , Leontyne Price , Elena Obratzova and Anny Schlemm and singers like Francisco Araiza , Peter Schreier , José Bros, Pavol Breslik , Renato Bruson , Bernd Weikl , Dmitri Hvorostovsky , Rolando Panerai , Giorgio Zancanaro , Walter Berry , Plácido Domingo , José Carreras , Juan Diego Flórez , James King , Gösta Winbergh , René Kollo , Alfredo Kraus , Luciano Pavarotti , Mattia Talvela , Kurt Moll ode r Neil Shicoff on.

Gruberová has always practiced lieder since the beginning of her career. Her repertoire included compositions by Johannes Brahms , Robert Schumann , Franz Schubert , Richard Strauss , Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy , Gioacchino Rossini and Léo Delibes . She was often accompanied on the piano by Friedrich Haider .

An extensive discography and a large number of various TV and video recordings document the singer's great musical spectrum.

On March 27, 2019, she was on stage for the last time in an opera production. At the Bavarian State Opera she performed Queen Elisabetta in Donizetti's opera Roberto Devereux , staged by Christof Loy , for which she received fifty minutes of applause.

In September 2020, she announced that her career was over.

Awards

Discography (selection)

Complete opera recordings

Albums

  • Schubert: songs - Mendelssohn: songs - Strauss: Brentano songs
  • Brahms - Dvořák - Strauss: songs
  • Mozart, Debussy, Wolf: songs
  • R. Strauss: songs
  • R. Strauss: orchestral songs
  • Spring songs
  • Dvořák - Rachmaninow - Rimskij-Korsakow (songs)
  • Duets: We sisters two, we beautiful ones (with Vesselina Kasarova )
  • From heart to heart
  • Dialogue . New romantic ballads
  • Siente me - Popular avenues
  • JS Bach: cantatas, flute concerts
  • JS Bach / GF Handel / Mozart: Hymn
  • Joy to the World - Christmas Recital
  • Children's Songs of the World
  • Mozart: concert arias (multiple)
  • French & Italian Operatic Arias
  • Famous opera arias
  • Edita Gruberova: Virtuoso Arias
  • Edita Gruberova sings Verdi, Bellini, Donizetti
  • Edita Gruberova - The Tokyo Recital 1990
  • The Art of Gruberova
  • Insane scenes
  • Donizetti portraits
  • Donizetti's Tudor queens
  • The Queen of Belcanto (Edita Gruberova Edition Volume I)
  • ADAGIO. Between heaven and earth (Edita Gruberova Edition Volume II)
  • Queen of Coloratura
  • Art of coloratura
  • The Anniversary Concert
  • Oh, we poor prima donnas! Edita Gruberova Operetta Gala
  • Belcanto Duets - Edita Gruberova, Yoshikazu Mera
  • Le Donne di Puccini
  • Edita Gruberova - arias, songs and ensembles

More albums

Rolls only as video / DVD recordings

  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Così fan tutte
  • Jules Massenet: Manon
  • Richard Strauss: Arabella
  • Johannes Brahms: A German Requiem
  • Giuseppe Verdi: Rigoletto . 1983, as Gilda, with L. Pavarotti as Duke, directed by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle
  • Giuseppe Verdi: La traviata . 1992 / live (La Fenice Venice), with N. Shicoff as Alfredo, conductor Carlo Rizzi.

literature

  • Walter Herrmann, Adrian Hollaender : Legends and Stars of the Opera. From Gigli to Callas to Domingo and Netrebko . Graz 2007, ISBN 978-3-7011-7571-0 .
  • Helena Matheopoulos: Diva. Life and roles of great opera singers . Zurich / St. Gallen 1995, ISBN 3-7265-6033-5 .
  • Niel Rishoi: Edita Gruberova. A portrait . With demo CD and discography. Zurich 1996, ISBN 3-254-00192-3 .
  • Dieter David Scholz: The myth of the prima donna. 25 divas refute a cliché. Conversations with great singers . Parthas, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-932529-60-X .
  • Markus Thiel: Edita Gruberova. Singing is my gift . Biography. Kassel / Leipzig 2012, ISBN 978-3-89487-915-0 (Henschel).

Lexical entries

TV recordings and films (selection)

Web links

Commons : Edita Gruberová  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Star soprano Edita Gruberova has died. In: zeit.de . dpa , October 18, 2021, accessed on October 18, 2021 .
  2. ↑ ( World on Sunday, January 11, 2004)
  3. ↑ Star soprano Edita Gruberova dies In: Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen from October 19, 2021
  4. ↑ Markus Thiel: Stars with a side dish . On September 7, 2016 from merkur.de , accessed on March 8, 2019
  5. ↑ George Etscheid: Edita Gruberova takes leave of the Bavarian State Opera . On February 14, 2012 from nmz.de , accessed on March 8, 2019
  6. ↑ Ilona Hanning: "Simply up and down" - the soprano Edita Gruberová . On December 19, 2016 from br-klassik.de , accessed on March 8, 2019
  7. ↑ Robert Fraunholzer: encore - names, messages, niceties: news from the backstage . In: Rondo . tape 2/2007 , 2007 ( rondomagazin.de [accessed on March 8, 2019]).
  8. ↑ Performances with Edita Gruberová at the Salzburg Festival
  9. ^ Edita Gruberová's appearances at the Vienna State Opera .
  10. ↑ La straniera. In the website of the Theater an der Wien.
  11. ↑ Herrmann, Hollaender: Legends and Stars of the Opera. 2007, p. 64.
  12. ^ Appearances by Edita Gruberová at La Scala in Milan
  13. ^ Performances with Edita Gruberová at the Royal Opera House / Covent Garden in London
  14. ↑ An inner fire blazed behind her cool perfection - on the death of Edita Gruberová In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung from October 19, 2021
  15. ^ Edita Gruberová's appearances at the Metropolitan Opera in New York
  16. ↑ OperaWire: Edita Gruberová cancels upcoming performance and ends career . Article dated September 11, 2020, accessed September 13, 2020.
  17. ↑ "Slovak Nightingale" Edita Gruberova awarded. In: City Hall correspondence of May 27, 2009 including a picture of the presentation .
  18. ↑ Gruberova receives the Herbert von Karajan Prize on ORF on March 7, 2013.
  19. ↑ Awarding of the 2nd Austrian Music Theater Prize on June 17, 2014 ( Memento from April 4, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF) Retrieved on April 4, 2015.
  20. ^ Opening program of the Richard Strauss Festival 2016 ( Memento from June 27, 2016 in the Internet Archive ). Retrieved April 6, 2018.
  21. ↑ The film contains many rehearsals and interviews, among others. by Joachim Kaiser and Nikolaus Harnoncourt . His focus is on personal preparation for the debut of the over 60-year-olds in the title role as Lucrezia Borgia in 2008.
personal data
SURNAME Gruberová, Edita
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Slovak opera singer (soprano)
BIRTH DATE December 23, 1946
PLACE OF BIRTH Bratislava-Rača , Czechoslovakia
DATE OF DEATH October 18, 2021
PLACE OF DEATH Zurich