Hana Hegerová

Jovan Department: Hana Hegerová (2006)

Hana Hegerová , bourgeois Carmen Farkašová (born October 20, 1931 in Bratislava , Czechoslovakia ) is a Slovak chanson singer and actress . She has lived in Prague since the 1950s .

Life

As a child, she took ballet and foreign language classes and dreamed of becoming an actress. The graduate of a theater conservatory started her artistic career as an actress in Komárno on the Slovakian-Hungarian border under the name Hana Čelková .

In the 1950s she came to Prague at the invitation of her agency. Here she modestly changed her name, which sounds "exotic" in her own words, to the pseudonym Hana Hegerová (after her then husband Dalibor Heger ). She fled to the theater from initial difficulties, lack of money and ice-cold apartments. As early as 1958 she appeared as a star in the newly founded so-called “theaters of small stages” Rococo and Semafor .

Hana Hegerová was able to celebrate her greatest successes in the 1960s. Guest performances in 15 countries, including France, Germany, Switzerland and Austria, made the singer known in other European countries. In addition to her native Slovak and (mainly) Czech, she sings songs in German, English, French, Hungarian and Yiddish . She guested u. a. in the famous Paris Music Palace Olympia - an obligatory reminiscence of Jacques Brel , who celebrated successes here in the same place.

Her beginning international career came to an abrupt end in 1968 when the invasion and occupation by Warsaw Pact troops brought the end of the “ Prague Spring ”. Hana Hegerová was also banned from appearing at home and abroad and was even imprisoned for six months for a questionable property offense. She found her new field of activity in the Prague theater Divadlo Na zábradlí (“On the railing”), to which she belonged until 1989.

After the fall of the Wall, Hana Hegerová released ten CDs. Four times a year the singer appeared on the stage of the Prague Theater Divadlo Kalich , took part in charity events, was a popular guest on television and radio; however, their medium was the live concert and direct contact with the audience. Her last CD with excerpts from a live concert was released in 2006.

In addition to songs by the great chansonnier Jacques Brel, the singer also recorded numerous pieces by Kurt Weill , Gilbert Bécaud , Charles Aznavour , Georges Moustaki , George Gershwin , Jacques Prévert , William Best , Luis Aguilé , Petr Hapka and Jiří Šlitr . In many cases she interprets their chansons not only in the original language, but also with sensitive Czech texts by various authors, such as B. Jiří Suchý or Pavel Kopta .

Also called “ Édith Piaf from Prague”, she is still considered the “Queen of Czech Chanson” and celebrated her 72nd birthday in 2003 with a gala on the most famous stage in the country, the Prague National Theater ( Národní divadlo , popularly also: “ golden chapel ”), celebrate - completely sold out in less than an hour. She would never have dared to dream of such an appearance, she explained in an interview to Radio Prague : "... this building has always been sacred to me, so I feel a great responsibility."

When asked what lies behind her love for chanson, she said: “We perceive the 'chanson' as something very complicated. Especially the so-called 'realistic chanson', which has been my domain. I would call any song a chanson. It requires a high level of commitment from the singer and a good quality of the text. "

On August 12, 2011, she announced the end of her concert career.

Discography

• Šansony (1966, 2006)
• I - Hana Hegerová (1967)
• Hana Hegerová (1969)
• Recitál (1971)
• This is how the world works (1972)
• Recitál 2 (1974, 2006)
• Almost a Love Song (1974)
• We for you (1975)
• Lásko prokletá (1978) [= Ne me quitte pas (Jacques Brel)]
• Ohlédnutí (1984)
• Potměšilý host (1987)
• Chansons / When the shadows are longer than the paths (1987)
• Live (1990)
• Paběrky (1991)
• Hity 1962 (1992)
• Hity 1964 (1992)
• Povídej ... (1994)
• Starci a Klarinety (1996)
• Zlatá kolekce (1996)
• Rozdíl (1996)
• Rýmování o životě (Výběr písní I + II) (1997) [2CD]
• Bratislava live (1998)
• Síň slávy (2000) [2CD]
• Můj dík (Hana Hegerová zpívá písně Pavla Kopty) (2005)
• Všechno nejlepší (2006) [2CD]
• Concert (2006)
• Paběrky a pamlsky (2009)
• Mlýnské kolo v srdci mém (2010)

Filmography

Movies

• 1954: The sisters (Frona)
• 1957: At the end of the line (Tam na konečné)
• 1960: I survived my death (Přežil jsem svou smrt)
• 1961: Policejní hodina
• 1962: Zhasněte lampióny
• 1962: Every day Sunday (Neděle ve všední den)
• 1963: Konkurs (Director: Miloš Forman ) (Germany 2007)
• 1964: Kdyby tisíc Klarinetů
• 1964: Hope (Naděje)
• 1966: Dobře placená procházka (TV film, director: Miloš Forman)
• 1967: Old Prague Melodies (Ta naše písnička česká)
• 1970: visit around ten
• 1976: The criminal cases of Major Zeman (30 případů majora Zemana) - episode: Mědirytina - 1950
• 1976: The invisible visor - consequence: the peacock has seven eyes
• 1988: Lovec senzací
• 1989: Factory of the officers (TV multi-part)
• 1991: The last butterfly (Poslední motýl)
• 2006: Kde lampy bloudí

Appearances in entertainment programs

• 1969: EWG - One will win (vocal performance on January 25th)
• 1974: The turntable (vocal performance on December 18)

Web links

Commons : Hana Hegerová  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Hana Hegerová in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Hana Hegerová on Europopmusic.eu (English)