Ileana Cotrubaș

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Ileana Cotrubaș ( pronunciation ? / I ; born June 9, 1939 in Galați ) is a Romanian opera singer . She is one of the most famous sopranos of the 20th century. Audio file / audio sample

Life

Training and beginnings

Ileana Cotrubaș was born into a musical family. In 1948 she became a member of the children's choirs of Radio Bucharest and the Opera Națională Bucureşti . She sang there u. a. in the operas Carmen , La Bohème and Tosca . After graduating from high school , she studied in Bucharest at the Ciprian Porumbescu Conservatory with Constantin Stroescu . In 1964 she made her debut at the Bucharest National Opera in the boy role of Yniold in the opera Pelléas et Mélisande by Claude Debussy . She remained engaged at the Bucharest National Opera until 1966, during which time she mainly sang roles from the field of coloratura soubrette : Oscar in Un ballo in maschera , Blondchen in Die Entführung aus dem Serail , but also Gilda in Rigoletto .

In 1964 she won the Enescu competition in Bucharest in singing. In 1965 she was the winner of the singing competition in 's-Hertogenbosch in Holland . In 1966 she received first prize in the singing competition of the ARD broadcasting corporations in Munich.

International career

In the 1970/71 season Ileana Cotrubaș made her debut as Tatjana in Eugene Onegin at the Covent Garden Opera in London.

Since 1969 she has also sung at the Vienna State Opera . From 1970 to 1973 she was permanently engaged there, where she worked out a Mozart and Richard Strauss repertoire. In addition to the already studied Mozart part of the blonde, new roles were added during her time in Vienna: Konstanze, Susanna, Pamina, Ilia in Idomeneo , Zerlina in Don Giovanni , Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier , Violetta in Verdi's La traviata at the side of Nicolai Gedda and Mimì in La Bohème .

In 1973 she sang Mimì in La Bohème for the first time at the Lyric Opera of Chicago . The same role followed her highly acclaimed debut at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan in 1975 when she stepped in for Mirella Freni at the last minute . In 1977 she gave her first performance as Mimì at the New York Metropolitan Opera . Her partners were José Carreras as Rodolfo and Renata Scotto as Musetta. This was followed by the roles of Gilda (1977/78 season) in Rigoletto and Violetta in La traviata (1980/81 season) at the Metropolitan Opera , these with the partners Plácido Domingo as Duca and Alfredo Germont and Cornell MacNeil as Rigoletto and Germont senior.

La Traviata was recorded with her as Violetta in 1976/1977 under the direction of Carlos Kleiber in the line-up of Plácido Domingo and Sherrill Milnes as a studio production with the Bavarian State Orchestra for the label " Deutsche Grammophon ", which is now regarded as "legendary" in opera circles .

In 1982, also at the Metropolitan Opera, she sang the role of Ilia in Mozart's opera Idomeneo in a production by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle with partners Luciano Pavarotti (Idomeneo), Frederica von Stade (Idamante) and Hildegard Behrens (Elettra).

In 1983 she sang Rosalinde in the operetta Die Fledermaus by Johann Strauss at the Paris Opera .

In 1989 she sang the role of Mélisande again at Maggio Musicale . In 1990 she gave up her active stage career. Her last role at the Vienna State Opera was Mimì in La Bohème on November 26, 1990 at the side of Luis Lima .

The beauty of her voice, her multilingualism and her great acting achievements were often praised.

As an Austrian chamber singer (1981) and honorary member of the Vienna State Opera (1991), she is now active as a juror in singing competitions, leads master classes and works as a private voice coach for singers.

Festival engagements

Ileana Cotrubaş appeared at numerous international festivals. In Glyndebourne she sang a. a. 1969 Melisande, 1970 Pamina in Die Zauberflöte and 1973 Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro . At the Salzburg Festival she sang a. a. 1980 and 1981 Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail and 1978–1984 Pamina in Die Zauberflöte .

Criticism of the director's theater

Ileana Cotrubaş was considered "difficult" by artistic directors and directors during her career. In 1973 she dropped out of a new production of the opera Eugen Onegin in Vienna , and in 1980 she was rehearsing Don Pasquale at the Metropolitan Opera. In 1981 she threatened to quit a production of the opera La Traviata at the Metropolitan Opera because she did not agree to the new staging of the director John Dexter .

In 1987, after a performance of the opera La traviata at the Zurich Opera House , she addressed the audience in an address and asked for their indulgence for having to appear in this visually unsatisfactory production by director Nicolas Joel and set designer Pet Halmen .

After finishing her career, she sharply criticized the ruling opera industry in her autobiography Opera Truths .

Ileana Cotrubaș has been married to the German conductor Manfred Ramin since 1972 . The marriage is childless.

Publications

literature

Web links

Commons : Ileana Cotrubaș  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Chronicle of the Vienna State Opera 1945–1995, Verlag Anton Schroll & Co., Vienna and Munich 1995
  2. Biography on London Master Classes ( Memento from July 12, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  3. Ileana Cotrubaș , biography on www.bach-cantatas.com
  4. biography at www.bach-cantatas.com
  5. ^ Opera: Illeana Cotrubas in Met's new 'Traviata'. In: New York Times . March 19, 1981
  6. Artist talk by KS Ileana Cotrubas ( Memento of the original from March 30, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Friends of the Vienna State Opera 2009  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.opernfreunde.at
  7. Julia Poser: Sincere Settlement. Biography “Opera Truths” by Ileana Cotrubas. In: Young Freedom . June 4, 1999