Jarmila Hassan Abdel Wahab

Jarmila Hassan Abdel Wahab, 1932

Jarmila Hassan Abdel Wahab (née Krzywa ; divorced tailor , widowed Hassan Abdel Wahab ; divorced Fröhlichová ; born April 17, 1917 in Prague ; † April 24, 1996 in Studnice ) was a Czech mezzo-soprano. She performed under the stage name Jarmila Kristenová . In her child roles she was named Miluška Krzywa .

Life

Jarmila Krzywa came from a family of musicians. Her father František Krzywý was an orchestra musician at the Theater in the Vineyards and the National Theater in Prague. Her mother Anna Krzywa was also an opera singer. Miluška Krzywa had her first stage appearance in 1922 when she was five years old in the role of Cho-Cho-San's child in Madame Butterfly . Between 1932 and 1938 Krzywa attended the Prague Conservatory with Beno Blachut and Ján Cikker . She then continued her vocal studies at the German Academy with Konrad Wallerstein until 1941 . At the same time she sang at the opera houses in Mährisch Ostrauand Olomouc , where she performed under the stage name Jarmila Kristenová . In 1941 the singer got an engagement as an opera soloist at the Pilsen Theater . A year later, through Pavel Ludikar's mediation, Jarmila Kristenová received a scholarship from the Ministry of Culture to study singing at the Mozarteum in Salzburg with Salvatore Salvatti , which lasted until 1943. Then she was engaged at the Klagenfurt Opera House , where she sang the lead role of Field Marshal in Rosenkavalier . In Klagenfurt, the singer took part in the resistance against National Socialism and was in contact with Slovenian partisans in the Karawanken , which she supplied with medicines and bandages from Prague.

After the end of the Second World War she returned to Prague and became a soloist at the Theater des May 5th , where she sang the role of Medea in Georg Anton Benda 's melodrama of the same name. In 1946 the Kristenová moved to the Brno State Theater for four seasons . After the communists came to power, the artist looked for a way to legally leave Czechoslovakia . During a guest performance at the Vienna State Opera, she met the businessman Josef Schneider, whom she married in 1950 in a sham marriage. With the Austrian citizenship thus obtained, she moved to Vienna .

Schneider forbade the singer to work outside of Vienna. At the beginning of the 1950s, Kristenová sang in Salzburg, Munich and Hilversum. She also went on two vocal tours to Denmark , Norway and Sweden . In 1951, Kristenová was celebrated by audiences and critics alike at the Salzburg Opera Festival in the role of Magda Sorel in Menotti's Consul . In 1952 the singer met Hassan Muhamad Abdel Wahab, Marshal and Councilor of King Faruqs , in Vienna . Abdel Wahab, who comes from one of the most influential families in the country, retained his offices after the military coup and was chairman of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee. After her broken marriage with Schneider divorced in September 1952, Kristenová received an offer of marriage and an invitation to Cairo from the Egyptian pasha, who was 30 years her senior . On March 18, 1953, the singer married Abdel Wahab in an Islamic court in Cairo and became one of his four wives. In the marriage contract he guaranteed her u. a. maintaining their Catholic faith. Nor did she have to cover her head. The marriage gave the singer dual citizenship in Egypt and Czechoslovakia. This enabled her to return to her home country.

With Giuseppe Poggiolini she took private singing studies in Cairo. Her concert appearances were reduced to exceptional cases after her marriage to the Pasha. So she stepped u. a. at the Swiss embassy in Dvořák's Stabat mater . During this time, she traveled through Africa - accompanied by eunuchs - and attended renowned European art auctions to complete her art collection. In Brno she took a course in archeology and art history, and she was in regular contact with Karel Absolon . Hassan Muhamad Abdel Wahab was characterized by the changes that took place in Egyptian society after Nasser came to power and the associated loss of power. After the outbreak of the Suez crisis , Jarmila Hassan Abdel Wahab fled Egypt in April 1956 and traveled to Prague.

First she got a temporary job at the Náchod Music School and lived with relatives in Zlíč near Česká Skalice . A resumption of her career as an opera singer was not possible, as she only received guest roles in Brno and Ústí nad Labem, but permanent engagements were denied by the Czechoslovak cultural authorities. Jarmila Hassan Abdel Wahab has worked as a music teacher since then and taught at the elementary school in Náchod. In 1960, when the positions of the State Conservatory in Prague were advertised, it was not considered. After the death of her husband, who had died of a heart attack in Cairo, Jarmila Hassan married Abdel Wahab a third time in 1962 and moved to Žabokrky. The marriage with the Hronov teacher Milan Fröhlich was unhappy and after the divorce in 1975 Jarmila Hassan Abdel Wahab-Fröhlichová took her previous name again. She first moved to the Strakonice area, shortly afterwards returned to Eastern Bohemia, where she acquired and expanded the old fortress in Studnice, which was last used as a rectory. She taught into old age, most recently from 1978 to 1996 at the elementary school in Nové Město nad Metují . In addition, she gave concerts in churches and gave lectures.

Jarmila Hassan Abdel Wahab found her final resting place in the Boušín cemetery .

Discography

• Otakar Ostrčil : Kunála's eyes. ( Kunálovy oči ), ultraphone

Web links

• http://jarmila-hassan-e.blogspot.com/
• personal résumé (PDF file; 65 kB)