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The Slovak soprano, Edita Gruberová, studied at the Bratislava Conservatory, as well as in Prague and Vienna.
Edita Gruberová's debut was in 1968 in Bratislava as Rosina (Il barbiere), and two years later she was engaged for the Queen of Night at the Vienna Staatsoper. There she became a regular member of the company in 1972, making a base for a successful international career, especially in coloratura roles. As the Queen of Night she made debuts at Glyndebourne in 1974 and at the Metropolitan Opera in 1977, in which year she first appeared at the Salzburg Festival, as Thibault (Don Carlos) under Herbert von Karajan. Her other major successes have included appearances as Zerbinetta, Gilda, Violetta, Lucia, Konstanze, Manon and Oscar; her Covent Garden début was as Giulietta in I Capuleti e i Montecchi (Bellini) in 1984. She sang Donna Anna at La Scala (1987); Marie (La fille du régiment, 1987) and Semiramis (1992) at Zürich; and Queen Elizabeth I (Roberto Devereux) in Vienna in 1990.
Edita Gruberová made many recordings, most notably in full-length opera, and extended selections from Donizetti's Tudor Queens' trilogy and other bel canto operas. She recorded W.A. Mozart's Die Zauberflöte with conductors Alain Lombard, Bernard Haitink and Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Ariadne auf Naxos with Georg Solti, and W.A. Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail with Heinz Wallberg, among others. In her later years, she recorded exclusively on the Nightingale label that she founded. More than a dozen of her filmed and televised opera appearances have been released on DVD, including W.A. Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, Così fan tutte and Die Entführung aus dem Serail; I puritani, Norma, Manon, Beatrice di Tenda, and Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia and Linda di Chamounix, and Ariadne auf Naxos. She recorded J.S. Bach's solo cantatas for soprano, such as Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen, BWV 51, and Mein Herze schwimmt im Blut, BWV 199, in 1979, with Helmut Winschermann conducting the Deutsche Bachsolisten and trumpeter Wolfgang Basch.
Edita Gruberová has a voice of great agility and tonal clarity is combined in her performances with an engaging stage personality. She was an Austrian (from 1980) and Bavarian (from 1989) Kammersängerin, and an honorary member of the Vienna Staatsoper from 1988. She was known as the "Slowakische Nachtigall" (Slovak Nightingale). She was regarded as the last prima donna assoluta. She was married to Štefan Klimo, a Czech composer and musicologist. They divorced in 1983 and Klimo took his own life soon afterwards. Beginning in the 1980's she had a long professional and personal relationship with Friedrich Haider, a pianist and conductor. They separated in 2007. She is the mother of two daughters, including the dancer and choreographer Barbara Klimo. She moved her residence to Zürich in the mid-1980s for tax reasons. She died in Zürich on October 18, 2021 at age 74.
Among the singers who studied with her and/or attended her master-classes: Vanessa Waldhart (Soprano). |
