Diva, 72, will sing her final opera next week

Diva, 72, will sing her final opera next week

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norman lebrecht

March 20, 2019

The Bavarian State Opera has made it known that next week’s performance of Gaetano Donizetti’s Roberto Devereux will be the last chance to hear Edita Gruberova on any opera stage.

The formidable Slovak coloratura soprano has been a mainstay of Munich and Vienna for just under half a century. Her portrayal of Elisabetta in Christof Loy’s production of Roberto Devereus is one of her career highlights.

Although she sang Queen of the Night at Glyndebourne and the Met, Gruberova never connected with Anglo audiences as she did with German ones.

Comments

  • Gervase says:

    Gruberova sang at the ROH In I Capuletti e Montechi under Muti and also as a brilliant Zerbinetta where she showed she was a natural comedienne.Shes a great artist but the time has finally come for retirement.

    • Edgar says:

      A well deserved retirement of a great artist. Edita Zerbinetissima, as a Munich critic once raved – justly so. Brava e grazie, Edita!

  • Pedro says:

    I remember Tebaldo in Karajan’s Don Carlo in 1978, the Queen of the Night the same year with Levine and Zerbinetta with Böhm in 1980. Great singer indeed!

    • Mike Schachter says:

      And as it says in the article too little appreciated in the English-speaking world

      • aj says:

        She may very well have had her day but in this
        mad Lucy@ 70 she is nothing short of atrocious
        and should have been persuaded not to have tried to sing if one wants to call strange sounds
        singing .Makes Florence Foster Jenkins sound
        not too bad if that is at all possible.

  • Tristan says:

    Zerbinetta was simply her best role ever, peerless in Vienna and Salzburg under Karl Boehm especially – her Belcanto roles a different chapter and like Sutherland an Caballe never ever came close to Maria Callas!

  • Tristan says:

    maybe Placido Domingo is wise and follow her ‘abtreten die Leut’ – but would Salzburg do without their annual Domingo show..? Germans love that and pay anything for it…..

  • Viola da Bracchio says:

    One of the true greats of our age 🙂 I wish her a successful show and a happy retirement.

  • lori says:

    She brought the house down when we saw her in Devereux in Budapest in 2017. I wish her well!!

  • I saw her performing last Saturday in Munich- first time for me, her Elisabetta is incredible. She is outstanding actress with tremendous stage magnetism and admirable vocal mastery!

  • Arnold Rawls Bregenz, Austria says:

    I am sorry but Lucia at age 70. . complementi. you negative people are the ones that need to sit down. .

  • RebTevyeh says:

    The British audiences thus proved themselves to be more discerning…

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