The magnificent soprano Edita Gruberova passed away on October 18 in Zurich; she was 74. She debuted at the Vienna Opera House in 1970. Her passing was noted in obituaries in major newspapers around the globe including the Washington Post and the New York Times. Thus far, I rank Renata Scotto as my favorite soprano with Kathleen Battle and Ms. Gruberova tied for number two. I am a fan of voices. Check out hers in the video below.
Soon after my infatuation with opera started, only a little over eight years ago, I was listening to the radio as I was driving to work to part of a broadcast of Gaetano Donizetti’s Anna Bolena. The soprano singing the lead bowled me over. The purity of her voice and apparent effortless ease with which she navigated the stratosphere of lyric coloratura was amazing to me, I only knew the name of the opera that I was listening to and not the names of the cast. I listened to a recording of the work and identified Act II, scene one as the section I had heard. I began listening to that scene in as many recordings as I could access on YouTube and other streaming services available to me. After about a week, I found the voice that fit my memory, Edita Gruberova.
This experience also introduced me to an oddity of listening to operatic voices. After identifying my soprano, I naturally began listening to her albums. I found that when listening to an entire album of just Ms. Gruberova, for about an hour, it became almost painful near the end. The joy was still there, but a discomfort was setting in, like eating too many chocolate-covered cherries. A friend more knowledgeable about opera than I told me that “ear fatigue” was not an uncommon phenomenon in opera. I think her voice is distinctive in some way that manages to affect my ear drums in ways others do not. It is likely part of the thrill.
While searching for information on bel canto singing, I recently ran across a fifty-minute documentary on YouTube titled “Edita Gruberova – the Art of Bel Canto”, made ten years ago. Though she sang primarily bel canto roles, the video is not a discussion of bel canto singing; it is an excellent video focused on her preparations to sing Donizetti’s Lucrezia Borgia at age 62. What makes this video so appealing is that it provides an engaging story of her life and samples of her work from over the years.
One reason I like the documentary is that we see Ms. Gruberova in her two worlds, as a diva where she commands the opera stage, and as a woman confronting the everyday issues of life. It was an interesting life – as a young singer she fled communist Czechoslovakia to sing in Vienna; she once sang with Pavarotti. She limited her performances to roles that fit her voice, mainly those from bel canto masters and lighter roles of Mozart and Verdi, letting her vocal chords determine what she would sing. She was an extraordinary professional who at heart seems to have always remained the little girl who sat in a pear tree and sang to her parents working in the fields.
I recommend the video on YouTube, and I have posted it below - in German with English subtitles; if the video does not appear in your browser, click on this link - :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqEwtVWeD3U