Maria Tauberová
Encyclopedia
Maria Tauberová (28 April 1911 – 16 January 2003) was a Czech opera
singer who had an active international career from the 1930s through the 1970s. A lyric coloratura soprano with an excellent technique, she possessed a warm bright voice that was even in all registers. She was particularly admired for her portrayal of Mozart
heroines. In addition to an almost four-decade career at the Prague National Theatre
, she sang throughout Europe and in South America, frequently with her husband, conductor Jaroslav Krombholc
.
, Tauberová moved with her family to Vienna
at the age of 9. She entered the Vienna Music Academy where she initially studied piano and then singing with Ferdinand Rebay
. She later pursued further vocal training in Milan with Fernando Carpi in 1934. She began her career in Vienna, portraying the title role in Fritz Kreisler
's operetta Sissy for a total of 360 performances.
In 1936 Tauberová made her débuts in Plzeň and then at the National Theatre in Prague, where she continued to sing until 1973. She made her debut with the company as Gilda in Rigoletto
. Among her signature roles at the house were Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro
, Despina in Così fan tutte
, Zerlina in Don Giovanni
, Eurydice in Talich’s interpretation of Christoph Willibald Gluck
’s Orfeo ed Euridice
, Marguerite in Faust
, Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos
, Olympia in Les contes d'Hoffmann
, Rosina in The Barber of Seville
, and Violetta in La traviata
. In the Czech repertoire she was admired for her portrayals of Karolina in The Two Widows
and the title roles in The Cunning Little Vixen
, Mirandolina
, and Julietta
. She made a number of recordings with the National Theatre on the Supraphon
label.
In 1937-1938 Tauberová was a guest at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo
and in the late 1930s and 1940s she made appearances at the Grand Théâtre de Genève
, the Opéra de Lausanne, Den Norske Opera, the Royal Opera House
in London
and the Berlin State Opera
. In 1946 she and her husband were committed to the Teatro Municipal in Rio de Janeiro
. In 1970 she sang at the Edinburgh Festival
with the Prague National Theater. In 1957 she toured Russia with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra
. Throughout her career she was a frequent guest artist at the Vienna State Opera
and at the opera houses in Budapest, Bucharest, and Sofia.
In 1959 Tauberová was made a People's Artist of the USSR
. In 1994 she was honored with a Thalia Award. She died in Prague in 2003.
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
singer who had an active international career from the 1930s through the 1970s. A lyric coloratura soprano with an excellent technique, she possessed a warm bright voice that was even in all registers. She was particularly admired for her portrayal of Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
heroines. In addition to an almost four-decade career at the Prague National Theatre
National Theatre (Prague)
The National Theatre in Prague is known as the Alma Mater of Czech opera, and as the national monument of Czech history and art.The National Theatre belongs to the most important Czech cultural institutions, with a rich artistic tradition which was created and maintained by the most distinguished...
, she sang throughout Europe and in South America, frequently with her husband, conductor Jaroslav Krombholc
Jaroslav Krombholc
Jaroslav Krombholc was a Czech conductor. He made various recordings of Czech operas for Supraphon, notably Janáček's Káťa Kabanová, and Martinů's Julietta. He was succeeded as chief conductor of the National Theatre, Prague by Václav Talich.-References:...
.
Biography
Born in Vysoké MýtoVysoké Mýto
Vysoké Mýto is a town in the Pardubice Region, Czech Republic. Founded in 1262 by the Bohemian king, Přemysl Otakar II, it is situated near its original location, called Vraclav. Vysoké Mýto is a centre of tourism, due to its architectural monuments and the nature that surrounds it. Industrial...
, Tauberová moved with her family to Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
at the age of 9. She entered the Vienna Music Academy where she initially studied piano and then singing with Ferdinand Rebay
Ferdinand Rebay
Ferdinand Rebay was a composer, music teacher, choir director, and pianist.His father, Ferdinand Rebay , was a singer, writer and composer.He studied with Josef Wöss and Eusebius Mandyczewski...
. She later pursued further vocal training in Milan with Fernando Carpi in 1934. She began her career in Vienna, portraying the title role in Fritz Kreisler
Fritz Kreisler
Friedrich "Fritz" Kreisler was an Austrian-born violinist and composer. One of the most famous violin masters of his or any other day, he was known for his sweet tone and expressive phrasing. Like many great violinists of his generation, he produced a characteristic sound which was immediately...
's operetta Sissy for a total of 360 performances.
In 1936 Tauberová made her débuts in Plzeň and then at the National Theatre in Prague, where she continued to sing until 1973. She made her debut with the company as Gilda in Rigoletto
Rigoletto
Rigoletto is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on the play Le roi s'amuse by Victor Hugo. It was first performed at La Fenice in Venice on March 11, 1851...
. Among her signature roles at the house were Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro
The Marriage of Figaro
Le nozze di Figaro, ossia la folle giornata , K. 492, is an opera buffa composed in 1786 in four acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte, based on a stage comedy by Pierre Beaumarchais, La folle journée, ou le Mariage de Figaro .Although the play by...
, Despina in Così fan tutte
Così fan tutte
Così fan tutte, ossia La scuola degli amanti K. 588, is an opera buffa by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart first performed in 1790. The libretto was written by Lorenzo Da Ponte....
, Zerlina in Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and with an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It was premiered by the Prague Italian opera at the Teatro di Praga on October 29, 1787...
, Eurydice in Talich’s interpretation of Christoph Willibald Gluck
Christoph Willibald Gluck
Christoph Willibald Ritter von Gluck was an opera composer of the early classical period. After many years at the Habsburg court at Vienna, Gluck brought about the practical reform of opera's dramaturgical practices that many intellectuals had been campaigning for over the years...
’s Orfeo ed Euridice
Orfeo ed Euridice
Orfeo ed Euridice is an opera composed by Christoph Willibald Gluck based on the myth of Orpheus, set to a libretto by Ranieri de' Calzabigi. It belongs to the genre of the azione teatrale, meaning an opera on a mythological subject with choruses and dancing...
, Marguerite in Faust
Faust (opera)
Faust is a drame lyrique in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré from Carré's play Faust et Marguerite, in turn loosely based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust, Part 1...
, Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos
Ariadne auf Naxos
Ariadne auf Naxos is an opera by Richard Strauss with a German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Bringing together slapstick comedy and consuming beautiful music, the opera's theme is the competition between high and low art for the public's attention.- First version :The opera was originally...
, Olympia in Les contes d'Hoffmann
Les contes d'Hoffmann
Les contes d'Hoffmann is an opéra by Jacques Offenbach. The French libretto was written by Jules Barbier, based on short stories by E. T. A...
, Rosina in The Barber of Seville
The Barber of Seville
The Barber of Seville, or The Futile Precaution is an opera buffa in two acts by Gioachino Rossini with a libretto by Cesare Sterbini. The libretto was based on Pierre Beaumarchais's comedy Le Barbier de Séville , which was originally an opéra comique, or a mixture of spoken play with music...
, and Violetta in La traviata
La traviata
La traviata is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi set to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. It is based on La dame aux Camélias , a play adapted from the novel by Alexandre Dumas, fils. The title La traviata means literally The Fallen Woman, or perhaps more figuratively, The Woman...
. In the Czech repertoire she was admired for her portrayals of Karolina in The Two Widows
The Two Widows
The Two Widows is a two-act Czech opera by Bedřich Smetana based on the libretto of Emanuel Züngel. The libretto is based on Jean Pierre Felicien Mallefille's one-act play "Les deux veuves." The opera was composed between June 1873 and January 1874, with its first première on March 27th, 1874 at...
and the title roles in The Cunning Little Vixen
The Cunning Little Vixen
The Cunning Little Vixen is an opera by Leoš Janáček, with a libretto adapted by the composer from a serialized novella by Rudolf Těsnohlídek and Stanislav Lolek, which was first published in the newspaper Lidové noviny.-Composition history:When Janáček discovered Těsnohlídek's...
, Mirandolina
Mirandolina
Mirandolina is a comic opera in three acts by Bohuslav Martinů, with a libretto by the composer after Carlo Goldoni's comedy The Mistress of the Inn ....
, and Julietta
Julietta
Julietta is an opera by Bohuslav Martinů, who also wrote the libretto, which is based on the play Juliette, ou La clé des songes by the French author Georges Neveux. The opera received its first performance at the National Theatre, Prague on 16 March 1938, with Ota Horaková in the title role and...
. She made a number of recordings with the National Theatre on the Supraphon
Supraphon
Supraphon Music Publishing is a Czech record label, it is oriented mainly towards publishing classical music, with an emphasis on Czech and Slovak composers.- History :...
label.
In 1937-1938 Tauberová was a guest at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo
Opéra de Monte-Carlo
The Opéra de Monte-Carlo is an opera house located in the principality of Monaco.With the lack of cultural diversions available in Monaco in the 1870s, Prince Charles III, along with the Société des Bains de Mer, decided on the construction of an opera house. Initially, it was Charles III's...
and in the late 1930s and 1940s she made appearances at the Grand Théâtre de Genève
Grand Théâtre de Genève
Grand Théâtre de Genève is an opera house in Geneva, Switzerland.As with many other opera houses, the Grand Théâtre de Genève is both a venue and an institution. The venue is a majestic building, towering over Place Neuve, officially opened in 1876, partly destroyed by fire in 1951 and reopened in...
, the Opéra de Lausanne, Den Norske Opera, the Royal Opera House
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and the Berlin State Opera
Berlin State Opera
The Staatsoper Unter den Linden is a German opera company. Its permanent home is the opera house on the Unter den Linden boulevard in the Mitte district of Berlin, which also hosts the Staatskapelle Berlin orchestra.-Early years:...
. In 1946 she and her husband were committed to the Teatro Municipal in Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
. In 1970 she sang at the Edinburgh Festival
Edinburgh Festival
The Edinburgh Festival is a collective term for many arts and cultural festivals that take place in Edinburgh, Scotland each summer, mostly in August...
with the Prague National Theater. In 1957 she toured Russia with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra
Czech Philharmonic Orchestra
The Česká filharmonie is a symphony orchestra based in Prague and is the best-known and most respected orchestra in the Czech Republic.- History :...
. Throughout her career she was a frequent guest artist at the Vienna State Opera
Vienna State Opera
The Vienna State Opera is an opera house – and opera company – with a history dating back to the mid-19th century. It is located in the centre of Vienna, Austria. It was originally called the Vienna Court Opera . In 1920, with the replacement of the Habsburg Monarchy by the First Austrian...
and at the opera houses in Budapest, Bucharest, and Sofia.
In 1959 Tauberová was made a People's Artist of the USSR
People's Artist of the USSR
People's Artist of the USSR, also sometimes translated as National Artist of the USSR, was an honorary title granted to citizens of the Soviet Union.- Nomenclature and significance :...
. In 1994 she was honored with a Thalia Award. She died in Prague in 2003.