Gundula Janowitz

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Gundula Janowitz (born August 2, 1937)[1] is an Austrian lyric soprano singer of operas, oratorios and concerts. She is one of the most renowned opera singers of the 20th century and was pre-eminent in the 1960s and 1970s.

Career

Janowitz was born in Berlin, Germany, but grew up in Graz, Austria, where she became a naturalised Austrian.[2] She studied at the Graz Conservatory in Austria,[3] and had already begun to sing at the highest level by the end of the 1950s (Haydn's The Creation, with Herbert von Karajan in 1960). In 1959, Karajan engaged her as Barbarina in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro at the Vienna State Opera, of which she became a permanent member in 1962. In the 1960s and 1970s, she became one of the most popular singers in her field internationally and she developed a comprehensive discography of works ranging from Johann Sebastian Bach to Richard Strauss, in cooperation with the most prominent conductors (her mentor at times, Karajan, as well as Otto Klemperer, Eugen Jochum, Leonard Bernstein, Rafael Kubelík, Karl Böhm, Georg Solti, Carlos Kleiber, etc.)

One of the emphases of Janowitz's work was the development of song recitals, which she gave several times at the Salzburg Festivals. Following her vocal career, she was active as a vocal teacher. In 1990, she temporarily took over the position of Opera Director in Graz.[3]

In 1978, Gundula Janowitz was awarded the Joseph Marx Music Prize of the state of Styria, Austria, named for the composer, Joseph Marx.[4]

Janowitz appeared on many of the great stages of the world, including Glyndebourne Festival Opera, the Salzburg Easter Festivals, the Metropolitan Opera, the Paris Opéra, the Royal Opera House. She was made a Kammersängerin in 1969 in Vienna, Austria and Berlin, Germany in 1974.[5] In 1980, she sang the part of the Countess in a now legendary new production of Le nozze di Figaro (with Georg Solti as conductor, Giorgio Strehler as director and Ezio Frigerio as set designer).

Her recording of Schubert's lieder for female voice has been twice awarded Germany's Deutscher Schallplattenpreis.[5]

Her opera farewell was on May 18, 1990, at the Vienna State Opera in the title role of Ariadne auf Naxos (with Heinrich Hollreiser as conductor, and Filippo Sanjust (de) as director and designer). Janowitz kept singing Lied recitals until 1997, when she completely retired from the stage. She is an honorary member of the Vienna State Opera and of the Academy of Music in Graz. She was made an honorary member of the Royal Academy of Music in London in 2000.

Voice and repertory

Gundula Janowitz's voice is distinguished by its very bright, pure, crystalline, tremolo-free sound with tight, rapid vibrato, and by her even breathing technique. She kept her youthful, angelic tone and freshness well into her mature years. Like her predecessors, Elisabeth Grümmer and Maria Stader, who had similar timbre to hers, and like her contemporary, Elizabeth Harwood, Janowitz mastered first and foremost the high and middle register and lyrical-emotional expression. Despite her comparatively weak sound projection, she occasionally performed in dramatic roles (Sieglinde, Leonore, Elsa) or comic roles (Marzelline, Rosalinde), but she was most highly regarded as Fiordiligi, Countess Almaviva, Pamina, Agathe, Arabella, Ariadne, Doña Anna, the Angel Gabriel (The Creation), and Countess Madeleine, and in sacred music. She was also a leading interpreter of Richard Strauss "Four Last Songs".[1] With a few exceptions, she avoided foreign-language roles (although recordings exist of her singing Don Carlos and Verdi's Requiem and all three Mozart/DaPonte operas in Italian).

An excerpt of her portrayal of the Figaro Countess in a duet with Swiss soprano Edith Mathis features prominently in the 1994 film The Shawshank Redemption.

Selected discography

Filmography

Concerts

  • Gundula Janowitz: In Concert (1970, Berislav Klobučar (de), conductor)
  • Beethoven The Symphonies (1968, 1972, 1973, Herbert von Karajan, conductor)
  • Bach Mass in B Minor (1969, Karl Richter, conductor)
  • Mozart Requiem (1971, Karl Böhm, conductor)
  • Brahms Ein deutsches Requiem (1978, Herbert von Karajan, conductor)

Operas

Decorations and awards

  • 1969 Awarded the title Kammersängerin[5] in Austria and in Berlin in 1974
  • 1978 Joseph Marx Music Prize of the Province of Styria
  • 2000 Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art, 1st class[6]
  • 2003 Gold Medal for services to the City of Vienna
  • Grand Gold Decoration of Styria

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Janowitz, Gundula" by Alan Blyth, Grove Music Online (subscription required)
  2. ↑ "Gundula Janowitz 70" by Manuel Brug, Die Welt (2 August 2007) (German)
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Gundula Janowitz at bach-cantatas.com
  4. ↑ Joseph Marx: The Life and Works of the Composer Joseph Marx
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 "BBC Cardiff Singer of the World". 
  6. ↑ "Reply to a parliamentary question" (pdf) (in German). p. 1250. Retrieved 21 January 2013. 

External links

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