100Singers's video: 100 Singers - In Memoriam: EDITA GRUBEROV

What´s the name of the most important coloratur-soprano during the last decades? I´m sure, most of you will say: Edita Gruberova! And one critic wrote: "Miss Gruberová belongs to the most extraordinary vocal phenomenons of the last forty years!" In the early 1970s, her "Queen of the Night" caused sensation, and since that she was invited to sing at many of the most important opera houses in the world, especially in coloratura roles. Soon she changed from the leading "Queen of the Night" to the omnipresent "Queen of Coloratura". With her label "Nightingale-Records" she recorded almost the whole Belcanto- and Coloratura-repertory. After a Munich-performance of Donizetti´s ROBERTO DEVEREUX, a critic asked: "If there really is justice, 30 years from now they don´t talk about Open-Air-events with Netrebko, but they will say: I´ve heard Gruberova as Elisabetta!" Another critic´s statement: "I´m too young to have heard Callas on stage, but if I compare her Norma-recordings with Gruberova´s live-performances (2007 Hamburg and Vienna, 2008 at the Munich-Festival), it seems the latter was more impressiv! Gruberova said, with NORMA she reached the top of her career!" Her NORMA-Debut took place in Tokyo 2003 when she was already 57! "I´ve studied Callas recordings of NORMA, and I adore her ability to transform each single note into real life!", Gruberova said in an interview. With the passing of Edita Gruberova we've lost one of the last real primadonnas of opera, a real singer instead of a singing mannequin. It was James Levine who once said about her: "I´ve never heard such a Zerbinetta before!" Please enjoy now in memory of Edita Gruberová one of Mozart´s difficult concert-arias: "Ah, se in ciel benigne stelle", a showpiece he composed for his first great love and later sister-in-law Aloysia Lange, when he was 32 years old. Edita Gruberová died October 18, 2021 at age 74. If you would like to share your thoughts with us, please leave a comment.