ORFEO International

News

November 2011

† Sena Jurinac

When a singer gives up one or more of her successful roles in order to take on a new part in the same work, albeit perhaps a role written for a different type of voice, there are not infrequently arguments over the extent to which voice and singer can cope with such a challenge. But there are some singers for whom this move seems so natural that few would question its meaningfulness. And while there have undoubtedly been a few risky and critical moments in the career of the soprano Sena Jurinac, who died on 22 November 2011 and had celebrated her ninetieth birthday only a few weeks ago, it is arguable whether there has ever been a singer who has switched so convincingly from a carefree Cherubino – the role in which she made her Viennese début in 1945 – to a wistful Countess, from a naïve Marzelline to a militant Leonore, from a forbearing Jenùfa to a strict Kostelnièka, and from a tempestuous Octavian to a detached and mellow Marschallin, the role in which Sena Jurinac bade farewell to the stage of the Vienna State Opera in 1982. She was a member of the Vienna ensemble for almost four decades, making it almost otiose to stress that all the usual clichés about prima donnas are wholly misplaced in her case. Even so, she triumphed as that quintessential prima donna Tosca, while being no less acclaimed as Madama Butterfly, reducing her audiences to tears not only in Vienna but also at London’s Royal Opera. Her multifaceted portrayal of this role may be heard in Orfeo’s series of live recordings from Vienna, as may excerpts from most of the other works mentioned here. It seems almost futile to add that she may also be heard on the Orfeo label as Beethoven’s Marzelline under Herbert von Karajan from the 1957 Salzburg Festival and as Eleonore in a concert performance of Krenek’s Karl V. under Gerd Albrecht from the 1980 Festival. But these recordings deserve to be mentioned here in order to reinforce yet again the impression of Sena Jurinac’s varied repertory and of the constancy of her career.

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