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Gundula Janowitz

{{short description|Austrian lyric soprano}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2025}}

{{infobox person

| title = Kammersängerin

| name = Gundula Janowitz

| image =

| image_upright =

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1937|8|2|df=y}}

| birth_place = Berlin, Germany

| nationality = Austrian

| occupation = Soprano singer

| organisation = Vienna State Opera

| years_active = 1959–1997

| awards = Austrian Decoration for Science and Art

}}

Gundula Janowitz (born 2 August 1937)[http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/14144 "Janowitz, Gundula"] by Alan Blyth, Grove Music Online {{Subscription required}} is an Austrian lyric soprano singer of operas, oratorios, lieder, 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, but grew up in Graz, Austria, where she became a naturalised Austrian.{{Cite web |date=16 November 2011 |title=Glückwunsch: Gundula Janowitz 70 – WELT |url=https://www.welt.de/welt_print/article1073834/Gundula-Janowitz-70.html |access-date=20 September 2023 |website=DIE WELT |language=de}} She studied at the Graz Conservatory in Austria, 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.

During the 1960s and 1970s, Janowitz became one of the most popular singers in her field internationally and she developed a comprehensive discography of works ranging from Bach to Richard Strauss. Those eminent conductors with whom she performed included Karajan, but also Otto Klemperer, Eugen Jochum, Leonard Bernstein, Rafael Kubelík, Karl Böhm, Georg Solti, and Carlos Kleiber.

One of the emphases of Janowitz's work was the development of song recitals, which she gave several times at the Salzburg Festival. Following her vocal career, she was active as a vocal teacher. In 1990, she temporarily took over the position of Opera Director in Graz.{{Cite web |title=Gundula Janowitz (Soprano) – Short Biography |url=https://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Janowitz-Gundula.htm |access-date=20 September 2023 |website=www.bach-cantatas.com}}

Janowitz appeared on many of the great stages of the world, including the Glyndebourne Festival Opera, the Bayreuth Festival, the Salzburg Easter Festival, the Metropolitan Opera, the Paris Opera, La Scala and the Royal Opera House. In 1980, she sang the part of the Countess in a now legendary new production of The Marriage of 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.{{Cite web |title=BBC – Wales – Cardiff Singer of the World – About Cardiff Singer – Gundula Janowitz |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/cardiffsinger/sites/about/pages/gundula_janowitz.shtml |access-date=20 September 2023 |website=www.bbc.co.uk}}

Janowitz's farewell to the operatic stage was on 18 May 1990, at the Vienna State Opera in the title role of Ariadne auf Naxos (with Heinrich Hollreiser as conductor, and {{Interlanguage link|Filippo Sanjust|de}} as director and designer). She kept singing Lieder recitals until 1997, when she completely retired from performing. As well as being an honorary member of the Vienna State Opera and of the Academy of Music in Graz, she was appointed an honorary member of the Royal Academy of Music in London in 2000.

Voice and repertory

Janowitz's voice is recognizable by its pure,{{cite web|url=http://www.norpete.com/v1674.html|title=Gundula Janowitz (Gala 337)|work=Norbeck, Peters & Ford|access-date=2 September 2015}}{{cite web|url=http://www.gramophone.co.uk/review/gundula-janowitz-the-golden-voice|title=Gundula Janowitz – (The) Golden Voice}} by James Jolly, Gramophone (1 April 2006) "creamy"{{Cite web|url=https://www.deutschegrammophon.com/en/album/sinfinimusic.html|title=Sinfinimusic – Deutsche Grammophon|website=www.deutschegrammophon.com|access-date=31 January 2020|archive-date=12 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191212024459/https://www.deutschegrammophon.com/en/album/sinfinimusic.html|url-status=dead}} tone, and rapid vibrato.{{cite journal|last1=Ferrante|first1=Isidoro|title=Vibrato rate and extent in soprano voice: A survey on one century of singing|journal=The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America|date=2 September 2011|volume=130|issue=3|page=1686|url=http://opera.wolftrap.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Vibrato-rate-and-extent-in-soprano-voice.pdf|doi=10.1121/1.3621017|pmid=21895105}} Like her predecessor Maria Stader, who had a 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 Rosina Almaviva, Pamina, Agathe, Arabella, Ariadne, Countess Madeleine, and in sacred music (the Angel Gabriel, The Creation). Of her interpretation of Four Last Songs by Richard Strauss, David Bowie wrote: "Although Eleanor Steber and Lisa Della Casa do fine interpretations of this monumental work, Janowitz’s performance [...] has been described, rightly, as transcendental. It aches with love for a life that is quietly fading. I know of no other piece of music, nor any performance, which moves me quite like this."{{Cite magazine |date=20 November 2003 |title=David Bowie's Favorite Albums |url=https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2016/04/david-bowie-favorite-albums |access-date=20 September 2023 |magazine=Vanity Fair |language=en-US}} 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 the duettino "Canzonetta sull'aria" with Swiss soprano Edith Mathis features prominently in the 1994 film The Shawshank Redemption.{{cite web | last=Tommasini | first=Anthony | last2=Woolfe | first2=Zachary | last3=Allen | first3=David | title=Richard Strauss Recordings Recommended by Critics | website=The New York Times | date=25 December 2014 | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/26/arts/music/richard-strauss-recordings-recommended-by-critics.html | access-date=12 February 2025}}

Selected discography

Filmography

Concerts

  • Gundula Janowitz: In Concert (recorded live) (1970, conductor Berislav Klobučar, Video Artists International Inc.)
  • Beethoven Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op.125 "Choral" (1968, conductor/director Herbert von Karajan, Unitel Classica)
  • Bach Mass in B minor BWV 232 (1969, conductor Karl Richter; director Arne Arbom, Unitel Classica)
  • Mozart Requiem K.626 (1971, conductor Karl Böhm; director Hugo Käch, Unitel Classica)
  • Brahms Ein Deutsches Requiem, op.45 (1978, conductor/director Herbert von Karajan, Unitel Classica)

Operas

Decorations and awards

  • Kammersängerin (Austria, 1969; Berlin, 1974)
  • 1978 Joseph Marx Music Prize of the State of Styria{{Cite web|url=http://www.joseph-marx-gesellschaft.org/english/joseph-marx.html|title=Joseph Marx :: Joseph Marx Society|website=www.joseph-marx-gesellschaft.org}}
  • 2000 Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art, 1st class{{cite web | url = http://www.parlament.gv.at/PAKT/VHG/XXIV/AB/AB_10542/imfname_251156.pdf | title = Reply to a parliamentary question | language = de | page=1250 | access-date = 21 January 2013 }}
  • 2003 Gold Medal for services to the City of Vienna
  • Grand Gold Decoration of Styria
  • 2019 Hugo-Wolf-Award{{cite news |url=https://www.sn.at/kultur/allgemein/hugo-wolf-medaille-fuer-oesterreichische-sopranistin-janowitz-73763743 |title=Hugo-Wolf-Medaille für österreichische Sopranistin Janowitz |date=22 July 2019 |work=Salzburger Nachrichten |agency=dpa}}

References

External links

  • {{cite web | title=Gundula Janowitz | website=janowitz.tv | date=24 February 2016 | url=http://janowitz.tv/gundula/Gundula_Janowitz/Welcome.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141227105250/http://janowitz.tv/gundula/Gundula_Janowitz/Welcome.html | archive-date=27 December 2014 | url-status=dead | ref={{sfnref|janowitz.tv|2016}} | access-date=12 February 2025}}
  • {{IMDb name|0417916}}
  • {{AllMusic|class=artist|id=mn0000781608|label=Gundula Janowitz|first=Anne|last=Feeney|access-date=28 March 2015}}
  • [http://www.doremi.com/gundulajanowitz.html Complete discography]
  • [http://db-staatsoper.die-antwort.eu/performances/11857 Cast list of Janowitz' final opera performance], Ariadne auf Naxos, Vienna State Opera, 18 May 1990
  • [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NS0Ipj9oSZc Excerpts from her final recital, given in 1999]
  • [https://www.mediathek.at/redirect.json?hash=QuNDvwmx&no_cache=1&searchQuery=2203&cHash=e7575adfeeaaf41d4d102dd6545615b4 Recording of Le nozze di Figaro] at the Kleines Festspielhaus in Salzburg 1971 in the

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Category:1937 births

Category:Living people

Category:Musicians from Graz

Category:Singers from Berlin

Category:Lieder singers

Category:Naturalised citizens of Austria

Category:Austrian operatic sopranos

Category:Österreichischer Kammersänger

Category:University of Music and Performing Arts Graz alumni

Category:Honorary members of the Royal Academy of Music

Category:Recipients of the Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art, 1st class

Category:20th-century Austrian women opera singers

Category:Deutsche Grammophon artists