Viorica Ursuleac

Romanian soprano Viorica Ursuleac (Fee-o-rit-za Oor-sool-yahts) has entered musical history as an enigma. Described by composer Richard Strauss as the “truest of the real” in interpreting his great soprano jobs, she left documented proof that both works with and contradicts the validity of his perception in her. Modern performers spoke admiringly from the haunting quality of her huge instrument as well as the extraordinary simple her best register. Alternatively, a lot of her performing as captured on disk appears labored and, as the years handed, significantly unsteady. Her tone of voice was gradual to “speak” and frequently the written text sounded as if it were becoming voiced in sluggish movement. Still, she produced at least two documenting indispensable to a complete knowledge of the Strauss oeuvre and these claim that on-stage she was with the capacity of creating an aura of magic. Reared inside a musical family members, she was delivered to Vienna for five years to review in the Academy. On the trip to Zagreb, she was overheard performing from the city’s opera intendant. Provided a agreement, she produced her debut in 1922 as Charlotte in Werther and consequently sang several lyric functions (all in Croatian). Later on, she retuned to Czernowitz, mainly to flee an unfortunate relationship. At a concert in Bucharest, Ursuleac drawn the eye of Queen Marie, who facilitated her move toward a global career. Quickly, an audition with Felix Weingartner brought her a agreement in the Vienna Volksoper. Hearing that conductor Clemens Krauss was presuming the directorship at Frankfort in 1924 and required a respected soprano, Ursuleac wanted to audition, but was rebuffed from the conductor who disliked Balkan performers. Finally, she obtained a hearing under a fictitious name. When Krauss found out the ruse, he employed her anyway, therefore beginning a famous collaboration that later on led to their relationship. Ursuleac began getting offers for visitor appearances with other main houses, forming a particularly close romantic relationship with Dresden. It had been there that she developed the to begin four Strauss heroines, executing the title function of Arabella in 1933. Afterwards, she sang the premieres of Friedenstag (focused on her and Krauss), Capriccio, and, at a 1944 Salzburg outfit rehearsal, developed Danae in Die Liebe der Danae (movie theater closings postponed the real premiere until 1952). When Ursuleac shifted to Vienna in 1930, a rivalry with soprano Lotte Lehmann created. Lehmann, the excellent artist, lacked the main one essential component Ursuleac possessed by the bucket load: a soaring best register. Tensions abated when Ursuleac shifted to Berlin in 1935, after that Munich in 1937. Through this whole period, Ursuleac added various other Strauss jobs to her repertory: the Marschallin, Ariadne, Chrysothemis, the Empress in Die Frau ohne Schatten included in this. Many premieres of functions by various other composers (Krenek’s Der Dictator and d’Albert’s Mister Wu, for instance), Wagner, and different Italian roles had been also an integral part of her actions. Ursuleac’s profession was largely restricted to Germany, Austria, and Italy. Her performances at Covent Backyard in 1934 brought a Desdemona that had not been valued and an Arabella that was. Critic Richard Capell had written, “Her performing, if not constant, got a generally victorious quality, and information were beautiful.” A 1935 Berlin documenting of Ariadne auf Naxos (sans prologue) with Helge Rosvaenge and Erna Berger discloses what Ursuleac could accomplish in her primary, approaching something near ecstatic utterance in the ultimate pages. Similarly, a live Friedenstag from 1938 displays a magnificent mastery of an extremely high-lying role.