W.A. Mozart Don Giovanni "Mi tradi quell`alma ingrata"
Sena Jurinac - Donna Elvira
Carlo Maria Giulini - Director
RAI 07/04/1970


In memoriam of great soprano, Sena Jurinac (1921 -2011)

Biography

Sena (Srebrenka) Jurinac ([juˈrinats] (24 October 1921 -- 22 November 2011) was a Bosnian Croat/Austrian operatic soprano.

Born in Travnik, Bosnia-Herzegovina, she studied at the Zagreb Academy of Music, and also with Milka Kostrenčić (whose other well-known pupil was Zinka Milanov).

Jurinac's dark, forceful voice was pitched exactly between soprano and mezzo. Her repertoire included Butterfly, Elisabetta (Don Carlos), Desdemona (Otello), Elisabeth (Tannhäuser), Ilia, Iphigenia, Jenůfa, Leonora (La forza del destino), the Composer (Ariadne auf Naxos), Marie (Wozzeck), Pamina (The Magic Flute), Poppea, and Tosca. In many operas her repertoire included more than one major role: Cherubino and Countess Almaviva, Donna Anna and Donna Elvira, Fiordiligi and Dorabella, Amor and Eurydice, Leonore and Marzelline (Fidelio), Marina and Fyodor (Boris Godunov), Octavian and occasionally Sophie and finally the Marschallin. She also played supporting roles in The Ring of the Nibelung: Woglinde, Gutrune, and several of the Norns.

Sena Jurinac made her début as Mimi at Zagreb in 1942. In the following two years she sang the Countess, Freia, and Isabella in the première of Werner Egk's Columbus. In 1943 she received a scholarship to attend Anna von Mildenburg's summer course at the Salzburg Mozarteum. In 1944 she was engaged by the Vienna State Opera. It was at the opera she got her nickname "Sena". Karl Böhm's secretary suggested the name, because she feared the pronunciation of "Srebrenka" would cause difficulties for the Austrians. Because of the war and the consequential closing of the opera three days after her arrival she was not able to sing at the Vienna State Opera until 1946, when her first role was Cherubino. In the first year at the Staatsoper, she sang more than 150 performances. She remained associated with the company for nearly forty years, receiving an honorary membership of the company, giving her the title of Kammersängerin, and the Mozart Medal.

In the autumn of 1946, she appeared at Covent Garden with the Vienna company, singing Dorabella. Her Salzburg Festival début was in 1947. She appeared at La Scala as Cherubino. She became established as one of the Wiener Ensemble (together with Irmgard Seefried, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Christa Ludwig, Lisa Della Casa, Anton Dermota and others). In 1951, she made the first recording of Richard Strauss's Four Last Songs, after Kirsten Flagstad had sung the world premiere in London.

She became a frequent visitor to England: between 1951 and 1956 she sang the principal Mozart soprano roles at Glyndebourne, recording both the Countess in Figaro and Ilia in Idomeneo. She appeared regularly at Covent Garden between 1959 and 1963, singing Leonore in Fidelio in Klemperer's production of the opera in 1961. Her American début was in the title role of Madama Butterfly in San Francisco in 1959.

Her portrayal of Octavian is preserved in the Paul Czinner film of Der Rosenkavalier, conducted by Herbert von Karajan, with Schwarzkopf as the Marschallin. She portrays Marie in a film of Wozzeck.

Sena Jurinac's final operatic performance was as the Marschallin at the Vienna State Opera in November 1982. She continued to give recitals and master classes, and served on the juries of international singing competitions. Along Croatian opera singer Tomislav Neralić, she was the last surviving member from the first Croatian sound movie "Lisinski".

She died on November 22, 2011 in her home near Augsburg, Germany.

She was married to Sesto Bruscantini for three years from 1953-6. In 1965 she married Josef Lederle.

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