Srebrenka Jurinac

Srebrenka "Sena" Jurinac (Serbo-Croatian pronunciation: [srêbreːŋka sěːna jurǐːnat͜s]) (24 October 1921 – 22 November 2011) was a Bosnia-born Croatian-Austrian operatic soprano.

Jurinac was born in Travnik, Bosnia-Herzegovina (then part of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia), the daughter of a Croatian father (a doctor) and a Viennese mother.

She studied at the Zagreb Academy of Music, and with Milka Kostrenčić. Her voice was pitched exactly between soprano and mezzo. Her repertoire included Poppea, 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), Mimi, Butterfly 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, occasionally Sophie and finally the Marschallin. She also played supporting roles in The Ring of the Nibelung: Woglinde, Gutrune and several of the Norns.

She débuted 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 was summer student of Anna von Mildenburg at the Salzburg Mozarteum. She appeared in the first Croatian sound movie, Lisinski (1944). In 1944, the Vienna State Opera engaged her, where she was first nicknamed "Sena". Conductor Karl Böhm's secretary suggested it because she feared the pronunciation of "Srebrenka" would cause difficulties for many Austrians. Because of the war, and the consequential closing of the opera three days after her arrival, she was unable 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 almost four decades, receiving an honorary membership of the company with the title of Kammersängerin.

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