- Ljuba Welitsch
Ljuba Welitsch (Bulgarian: Люба Величкова) (born
Borissovo , BulgariaJuly 10 ,1913 - diedVienna , AustriaSeptember 1 ,1996 ) was a celebrated Bulgarian, later Austrian, operaticsoprano .She studied singing at Sofia Conservatory with professor Georgi Zlatev-Cherkin. After specializing in
Vienna , she first appeared inSofia in 1936. Engagements followed inGraz ,Hamburg ,Munich and finally at theVienna State Opera .Known for her red hair and exuberant vivacity, her most famous role was that of "Salome", which she performed under the composer,
Richard Strauss , himself in 1944 on his 80th birthday. She sang the same role for herLondon debut in 1947 and her first performance at theMetropolitan Opera ,New York on4 February 1949 . She also sang the title roles of "Tosca " and "Aida ", Donna Anna in "Don Giovanni ", Minnie in "La fanciulla del West " and Musetta in "La bohème ".Her voice was neither creamy nor shrill, possessing a small beat, to which the microphone is kind. This voice was very capable of riding the Straussian orchestra. Welitsch is a unique singer and her uniqueness is quickly established. Where others linger and milk the moment, she presses ahead, testing the ability of conductors to follow her. It is usually at the moment a doubt has formed that Welitsch confounds the listener by some sudden conversational intimacy that breaks through convention utterly. Even more astonishing is the way she achieves these moments without breaking the line for dramatic effect.*
A great artist, she was also capable of extraordinary over-the-top exhibitions and her exploits at the Metropolitan in New York were legendary, including a raunchy Musetta that struck fear into her colleagues, and a Tosca performance when she repeatedly kicked the supposedly dead body of the Scarpia,
Lawrence Tibbett , to whom she had taken a personal dislike.Her international career, already interrupted by the war, did not last long, although she actually continued singing until 1981. Appearances included those at the
Royal Opera House ,Covent Garden in the 1950s. However when her voice deteriorated she started a second career in films (in America and Austria) and on Austrian television.She was married twice and divorced twice, with no children. She is buried in Vienna's
Zentralfriedhof .Recordings
She did not make many recordings but her account of the final scene of "Salome" sets a standard by which every aspiring performer in the role is still judged.
The Metropolitan performance of "Salome" from 1949 is available on CD (Gebhardt Records JGCD 0013)
Although Welitsch did not record for the studio often, her art can be appreciated in a collection entitled "Ljuba Welitsch: The Radio Years RY102" in which she can be heard in arias by Weber, Verdi, Smetana, Dvorak, Puccini and Strauss and lieder by Schubert.
ources
*Branscombe, Peter: "Welitsch, Ljuba" in 'The
New Grove Dictionary of Opera ', ed. Stanley Sadie (London, 1992) ISBN 0-333-73432-7*James Beswick Whitehead, http://www.btinternet.com/~j.b.w/welit.htm
Links
[http://www.tsanoff-classic.com/TheGreatestBulgarians/Ljuba.Welitsch/ Information for Ljuba Welitsch]
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