Edita Gruberová is a Slovak coloratura soprano. She had enjoyed huge success in roles such as Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos and Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute. In her later career, she explores heavier roles in the Italian bel canto repertoire, such as the title role in Lucia di Lammermoor, Elvira in Bellini's I Puritani, or Elisabetta in Donizetti's Roberto Devereux.
Education
Born in Rača, Bratislava, Gruberová began her musical studies at the Bratislava Conservatory, where she was a student of Mária Medvecká. She then continued at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava. While studying, she was a singer of the Lúčnica folk ensemble and appeared several times in the Slovak National Theatre.
Career
In 1968, Gruberová made her operatic debut in Bratislava as Rosina in The Barber of Seville. After winning a singing competition in Toulouse, she was then engaged as a soloist of the opera ensemble of the J. G. Tajovský Theatre in Banská Bystrica, Slovakia, from 1968 to 1970. Since communist Czechoslovakia was going through normalization, during which the borders were closed with non-communist countries, Medvecká surreptitiously arranged for an audition for Gruberová in the summer of 1969 at the Vienna State Opera, which immediately engaged her. The following year, she made her first major breakthrough when she sang the Queen of the Night. Gruberová then decided to emigrate to the West. In subsequent years, she became a soloist in Vienna and was invited to sing at many of the most important opera houses in the world, especially in coloratura roles. Gruberová made her debut at Glyndebourne in 1973 and at the Metropolitan Opera in 1977, both as the Queen of the Night. In 1977, she first appeared at the Salzburg Festival, as Thibault in Don Carlo, under Herbert von Karajan. In 1982, she appeared opposite Ingvar Wixell and Luciano Pavarotti in Jean-Pierre Ponnelle's film of Rigoletto. Gruberová made her Royal Opera House debut as Giulietta in Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi in 1984. Other important roles she has sung include Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos, Gilda in Rigoletto, Violetta in La traviata, Lucia in Lucia di Lammermoor, Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, the title role in Massenet's Manon and Oscar in Un ballo in maschera; she sang Donna Anna in Don Giovanni at La Scala in 1987, Marie in La fille du régiment in 1987, the title role in Semiramide in 1992 in Zürich, Queen Elizabeth I in Donizetti's Roberto Devereux in Vienna in 1990. In 2003, she added the title role in Norma to her repertoire, and sang it in Munich in 2008/09. In 2001, she withdrew all her performances at the Zürich Opera, after Alexander Pereira, then intendant of the company, refused to claim the responsibility for her dancer daughter's injury, which forbade her career but not considered an occupational accident. She had not performed at the theatre until replacing Jonas Kaufmann in a recital on 11 May 2012. Later in the year, after Pereira's departure, she finally performed in staged opera with the company, in a revival of Roberto Devereux. She gave her last staged opera performance on 27 March 2019 as Queen Elizabeth I in Roberto Devereux at the Bavarian State Opera, after which she only focuses on concerts and masterclasses. She is an Austrian and Bavarian Kammersängerin and honorary member of the Vienna State Opera. Gruberová has made many recordings, most notably in recent years full-length recordings and extended selections from Donizetti's Tudor Queens trilogy and other bel canto operas, lately exclusively on Nightingale label. More than a dozen of her filmed and televised opera appearances have been released on DVD, including I Puritani, Die Zauberflöte, Così fan tutte, Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Ariadne auf Naxos, Norma, Manon, Beatrice di Tenda, Lucrezia Borgia, and Linda di Chamounix.
