Ludmila Dvořáková (11 July 1923 in

Kolín Kolín (; german: Kolin, Neu Kolin, Collin) is a town in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 32,000 inhabitants. The town centre is well preserved and is protected by law as an urban monument reservation. Administra ...

– 30 July 2015 in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

)Humphreys, G.
"Ludmila Dvorakova: Renowned Czech soprano who revelled in Wagner and sang leading roles from the Met to Covent Garden"
''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'', 7 August 2015. was a Czech

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...

tic

soprano A soprano () is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hz to "high A" (A5) = 880&n ...

Biography

Dvořáková studied at the Prague Conservatory. Her operatic debut was in the title role of ''

Katya Kabanova Katya is a feminine given name. It is a very popular name in Russia, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Serbia, and North Macedonia. It is a Russian diminutive form of Yekaterina, which is a Russian form of Katherine.This name is also can be spelled Katia.MFnames ...

'' in

Ostrava Ostrava (; pl, Ostrawa; german: Ostrau ) is a city in the north-east of the Czech Republic, and the capital of the Moravian-Silesian Region. It has about 280,000 inhabitants. It lies from the border with Poland, at the confluences of four rive ...

in 1949.Obituary. Ludmila Dvořáková. ''

Opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...

'', November 2015, Voll 66 No 11, p. 1403. In the early 1950s Dvořáková was engaged in Vienna, and sang Elisabeth in ''

Don Carlos ''Don Carlos'' is a five-act grand opera composed by Giuseppe Verdi to a French-language libretto by Joseph Méry and Camille du Locle, based on the dramatic play '' Don Carlos, Infant von Spanien'' (''Don Carlos, Infante of Spain'') by Friedri ...

'' and the Kostelnicka in '' Jenůfa'' under Mackerras; in East Berlin she was heard as Octavian in '' Der Rosenkavalier''. Beginning in 1960 she was the dramatic soprano at the

Berlin State Opera The (), also known as the Berlin State Opera (german: Staatsoper Berlin), is a listed building on Unter den Linden boulevard in the historic center of Berlin, Germany. The opera house was built by order of Prussian king Frederick the Great from ...

, and also performed in London, New York, Munich and Paris.Anon.
"DDR-Nationalpreisträgerin Ludmila Dvorakova stirbt bei Brand"
''

Der Tagesspiegel ''Der Tagesspiegel'' (meaning ''The Daily Mirror'') is a German daily newspaper. It has regional correspondent offices in Washington D.C. and Potsdam. It is the only major newspaper in the capital to have increased its circulation, now 148,000, s ...

'', 31 July 2015. Between 1965 and 1971 she sang at

Bayreuth Bayreuth (, ; bar, Bareid) is a town in northern Bavaria, Germany, on the Red Main river in a valley between the Franconian Jura and the Fichtelgebirge Mountains. The town's roots date back to 1194. In the 21st century, it is the capital of U ...

, appearing as Gutrune,

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never fa ...

Kundry ''Parsifal'' ( WWV 111) is an opera or a music drama in three acts by the German composer Richard Wagner and his last composition. Wagner's own libretto for the work is loosely based on the 13th-century Middle High German epic poem ''Parzival'' ...

Ortrud Ortrud is a feminine given name, with variant forms Ortraud and Ortrude. Ortrud may refer to: * Ortrud, a character in Richard Wagner's opera '' Lohengrin'' * (1938–1999), German film actress * Ortrud Mavrin, a character in Anthony Powell's s ...

and

Brünnhilde Brunhild, also known as Brunhilda or Brynhild ( non, Brynhildr , gmh, Brünhilt, german: Brünhild , label=Modern German or ), is a female character from Germanic heroic legend. She may have her origins in the Visigothic princess Brunhilda o ...

, the latter role also being sung the following year under

Solti Sir Georg Solti ( , ; born György Stern; 21 October 1912 – 5 September 1997) was a Hungarian-British orchestral and operatic conductor, known for his appearances with opera companies in Munich, Frankfurt and London, and as a long-servin ...

Covent Garden Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist si ...

, with whom she also sang Isolde, a role she later sang under

Colin Davis Sir Colin Rex Davis (25 September 1927 – 14 April 2013) was an English conductor, known for his association with the London Symphony Orchestra, having first conducted it in 1959. His repertoire was broad, but among the composers with whom h ...

. Dvořáková sang at prominent opera houses throughout the world, including the Met. Dvořáková was married to conductor Rudolf Vašata (d. 1982), a pupil of

Václav Talich Václav Talich (; 28 May 1883, Kroměříž – 16 March 1961, Beroun) was a Czech violinist and later a musical pedagogue. He is remembered today as one of the greatest conductors of the 20th century, the object of countless reissues of his man ...

, whom she met in Ostrava and with whom she recorded an LP of Wagner operatic excerpts.Interview with the chamber singer Ludmila Dvořáková, on Supraphon website
accessed 18 December 2015. She was Gutrune on the

Karl Böhm Karl August Leopold Böhm (28 August 1894 – 14 August 1981) was an Austrian conductor. He was best known for his performances of the music of Mozart, Wagner, and Richard Strauss. Life and career Education Karl Böhm was born in Graz. T ...

recording of '' Götterdämmerung'' in 1967. Dvořáková was awarded the National Prize of the German Democratic Republic in 1972. She retired in 1985. In 2012 she was awarded the Antonin Dvořák Prize, presented by the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, Music and Dance Faculty (HAMU) in recognition of individuals who promote and popularise Czech music. On 30 July 2015, Ludmila Dvořáková died in a fire at her home in Prague.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dvorakova, Ludmila 1923 births 2015 deaths Czech operatic sopranos Deaths from fire People from Kolín Czechoslovak women opera singers Prague Conservatory alumni Recipients of the Thalia Award