
Jarmila Novotná (September 23, 1907 in
Prague
Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...
– February 9, 1994 in
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
) was a
Czech
Czech may refer to:
* Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe
** Czech language
** Czechs, the people of the area
** Czech culture
** Czech cuisine
* One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus
*Czech (surnam ...
lyric coloratura soprano and actress. From 1940 to 1956, she was a star of the
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an American opera company based in New York City, currently resident at the Metropolitan Opera House (Lincoln Center), Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Referred ...
.
Early career
A student of
Emmy Destinn
Emmy Destinn ( (); 26 February 1878 – 28 January 1930) was a Czech operatic dramatic soprano. She had a career both in Europe and at the New York Metropolitan Opera. She was one of the greatest opera singers of the 19th and 20th centuries. ...
, Novotná made her operatic debut at the
National Theatre in Prague, on June 28, 1925, as Mařenka in
Smetana's ''
The Bartered Bride
''The Bartered Bride'' (, ''The Sold Bride'') is a comic opera in three acts by the Czech composer Bedřich Smetana, to a libretto by Karel Sabina. The work is generally regarded as a major contribution towards the development of Czech music. It ...
''. Six days later, she sang there as Violetta in
Verdi's ''
La traviata''. In 1928 she starred in
Verona
Verona ( ; ; or ) is a city on the Adige, River Adige in Veneto, Italy, with 255,131 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region, and is the largest city Comune, municipality in the region and in Northeast Italy, nor ...
as Gilda opposite
Giacomo Lauri-Volpi in Verdi's ''
Rigoletto
''Rigoletto'' is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on the 1832 play '' Le roi s'amuse'' by Victor Hugo. Despite serious initial problems with the Austrian censors who had c ...
'' and at the
Teatro San Carlo in
Naples
Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...
as Adina opposite
Tito Schipa in
Donizetti's ''
L'elisir d'amore
''L'elisir d'amore'' (; ''The Elixir of Love'') is a (comic melodrama, opera buffa) in two acts by the Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti. Felice Romani wrote the Italian libretto, after Eugène Scribe's libretto for Daniel Auber's (1831). ...
''. In 1929 she joined the
Kroll Opera in
Berlin
Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
, where she sang Violetta as well as the title roles of
Puccini's ''
Manon Lescaut'' and ''
Madama Butterfly
''Madama Butterfly'' (; ''Madame Butterfly'') is an opera in three acts (originally two) by Giacomo Puccini, with an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa.
It is based on the short story " Madame Butterfly" (1898) by John Lu ...
''. In 1931 she married Jiří Daubek and moved to
Liteň, where his family owned the local chateau.
In January 1933, she created the female lead in
Jaromír Weinberger
Jaromír Weinberger (8 January 1896 – August 8, 1967) was a Bohemian-born Jewish subject of the Austrian Empire, who became a naturalized American composer.
Biography
Weinberger was born in Prague, Austria-Hungary, into a family of Jewish ori ...
's new operetta ''Frühlingsstürme'', opposite
Richard Tauber at the Theater im Admiralspalast, Berlin. This was the last new operetta produced in the Weimar Republic, and she and Tauber were both soon forced to leave Germany by the new Nazi regime.
Vienna and New York
In 1934 she left Berlin for
Vienna
Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...
, where she created the title role in
Lehár's ''
Giuditta'' opposite Richard Tauber. Her immense success in that role led to a contract with the
Vienna State Opera
The Vienna State Opera (, ) is a historic opera house and opera company based in Vienna, Austria. The 1,709-seat Renaissance Revival venue was the first major building on the Vienna Ring Road. It was built from 1861 to 1869 following plans by ...
, where she was named ''Kammersängerin''. Prior to the ''
Anschluss
The (, or , ), also known as the (, ), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into Nazi Germany on 12 March 1938.
The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a "German Question, Greater Germany") arose after t ...
'', she also appeared with Tauber there in ''The Bartered Bride'' and ''Madama Butterfly''.
She appeared as Pamina in the 1937
Salzburg Festival
The Salzburg Festival () is a prominent festival of music and drama established in 1920. It is held each summer, for five weeks starting in late July, in Salzburg, Austria, the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Mozart's operas are a focus of ...
production of
Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791) was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition and proficiency from an early age ...
's ''
The Magic Flute
''The Magic Flute'' (, ), K. 620, is an opera in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. It is a ''Singspiel'', a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue. The work premiered on ...
'', conducted by
Arturo Toscanini
Arturo Toscanini (; ; March 25, 1867January 16, 1957) was an Italian conductor. He was one of the most acclaimed and influential musicians of the late 19th and early 20th century, renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for orche ...
. In the orchestra pit was the young
Georg 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-servi ...
, who played the
glockenspiel
The glockenspiel ( ; or , : bells and : play) or bells is a percussion instrument consisting of pitched aluminum or steel bars arranged in a Musical keyboard, keyboard layout. This makes the glockenspiel a type of metallophone, similar to the v ...
in the opera.
During the WWII Novotná left first to
Los Angeles
Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
to join
Civic Light Opera and later to
New York. She gave concerts for the Czech American community, including the concert at a
Sokol Convention in
Chicago
Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
for crowd of 60,000. In 1941 she participated in the event for 100th anniversary of
Antonín Dvořák
Antonín Leopold Dvořák ( ; ; 8September 18411May 1904) was a Czech composer. He frequently employed rhythms and other aspects of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia, following the Romantic-era nationalist example of his predec ...
's birth with
Fritz Kreisler and
Harry Burleigh in New York. In 1943 Novotná recorded an album of Czech folk songs with Foreign Minister of Czechoslovakia in exile
Jan Masaryk called ''Songs of Lidice'' after
the village that was destroyed by the Nazis.
On January 5, 1940, she made her debut with the Metropolitan Opera, as Mimì in Puccini's ''
La bohème
''La bohème'' ( , ) is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions '':wikt:quadro, quadri'', ''wikt:tableau, tableaux'' or "images", rather than ''atti'' (acts). composed by Giacomo Puccini between 1893 and 1895 to an Italian libretto b ...
''. She also appeared in twelve other roles at the Met:
Euridice,
Violetta,
Cherubino,
Massenet's Manon, Mařenka,
Donna Elvira,
Pamina,
Octavian
Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian (), was the founder of the Roman Empire, who reigned as the first Roman emperor from 27 BC until his death in ...
,
Antonia,
Freia,
Mélisande and
Prince Orlofsky, the role in which she made her farewell performance on January 15, 1956. Of her 208 appearances at the Met, 103 were in the
breeches role
In theater, a breeches role or breeches part (also pants role, pants part, trouser role, trouser part, and Hosenrolle) is a role in which a female actor performs in male clothing. Breeches, tight-fitting knee-length pants, were a standard male ...
s of Prince Orlofsky, Cherubino and Octavian.
She spent the rest of her life in Vienna. Novotná wrote her memoirs ''My Life in Song'' in 1991, though the English version was only released in 2018.
Films
She appeared in several films, including
Max Ophüls
Maximillian Oppenheimer ( , ; 6 May 1902 – 26 March 1957), known as Max Ophüls ( , , ) or simply Ophuls, was a German and French film director and screenwriter. He was known for his opulent and lyrical visual style, with heavy use of trac ...
's 1932 version of ''
The Bartered Bride
''The Bartered Bride'' (, ''The Sold Bride'') is a comic opera in three acts by the Czech composer Bedřich Smetana, to a libretto by Karel Sabina. The work is generally regarded as a major contribution towards the development of Czech music. It ...
''. In 1948 she won acclaim for her leading role as an
Auschwitz
Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It consisted of Auschw ...
survivor who searches for her young son, played by
Ivan Jandl, in ''
The Search'' which co-starred
Montgomery Clift. In 1951, she appeared in ''
The Great Caruso'', starring
Mario Lanza
Mario Lanza ( , ; born Alfredo Arnold Cocozza ; January 31, 1921 – October 7, 1959) was an American tenor and actor. He was a Hollywood film star popular in the late 1940s and the 1950s. Lanza began studying to be a professional singer a ...
.
Honours
In 1991 Novotná received the
Order of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk from the president of Czechoslovakia
Václav Havel
Václav Havel (; 5 October 193618 December 2011) was a Czech statesman, author, poet, playwright, and dissident. Havel served as the last List of presidents of Czechoslovakia, president of Czechoslovakia from 1989 until 1992, prior to the dissol ...
.
Liteň chateau, where Novotná lived with her husband Jiří Daubek, hosts a music festival every year, which is named Festival of Jarmila Novotná in her honour.
Filmography
* ''Vyznavači slunce'' (1926) as Countess Jacinta
* ''
Fire in the Opera House'' (1930) as Die Primadonna
* ''
The Beggar Student'' (1931) as Laura
* ''
The Bartered Bride
''The Bartered Bride'' (, ''The Sold Bride'') is a comic opera in three acts by the Czech composer Bedřich Smetana, to a libretto by Karel Sabina. The work is generally regarded as a major contribution towards the development of Czech music. It ...
'' (1932) as Marie
* ''Die Nacht der großen Liebe'' (1933) as Frau Thormaelen
* ''Skřivánčí píseň'' (1933) as Maja Zemanova
* ''
Frasquita'' (1934) as Frasquita
* ''
The Cossack and the Nightingale'' (1935) as Vera Starschenska
* ''
The Last Waltz'' (French version, 1936) as Countess Vera Lizavetta
* ''
The Last Waltz'' (English version, 1936) as La comtesse Véra-Élisabétha Opalinsky
* ''
The Search'' (1948) as Mrs. Hanna Malik
* ''
The Great Caruso'' (1951) as Maria Selka
Bibliography
* ''The Last Prima Donnas'', by
Lanfranco Rasponi, Alfred A Knopf, 1982.
References
External links
*
*
*
MetOpera databasePhotographs and literature March 26, 1988
* Jarmila Novotná - ''Weißt Du nicht, was'', aus ''Frasquita'' von
Franz Lehar
{{DEFAULTSORT:Novotna, Jarmila
1907 births
1994 deaths
Singers from Prague
Czech expatriates in the United States
Czech operatic sopranos
Recipients of the Order of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk
20th-century Czech women opera singers
Czechoslovak women opera singers