Radmila Smiljanić
Encyclopedia
Radmila Smiljanić is a Serbia
n classical soprano
who has had an active international career in opera
s and concerts since 1965. She has sung leading romantic roles opposite great artists like José Carreras
, Mario del Monaco
, Giuseppe Di Stefano
, and Plácido Domingo
. She is particularly known for her portrayals of heroines from the operas of Giuseppe Verdi
and Giacomo Puccini
. She is living in Belgrade
, Serbia
for more than 25 year now.
in 1965 as Đula in Jakov Gotovac
's Ero s onoga svijeta
. That same year she won the international singing competition in Reggio Emilia
, Italy
; followed by competition wins in Ljubljana
(1966) and Zagreb
(1967).
From early in her career, Smiljanić forged strong partnerships with both the Sarajevo National Theatre and the National Theatre in Belgrade
. She remained committed to those houses for more than 30 years. With the Belgrade Opera she toured to Lausanne
in 1969 and 1977 and several times to Zagreb and Trient. She also appeared as a guest artist internationally with many important opera house
s, including the Liceu
(debut 1967), the Vienna State Opera
(debut 1970), the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma
(debut 1976), and La Scala
.
Smiljanić currently teaches on the voice faculty of the Academy of Fine Arts, Belgrade
. She taught for more than 20 years at the University of Arts in Belgrade
where one of her students was her own son, internationally acclaimed baritone Nikola Mijailović
.
She has been a member of the Menaging Board of the leading Serbian media group Politika AD
since 2009. She has also been a member of the Senate of the Republic of Srpska.
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
n classical soprano
Soprano
A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
who has had an active international career in opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
s and concerts since 1965. She has sung leading romantic roles opposite great artists like José Carreras
José Carreras
Josep Maria Carreras i Coll , better known as José Carreras , is a Spanish Catalan tenor particularly known for his performances in the operas of Verdi and Puccini...
, Mario del Monaco
Mario del Monaco
Mario Del Monaco was an Italian tenor who is regarded by his admirers as being one of the greatest dramatic tenors of the 20th century....
, Giuseppe Di Stefano
Giuseppe Di Stefano
Giuseppe Di Stefano was an Italian operatic tenor who sang professionally from the late 1940s until the early 1990s. He was known as the "Golden voice" or "The most beautiful voice", as the true successor of Beniamino Gigli...
, and Plácido Domingo
Plácido Domingo
Plácido Domingo KBE , born José Plácido Domingo Embil, is a Spanish tenor and conductor known for his versatile and strong voice, possessing a ringing and dramatic tone throughout its range...
. She is particularly known for her portrayals of heroines from the operas of Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
and Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was an Italian composer whose operas, including La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot, are among the most frequently performed in the standard repertoire...
. She is living in Belgrade
Belgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
, Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
for more than 25 year now.
Career
Smiljanić studied singing at the Sarajevo Conservatory where she was a pupil of Brunay Spiler. She made her professional opera debut at the Sarajevo National TheatreSarajevo National Theatre
The Sarajevo National Theatre was founded in November 1921.-References:...
in 1965 as Đula in Jakov Gotovac
Jakov Gotovac
Jakov Gotovac was a Croatian composer and conductor of classical music. He is the author of the most famous Croatian opera, the comic Ero s onoga svijeta , which first played in Zagreb in 1935....
's Ero s onoga svijeta
Ero s onoga svijeta
Ero s onoga svijeta is a comic opera in three acts by Jakov Gotovac, with a libretto by Milan Begović based on a folk tale...
. That same year she won the international singing competition in Reggio Emilia
Reggio Emilia
Reggio Emilia is an affluent city in northern Italy, in the Emilia-Romagna region. It has about 170,000 inhabitants and is the main comune of the Province of Reggio Emilia....
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
; followed by competition wins in Ljubljana
Ljubljana
Ljubljana is the capital of Slovenia and its largest city. It is the centre of the City Municipality of Ljubljana. It is located in the centre of the country in the Ljubljana Basin, and is a mid-sized city of some 270,000 inhabitants...
(1966) and Zagreb
Zagreb
Zagreb is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb lies at an elevation of approximately above sea level. According to the last official census, Zagreb's city...
(1967).
From early in her career, Smiljanić forged strong partnerships with both the Sarajevo National Theatre and the National Theatre in Belgrade
National Theatre in Belgrade
The National Theatre was founded in the latter half of the 19th century. It is located on Republic Square, in Belgrade, Serbia.The National Theatre was declared a Monument of Culture of Great Importance in 1983, and it is protected by the Republic of Serbia....
. She remained committed to those houses for more than 30 years. With the Belgrade Opera she toured to Lausanne
Lausanne
Lausanne is a city in Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland, and is the capital of the canton of Vaud. The seat of the district of Lausanne, the city is situated on the shores of Lake Geneva . It faces the French town of Évian-les-Bains, with the Jura mountains to its north-west...
in 1969 and 1977 and several times to Zagreb and Trient. She also appeared as a guest artist internationally with many important opera house
Opera house
An opera house is a theatre building used for opera performances that consists of a stage, an orchestra pit, audience seating, and backstage facilities for costumes and set building...
s, including the Liceu
Liceu
The Gran Teatre del Liceu , or simply Liceu in Catalan and Liceo in Spanish, is an opera house on La Rambla in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain...
(debut 1967), the Vienna State Opera
Vienna State Opera
The Vienna State Opera is an opera house – and opera company – with a history dating back to the mid-19th century. It is located in the centre of Vienna, Austria. It was originally called the Vienna Court Opera . In 1920, with the replacement of the Habsburg Monarchy by the First Austrian...
(debut 1970), the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma
Teatro dell'Opera di Roma
The Teatro dell'Opera di Roma is an opera house in Rome, Italy. Originally opened in November 1880 as the 2,212 seat Costanzi Theatre, it has undergone several changes of name as well modifications and improvements...
(debut 1976), and La Scala
La Scala
La Scala , is a world renowned opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the New Royal-Ducal Theatre at La Scala...
.
Smiljanić currently teaches on the voice faculty of the Academy of Fine Arts, Belgrade
Academy of Fine Arts, Belgrade
The Faculty of Fine Arts is a higher education institution in Belgrade, Serbia. It was founded in 1937, by Toma Rosandić, Milo Milunović and Petar Dobrović. The Faculty is organized in three departments, of painting, sculpture and printmaking.- External links :*...
. She taught for more than 20 years at the University of Arts in Belgrade
University of Arts in Belgrade
The University of Arts in Belgrade is a public university in Belgrade, founded in 1957 as the Academy of Arts to unite four academies...
where one of her students was her own son, internationally acclaimed baritone Nikola Mijailović
Nikola Mijailović (singer)
Nikola Mijailovic is a Serbian baritone who has had a prolific international opera career since the mid 1990s. He is particularly admired for his portrayals in the operas of Giuseppe Verdi...
.
She has been a member of the Menaging Board of the leading Serbian media group Politika AD
Politika AD
Politika a.d. is a Serbian media corporation founded in present form in 2005, and it has continually existed in various legal forms since 1904....
since 2009. She has also been a member of the Senate of the Republic of Srpska.
Opera roles
The following are some of the roles which Smiljanic has created on stage:- Aida, AidaAidaAida sometimes spelled Aïda, is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni, based on a scenario written by French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette...
(Verdi) - Agathe, Der FreischützDer FreischützDer Freischütz is an opera in three acts by Carl Maria von Weber with a libretto by Friedrich Kind. It premiered on 18 June 1821 at the Schauspielhaus Berlin...
(Von WeberCarl Maria von WeberCarl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber was a German composer, conductor, pianist, guitarist and critic, one of the first significant composers of the Romantic school....
) - Amelia, Un ballo in mascheraUn ballo in mascheraUn ballo in maschera , is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi with text by Antonio Somma. The libretto is loosely based on an 1833 play, Gustave III, by French playwright Eugène Scribe who wrote about the historical assassination of King Gustav III of Sweden...
(Verdi) - Antonida, A Life for the TsarA Life for the TsarA Life for the Tsar , as it is known in English, although its original name was Ivan Susanin is a "patriotic-heroic tragic opera" in four acts with an epilogue by Mikhail Glinka. The original Russian libretto, based on historical events, was written by Nestor Kukolnik, Georgy Fyodorovich Rozen,...
(Glinka) - Cio-Cio San, Madama ButterflyMadama ButterflyMadama Butterfly is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, with an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. Puccini based his opera in part on the short story "Madame Butterfly" by John Luther Long, which was dramatized by David Belasco...
(Puccini) - Countess Almaviva, The Marriage of FigaroThe Marriage of FigaroLe nozze di Figaro, ossia la folle giornata , K. 492, is an opera buffa composed in 1786 in four acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte, based on a stage comedy by Pierre Beaumarchais, La folle journée, ou le Mariage de Figaro .Although the play by...
(Mozart) - Desdemona, OtelloOtelloOtello is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Arrigo Boito, based on Shakespeare's play Othello. It was Verdi's penultimate opera, and was first performed at the Teatro alla Scala, Milan, on February 5, 1887....
(Verdi) - Fiordiligi, Così fan tutteCosì fan tutteCosì fan tutte, ossia La scuola degli amanti K. 588, is an opera buffa by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart first performed in 1790. The libretto was written by Lorenzo Da Ponte....
(Mozart) - Judith, Bluebeard's CastleBluebeard's CastleDuke Bluebeard's Castle is a one-act opera by Hungarian composer Béla Bartók. The libretto was written by Béla Balázs, a poet and friend of the composer. It is in Hungarian, based on the French fairy tale "Bluebeard" by Charles Perrault...
(Bartok)
- Leonara, Il trovatoreIl trovatoreIl trovatore is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Salvadore Cammarano, based on the play El Trovador by Antonio García Gutiérrez. Cammarano died in mid-1852 before completing the libretto...
(Verdi) - Lisa, The Queen of SpadesThe Queen of Spades (opera)The Queen of Spades, Op. 68 is an opera in 3 acts by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky to a Russian libretto by the composer's brother Modest Tchaikovsky, based on a short story of the same name by Alexander Pushkin. The premiere took place in 1890 in St...
(Tchaikovsky) - Liu, TurandotTurandotTurandot is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, set to a libretto in Italian by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni.Though Puccini's first interest in the subject was based on his reading of Friedrich Schiller's adaptation of the play, his work is most nearly based on the earlier text Turandot...
(Puccini) - Mařenka, The Bartered BrideThe Bartered BrideThe Bartered Bride is a comic opera in three acts by the Czech composer Bedřich Smetana, to a libretto by Karel Sabina. The opera is considered to have made a major contribution towards the development of Czech music. It was composed during the period 1863–66, and first performed at the...
(Smetna) - Marguerite, FaustFaust (opera)Faust is a drame lyrique in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré from Carré's play Faust et Marguerite, in turn loosely based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust, Part 1...
(Gounod) - Mimi, La BohèmeLa bohèmeLa bohème is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions quadro, a tableau or "image", rather than atto . by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on Scènes de la vie de bohème by Henri Murger...
(Puccini) - Tatiana, Eugene OneginEugene Onegin (opera)Eugene Onegin, Op. 24, is an opera in 3 acts , by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The libretto was written by Konstantin Shilovsky and the composer and his brother Modest, and is based on the novel in verse by Alexander Pushkin....
(Tchaikovsky) - Tosca, ToscaToscaTosca is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900...
(Puccini) - Turandot, TurandotTurandotTurandot is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, set to a libretto in Italian by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni.Though Puccini's first interest in the subject was based on his reading of Friedrich Schiller's adaptation of the play, his work is most nearly based on the earlier text Turandot...
(Puccini)