Soňa Červená
Encyclopedia
Soňa Červená is a Czech
operatic mezzo-soprano
who had an active international career since the 1950s. She has enjoyed particularly lengthy and fruitful associations with the Frankfurt Opera and the San Francisco Opera
. She is currently on the roster of singers at the National Theatre
in Prague
.
, Červená is the daughter of the famous Czech writer Jiří Červený and the great granddaughter of the brass instrument maker Václav Červený. She studied voice with Robert Rozner and Lydia Wegner-Salmowá in her home city before beginning her career performing with an operetta ensemble in Prague. She made her professional opera début in 1954 at the opera house
in Brno where she remained for the next three years.
Červená had a major success at the National Theatre
in Prague
as Octavian in Richard Strauss
's Der Rosenkavalier
in 1957. She portrayed that role again for her debut at the Berlin State Opera
the following year; becoming committed to that house from 1958–1961. After this she became a principal artist at the Opern- und Schauspielhaus Frankfurt, which remained her principal home until the early 1990s. She sang in a wide variety of performances, including the première of Rudolf Wagner-Régeny
's Das Bergwerk zu Falun at the Salzburg Festival
in 1961. She also made several guest appearances at the Deutsche Oper Berlin
, Hamburg State Opera
, Semperoper
, and the Vienna State Opera
.
In 1962 Červená made her United States debut at the San Francisco Opera
in the title role of Georges Bizet
's Carmen
. She returned almost annually to this house through 1971 in such roles as Anna in Les Troyens
, Azucena in Il trovatore
, Berta in The Barber of Seville
, Clarion in Strauss's Capriccio
, Countess de Coigny in Andrea Chénier
, Countess Geschwitz in Lulu
, the First Norn in Götterdämmerung
, Fricka in Das Rheingold
, Herodias in Salome
, The innkeeper in Boris Godunov
, Marcellina in The Marriage of Figaro
, The Marquise of Birkenfeld in La fille du régiment
, Marthe Schwertlein in Faust
, Mistress Quickly in Falstaff
, the Mother in Louise
, Mother Goose in The Rake's Progress
, Prince Orlofsky, Rossweisse in Die Walküre
, Tisbe in La Cenerentola
, and the Woman in the United States premiere of Gunther Schuller
's The Visitation. After a nine year absence, Červená returned to San Francisco in 1980 to portray Countess Waldner in Arabella
, Flora in La traviata
, Mamma Lucia in Cavalleria Rusticana
, and Starenka Buryjovka in Jenůfa
.
Červená has made several appearances at the Bayreuth Festival
, including Flosshilde in The Ring Cycle (1960), Rossweisse (1966–67), and a Flower Maiden in Parsifal
(1962–63 and 1966–67). She portrayed Clarion at the 1963 and 1964 Glyndebourne Festivals. With the London Symphony Orchestra
she appeared as a soloist in a performance of Ludwig van Beethoven
's Missa Solemnis
. In 1971 she made her debut at the Lyric Opera of Chicago
as Herodias. In 1981 she sang in the world premiere of Antonio Bibalo
's Ghosts at the Kiel Opera House
. In 1983 she gave an acclaimed portrayal of Marfa Ignatevna Kabanová in Leoš Janáček
's Káťa Kabanová
at La Monnaie
.
In 2004 Červená was honored with a Thalia Award.
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
operatic mezzo-soprano
Mezzo-soprano
A mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above...
who had an active international career since the 1950s. She has enjoyed particularly lengthy and fruitful associations with the Frankfurt Opera and the San Francisco Opera
San Francisco Opera
San Francisco Opera is an American opera company, based in San Francisco, California.It was founded in 1923 by Gaetano Merola and is the second largest opera company in North America...
. She is currently on the roster of singers at the National Theatre
National Theatre (Prague)
The National Theatre in Prague is known as the Alma Mater of Czech opera, and as the national monument of Czech history and art.The National Theatre belongs to the most important Czech cultural institutions, with a rich artistic tradition which was created and maintained by the most distinguished...
in Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
.
Biography
Born in PraguePrague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
, Červená is the daughter of the famous Czech writer Jiří Červený and the great granddaughter of the brass instrument maker Václav Červený. She studied voice with Robert Rozner and Lydia Wegner-Salmowá in her home city before beginning her career performing with an operetta ensemble in Prague. She made her professional opera début in 1954 at the 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...
in Brno where she remained for the next three years.
Červená had a major success at the National Theatre
National Theatre (Prague)
The National Theatre in Prague is known as the Alma Mater of Czech opera, and as the national monument of Czech history and art.The National Theatre belongs to the most important Czech cultural institutions, with a rich artistic tradition which was created and maintained by the most distinguished...
in Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
as Octavian in Richard Strauss
Richard Strauss
Richard Georg Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which include Der Rosenkavalier and Salome; his Lieder, especially his Four Last Songs; and his tone poems and orchestral works, such as Death and Transfiguration, Till...
's Der Rosenkavalier
Der Rosenkavalier
Der Rosenkavalier is a comic opera in three acts by Richard Strauss to an original German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. It is loosely adapted from the novel Les amours du chevalier de Faublas by Louvet de Couvrai and Molière’s comedy Monsieur de Pourceaugnac...
in 1957. She portrayed that role again for her debut at the Berlin State Opera
Berlin State Opera
The Staatsoper Unter den Linden is a German opera company. Its permanent home is the opera house on the Unter den Linden boulevard in the Mitte district of Berlin, which also hosts the Staatskapelle Berlin orchestra.-Early years:...
the following year; becoming committed to that house from 1958–1961. After this she became a principal artist at the Opern- und Schauspielhaus Frankfurt, which remained her principal home until the early 1990s. She sang in a wide variety of performances, including the première of Rudolf Wagner-Régeny
Rudolf Wagner-Régeny
Rudolf Wagner-Régeny was a composer, conductor, and pianist. Born in Transylvania, Kingdom of Hungary, since 1920 Romania, he became a German citizen in 1930, and then East Germany after 1945.From 1919–1920 he studied at the Leipzig Conservatory and then at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik from...
's Das Bergwerk zu Falun at the Salzburg Festival
Salzburg Festival
The Salzburg Festival is a prominent festival of music and drama established in 1920. It is held each summer within the Austrian town of Salzburg, the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart...
in 1961. She also made several guest appearances at the Deutsche Oper Berlin
Deutsche Oper Berlin
The Deutsche Oper Berlin is an opera company located in the Charlottenburg district of Berlin, Germany. The resident building is also home to the Berlin State Ballet.-History:...
, Hamburg State Opera
Hamburg State Opera
The Hamburg State Opera is one of the leading opera companies in Germany.Opera in Hamburg dates back to 2 January 1678 when the "Opern-Theatrum" was inaugurated with a performance of a biblical Singspiel by Johann Theile...
, Semperoper
Semperoper
The Semperoper is the opera house of the Sächsische Staatsoper Dresden and the concert hall of the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden . It is located near the Elbe River in the historic center of Dresden, Germany.The opera house was originally built by the architect Gottfried Semper in 1841...
, and 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...
.
In 1962 Červená made her United States debut at the San Francisco Opera
San Francisco Opera
San Francisco Opera is an American opera company, based in San Francisco, California.It was founded in 1923 by Gaetano Merola and is the second largest opera company in North America...
in the title role of Georges Bizet
Georges Bizet
Georges Bizet formally Alexandre César Léopold Bizet, was a French composer, mainly of operas. In a career cut short by his early death, he achieved few successes before his final work, Carmen, became one of the most popular and frequently performed works in the entire opera repertory.During a...
's Carmen
Carmen
Carmen is a French opéra comique by Georges Bizet. The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée, first published in 1845, itself possibly influenced by the narrative poem The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin...
. She returned almost annually to this house through 1971 in such roles as Anna in Les Troyens
Les Troyens
Les Troyens is a French opera in five acts by Hector Berlioz. The libretto was written by Berlioz himself, based on Virgil's epic poem The Aeneid...
, Azucena in Il trovatore
Il trovatore
Il 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...
, Berta in The Barber of Seville
The Barber of Seville
The Barber of Seville, or The Futile Precaution is an opera buffa in two acts by Gioachino Rossini with a libretto by Cesare Sterbini. The libretto was based on Pierre Beaumarchais's comedy Le Barbier de Séville , which was originally an opéra comique, or a mixture of spoken play with music...
, Clarion in Strauss's Capriccio
Capriccio (opera)
Capriccio is the final opera by German composer Richard Strauss, subtitled "A Conversation Piece for Music". The opera received its premiere performance at the Nationaltheater München on October 28, 1942. Clemens Krauss and Strauss himself wrote the German libretto...
, Countess de Coigny in Andrea Chénier
Andrea Chénier
Andrea Chénier is a verismo opera in four acts by the composer Umberto Giordano, set to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica. It is based loosely on the life of the French poet, André Chénier , who was executed during the French Revolution....
, Countess Geschwitz in Lulu
Lulu (opera)
Lulu is an opera by the composer Alban Berg. The libretto was adapted by Berg himself from Frank Wedekind's plays Erdgeist and Die Büchse der Pandora .-Composition history:...
, the First Norn in Götterdämmerung
Götterdämmerung
is the last in Richard Wagner's cycle of four operas titled Der Ring des Nibelungen...
, Fricka in Das Rheingold
Das Rheingold
is the first of the four operas that constitute Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen . It was originally written as an introduction to the tripartite Ring, but the cycle is now generally regarded as consisting of four individual operas.Das Rheingold received its premiere at the National Theatre...
, Herodias in Salome
Salome (opera)
Salome is an opera in one act by Richard Strauss to a German libretto by the composer, based on Hedwig Lachmann’s German translation of the French play Salomé by Oscar Wilde. Strauss dedicated the opera to his friend Sir Edgar Speyer....
, The innkeeper in Boris Godunov
Boris Godunov (opera)
Boris Godunov is an opera by Modest Mussorgsky . The work was composed between 1868 and 1873 in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is Mussorgsky's only completed opera and is considered his masterpiece. Its subjects are the Russian ruler Boris Godunov, who reigned as Tsar during the Time of Troubles,...
, Marcellina in The Marriage of Figaro
The Marriage of Figaro
Le 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...
, The Marquise of Birkenfeld in La fille du régiment
La fille du régiment
La fille du régiment is an opéra comique in two acts by Gaetano Donizetti. It was written while the composer was living in Paris, with a French libretto by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges and Jean-François Bayard.La figlia del reggimento, a slightly different Italian-language version , was...
, Marthe Schwertlein in Faust
Faust (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...
, Mistress Quickly in Falstaff
Falstaff (opera)
Falstaff is an operatic commedia lirica in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi, adapted by Arrigo Boito from Shakespeare's plays The Merry Wives of Windsor and scenes from Henry IV. It was Verdi's last opera, written in the composer's ninth decade, and only the second of his 26 operas to be a comedy...
, the Mother in Louise
Louise (opera)
Louise is an opera in four acts by Gustave Charpentier to an original French libretto by the composer, with some contributions by Saint-Pol-Roux, a symbolist poet and inspiration of the surrealists....
, Mother Goose in The Rake's Progress
The Rake's Progress
The Rake's Progress is an opera in three acts and an epilogue by Igor Stravinsky. The libretto, written by W. H. Auden and Chester Kallman, is based loosely on the eight paintings and engravings A Rake's Progress of William Hogarth, which Stravinsky had seen on May 2, 1947, in a Chicago...
, Prince Orlofsky, Rossweisse in Die Walküre
Die Walküre
Die Walküre , WWV 86B, is the second of the four operas that form the cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen , by Richard Wagner...
, Tisbe in La Cenerentola
La Cenerentola
La Cenerentola, ossia La bontà in trionfo is an operatic dramma giocoso in two acts by Gioachino Rossini. The libretto was written by Jacopo Ferretti, based on the fairy tale Cinderella...
, and the Woman in the United States premiere of Gunther Schuller
Gunther Schuller
Gunther Schuller is an American composer, conductor, horn player, author, historian, and jazz musician.- Biography and works :...
's The Visitation. After a nine year absence, Červená returned to San Francisco in 1980 to portray Countess Waldner in Arabella
Arabella
Arabella is a lyric comedy or opera in 3 acts by Richard Strauss to a German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal, their sixth and last operatic collaboration. It was first performed on 1 July 1933, at the Dresden Sächsisches Staatstheater....
, Flora in La traviata
La traviata
La traviata is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi set to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. It is based on La dame aux Camélias , a play adapted from the novel by Alexandre Dumas, fils. The title La traviata means literally The Fallen Woman, or perhaps more figuratively, The Woman...
, Mamma Lucia in Cavalleria Rusticana
Cavalleria rusticana
Cavalleria rusticana is an opera in one act by Pietro Mascagni to an Italian libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci, adapted from a play written by Giovanni Verga based on his short story. Considered one of the classic verismo operas, it premiered on May 17, 1890 at the Teatro...
, and Starenka Buryjovka in Jenůfa
Jenufa
Jenůfa is an opera in three acts by Leoš Janáček to a Czech libretto by the composer, based on the play Její pastorkyňa by Gabriela Preissová. It was first performed at the Brno Theater, Brno, 21 January 1904...
.
Červená has made several appearances at the Bayreuth Festival
Bayreuth Festival
The Bayreuth Festival is a music festival held annually in Bayreuth, Germany, at which performances of operas by the 19th century German composer Richard Wagner are presented...
, including Flosshilde in The Ring Cycle (1960), Rossweisse (1966–67), and a Flower Maiden in Parsifal
Parsifal
Parsifal is an opera in three acts by Richard Wagner. It is loosely based on Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival, the 13th century epic poem of the Arthurian knight Parzival and his quest for the Holy Grail, and on Chrétien de Troyes' Perceval, the Story of the Grail.Wagner first conceived the work...
(1962–63 and 1966–67). She portrayed Clarion at the 1963 and 1964 Glyndebourne Festivals. With the London Symphony Orchestra
London Symphony Orchestra
The London Symphony Orchestra is a major orchestra of the United Kingdom, as well as one of the best-known orchestras in the world. Since 1982, the LSO has been based in London's Barbican Centre.-History:...
she appeared as a soloist in a performance of Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
's Missa Solemnis
Missa Solemnis (Beethoven)
The Missa solemnis in D Major, Op. 123 was composed by Ludwig van Beethoven from 1819-1823. It was first performed on April 7, 1824 in St. Petersburg, under the auspices of Beethoven's patron Prince Nikolai Galitzin; an incomplete performance was given in Vienna on 7 May 1824, when the Kyrie,...
. In 1971 she made her debut at the Lyric Opera of Chicago
Lyric Opera of Chicago
Lyric Opera of Chicago is one of the leading opera companies in the United States. It was founded in Chicago in 1952, under the name 'Lyric Theatre of Chicago' by Carol Fox, Nicolà Rescigno and Lawrence Kelly, with a season that included Maria Callas's American debut in Norma...
as Herodias. In 1981 she sang in the world premiere of Antonio Bibalo
Antonio Bibalo
Antonio Gino Bibalo was an Italian-Norwegian pianist and composer of contemporary classical music, primarily operas.-Biography:...
's Ghosts at the Kiel Opera House
Kiel Opera House
The Peabody Opera House is a civic performing arts building in St. Louis, Missouri. Founded as the Kiel Opera House, it opened it 1934 and operated until 1991, when it and the adjacent Kiel Auditorium were closed so the auditorium could be demolished and replaced by the Scottrade Center...
. In 1983 she gave an acclaimed portrayal of Marfa Ignatevna Kabanová in Leoš Janáček
Leoš Janácek
Leoš Janáček was a Czech composer, musical theorist, folklorist, publicist and teacher. He was inspired by Moravian and all Slavic folk music to create an original, modern musical style. Until 1895 he devoted himself mainly to folkloristic research and his early musical output was influenced by...
's Káťa Kabanová
Káta Kabanová
Káťa Kabanová is an opera in three acts, with music by Leoš Janáček to a libretto by Vincenc Červinka, based on The Storm, a play by Alexander Ostrovsky. The opera was also largely inspired by Janáček's love for Kamila Stösslová...
at La Monnaie
La Monnaie
Le Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie , or the Koninklijke Muntschouwburg is a theatre in Brussels, Belgium....
.
In 2004 Červená was honored with a Thalia Award.