Sena Jurinac

Author: MAuer - copyright MAuer at Opera Lively - exclusive content

In November, 2011, just a few weeks after her 90th birthday, Kammersängerin Sena Jurinac passed away at her home in Augsburg, Germany. One of the world’s leading sopranos of the mid-20th century and a mainstay of the Vienna State Opera who sang 46 different roles in 1,268 performances over the course of nearly four decades with the company, Jurinac was known for both the glowing warmth and beauty of her voice and the dramatic credibility with which she imbued every role she performed. Her distinctive timbre, described by critic Alan Blyth as “lyric verging on dramatic,” enabled her to sing a wide range of roles, encompassing some parts more often assigned to mezzos, as well as those in the lyric and spinto/jugendlich-dramatische soprano repertoires.
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