Born: August 2, 1937 - Berlin, Germany

The esteemed German-born Austrian soprano, Gundula Janowitz, studied with Herbert Thöney at the Graz Conservatory.

In 1959 Gundula Janowitz made her formal operatic debut as Barbarina at the Vienna State Opera, and later became one of its leading members. She later sang at the Bayreuth Festivals between 1960-1963 and the Salzburg Festival from 1963. Between 1963 and 1966 she was a member of the Frankfurt am Main Opera, and then joined the Deutsche Oper in West Berlin. She appeared at the Glyndebourne Festival in 1964, and sang at Herbert von Karajan’s Salzburg Easter Festivals in the years 1967-1968. She made her metropolitan Opera debut in New York as Sieglinde in November 1967. She was chosen to sing the role of Mozart’s Countess at the re-opening of the Paris Opéra in 1973. Subsequently she made her debut at London’s Covent Garden as Donna Anna in 1976. She was made an Austrian Kammersängerin in 1970.

In 1990-1991 Gundula Janowitz was director of the Graz-Steiremark Theater. Her other notable roles included Fiordiligi, Agathe, Aida, Elisabeth, Desdemona, and Ariadne. She was also well known as a concert and Lieder artist.

Source: Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of 20^th Century Classical Musicians (1997); Matthias Hansen (March 2007)
Contributed by Aryeh Oron (May 2001)

Recordings of Bach Cantatas & Other Vocal Works

Conductor

As

Works

Herbert von Karajan

Soprano

BWV 232, BWV 244

Karl Richter

Soprano

BWV 232 [Video], BWV 248

Links to other Sites

Discography of Gundula Janowitz (Jacob Harnoy)

Gundula Janowitcz (Wikipedia) [German]

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