SUPRAPHON HONOURS THE DIVA JARMILA NOVOTNÁ!

On 9 February 2014, 20 years had passed since the death of the legendary Czech soprano Jarmila Novotná (b. 1907), a long-term soloist at the Metropolitan Opera in New York and a Hollywood star, a woman who dedicated her life to the arts.

A beautiful, light, sparkling soprano, outstanding dramatic skills and a dazzling stage presence – these were the main qualities that predetermined the singer to pursue an illustrious global career. In 1928, Jarmila Novotná enthralled the audience as Gilda at the Arena di Verona, from 1933 to 1939 she was a soloist of the Staatsoper in Vienna. Her 1939 American debut in San Francisco was followed in 1940 by her engagement at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, where she performed as a soloist until 1956. After the end of World War II, she regularly returned to Europe to sing in Salzburg, Vienna, Paris and, before the 1948 Communist takeover, Prague.

Owing to her emigration, she only gained official domestic recognition in 1987, when the Society for International Relations awarded her a Gold Medal for Artistic Achievement and Promotion of Czechoslovakia abroad on her 80th birthday. The second Czech engaged at the MET, after the legendary Ema Destinnová, Jarmila Novotná was only accorded deserved acknowledgment in her homeland in the wake of the 1989 revolution.

Abroad, her artistry was highly acclaimed, and not only during the time of her opera career. In 1986, Jarmila Novotná was among the 86 foreign-born New York residents selected by the Mayor on the occasion of the centenary of the Statue of Liberty to be decorated for their merits in the city’s promotion and development. In 1990, to mark the 50th anniversary of her MET debut, President George Bush sent her a letter in which he extended his thanks in recognition of the great pleasure she had given opera-lovers all over the world. Since 1997, a planetoid has borne her name.
The life of Jarmila Novotná, the most famous pupil of Ema Destinnová and one of the most celebrated 20th-century Czech artists, ended on 9 February 1994. The urn containing her ashes is placed in the family tomb in Liteň.

Supraphon recalls Jarmila Novotná’s vocal artistry on a CD featuring in a carefully remastered form the currently most representative selection of unique recordings of the singer’s feted performances of opera arias. The album, titled JARMILA NOVOTNÁ – OPERA RECITAL (SU 4158–2), also contains recordings dating from 1930 to 1956 that have not previously been available on CD.