The Hungarian soprano, Eva Csapó, studied first piano playing at the Béla Bartók Conservatory in Budapest. Then she trained her voice at the Music Academy of Basel with Jörg Brena. She was also pupil of well-known Swiss alto singer Elsa Cavelti.
In the years 1968-1969 Eva Csapó was engaged at the City Theatre of Trier. Later she made guest appearances outside of her residence in Basel, at the Opera House of Zürich, in Bologna, at the Festivals of Lucca (1981) and Spoleto (1981). She sang coloratura roles in opera house in Swiszeland, Germany, Austria, France, and Italy, some of which were broadcast in radio and TV.
However, Eva Csapó was primarily a highly estimated concert soloist. In 1973 she received the first price at the singing competition for ne music of Milan’s La Scala. In 1976 she made guest appearance at the Salzburg Festival in a concert of modern vocal music, and in 1988 she sang there again in oratorio works of Carissimi and E. Krvenek. Her concert repertoire had a very large scope. Thus she sang in the Passions, (BWV 244 & BWV 245) in the B minor Mass (BWV 232) and in numerous cantatas by J.S. Bach, in L.v. Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, in Messiah and in other oratorios of George Frideric Handel, in Elias and Paulus by Felix Mendelssohn, in The Seasons and The Creation of Haydn, in W.A. Mozart’s Requiem and the Great Mass in C minor, in works of Rossini, Monteverdi, Berlioz, Igor Stravinsky, Szymanowski, Benjamin Britten, Zoltán Kodály, Luigi Nono, Arnold Schoenberg, Luigi Dallapiccola, Messiaen, Paul Hindemith, Franc Martin and Arthur Honegger, without her their repertoire would be performed very rarely.
Eva Csapó mastered similarly extensive repertoire in the area of singing Lieder. As a concert and Lieder singer she unfolded a big international career; thus she gave concerts in Zurich and Basel, in Berne, Luzern (Music Weeks, 1978) and Lugano, at the festivals of Schwetzingen and Helsinki (1987), at the Festival of Granada (1986), at the Flanders Festival (1982-1985), in Lüttich, Berlin, Cologne, Hamburg, Munich, Stuttgart and Vienna, in Lyon, Monte Carlo, Strasbourg and Madrid, in Paris (1982), Milan, Rome, Turin and Parma, in Warsaw and Lisbon.
Eva Csapó was appointed as a singing teacher in the Conservatory Basel. In 1987 she created in Basel the Divertimento Vocale, a vocal ensemble.
Recordings: HMV (J.S. Bach Cantatas, Rappresentazione di anima e di corpo by Cavalieri), Philips (Moses und Aron by A. Schoenberg), RCA (Die Banditen by Offenbach), Thorofon (Lieder of Felix Mendelssohn and Dmitri Shostakovich), Vox (Masses of Schubert), FSM Turnabout (Davidde penitente by W.A. Mozart), Accord (songs of Magnard and Ponchielli), HMV Electrola (Dives malus by Carissimi). |