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Born: November 9, 1910 - Rawa Ruska by Lemberg, Poland
Died: October 5, 1979 - Paris, France |
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The Polish mezzo-soprano, Eugenia Zareska, studied with Adam Didur in Lwów, then in Vienna, where she won in 1938 a singing competition. She was also pupil of Anna Bahr Mildenburg.
Eugenia Zareska began her stage career 1939. Since 1940 she lived in Italy, where she finished her training in Milan, later she appeared at the prominent opera theatres and particularly since 1941 at Milan’s La Scala she had important successes (start role: Dorabella in W.A. Mozart's Così fan tutte). In 1942 she sang at the Opera of Rome, and after World War II made often guest appearances in Paris, such as Marina in Boris Godunov by Mussorgsky. In 1952 she shifted her domicile to London. She appeared there first at Cambridge Theatre as Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, then in 1948-1949, 1952-1953 and 1957-1958 at the Covent Garden Opera London, at which she her first role was Carmen. At the same time she appeared as a guest at the big opera stages in Italy, France, Belgium and Holland.
Eugenia Zareska was also an internationally estimated concert singer, whereby she was characterised in particular in the Lieder singing. She participated in the festivals of Edinburgh and Sienna and sang Dorabella at the Glyndebourne Festival of 1948. At the Festival of Venice she could be heard in 1949 as Countess Geschwitz in Alban Berg’s opera Lulu. She appeared as a guest also at the Festival of Aix-en-Provence and Maggio Musicale Fiorentino.
Recordings: Columbia, Decca, HMV (Boris Godunov), Cetra (Il trionfo dell' onore by Alessandro Scarlatti), Vox (Incoronazione di Poppea by Monteverdi), Disques Montaigne (Oedipus Rex by Igor Stravinsky, under the baton of the composer), Urania (Offenbach's La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein, conducted by René Leibowitz, 1958), Robert Schumann's Frauenliebe und -leben, Gustav Mahler's Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, Frédéric Chopin's Polish Songs,
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