FEATURE STORY
The Zerbinetta Aria: Gruberová Conquers Strauss’s Everest
Edita Gruberová sings Zerbinetta’s “Großmächtige Prinzessin” from Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos, among the most punishing coloratura solos ever composed. Strauss wrote it for Frieda Hempel, but she had decamped to the Metropolitan Opera, and Margarethe Siems created the role at Stuttgart on October 25, 1912. The premiere drew luminaries and an orchestra of borrowed Italian strings. Molière’s framing play made the evening unwieldy; by 1916 a Prologue replaced it, and the aria was mercifully shortened.
Edward A Kliszus, Editor-in-Chief / Music and Arts Critic
