Description

BLAŽENKA KERNIC (KRNIC; ALSO KNOWN AS BEATRICE, BEATRIX, BOŽENA; LATER MARRIED GÖHRING) (GLINA, 2 SEPTEMBER, 1870 – HANOVER, 15 MAY, 1947)

 

 

 

 

She studied at the HGZ School in Zagreb until 1888, where she learned piano with M. Fabković and singing with Emanuel Simm, Mara Kiseljak, and I. Zajc. She then entered the Vienna Conservatory, studying under J. Ressa, and graduated in 1892 as its best student.

She made her debut in Zagreb in 1888 as Germaine in Planquette’s comic opera Les cloches de Corneville. In 1891 she took part in the first opera season organized by I. Hreljanović, and in 1892 she achieved a great success as Rose Friquet in Maillart’s Les dragons de Villars (The Hermit’s Bell). That same year she appeared in Breslau (Wrocław) as Siebel in Gounod’s Faust, and was soon engaged in Leipzig, where she made her debut as Ännchen in Weber’s Der Freischütz. By 1898 she had sung 53 roles there and had become one of the leading members of the ensemble.

From 1898 to 1902 she was engaged at the Munich Court Opera, receiving in 1900 the title of Royal Bavarian Chamber Singer. She reached the pinnacle of her career at the Bayreuth Festival in 1899, where she sang Eva in Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. Prepared under the guidance of Cosima Wagner, her interpretation of this role was regarded as the finest in Germany at the time.

She later joined the Frankfurt Opera (from 1902) and in 1912 moved to the Hanover Court Theatre, where she retired from the stage in 1923 with the role of Frau Fluth in Nicolai’s Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor. She then became a professor of singing at the Hanover Conservatory. Alongside her permanent engagements, she appeared as guest in Cologne, Berlin, Hamburg, and Dresden, and from 1895 regularly returned to Zagreb, where she sang all her roles in Croatian. In 1924 she staged Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro and organized a recital of solo songs there.

Although she began as a mezzo-soprano, her repertoire gradually expanded to encompass both dramatic and lyric soprano parts. On international stages she was noted for her portrayals of Marzelline (Fidelio), Undine (Lortzing), Adele (Die Fledermaus), Zerlina (Fra Diavolo), Marie (Zar und Zimmermann), Sélika (L’Africaine), Salome (R. Strauss), Mignon (Thomas), Venus (Tannhäuser), Anita (La Navarraise), Santuzza (Cavalleria rusticana), Tatiana (Eugene Onegin), as well as numerous Mozart heroines.

In Zagreb she was especially acclaimed for her performances as Mařenka (The Bartered Bride), Gretel (Hänsel und Gretel), Marguerite (Faust), Lola (Cavalleria rusticana), Nedda (Pagliacci), Dot (Die Kriegsgefangene by K. Goldmark), Maria (La fille du régiment, Croatian premiere, 1901), Eva and Glad (Prvi grijeh by Zajc, concert premiere 1907), Manon (Massenet), Carmen (Bizet), and Olympia, Giulietta, and Antonia (Les contes d’Hoffmann).

Celebrated not only as a singer but also as an actress, she was praised for her musicality, elegance, and dramatic ability, with a strong, sonorous yet warm voice of wide range and perfectly even registers. Contemporary critics considered her a complete artist with a refined and distinguished style (Agramer Tagblatt, 1900, no. 32). She remains one of the greatest Croatian singers, equally admired at home and abroad.

 

TRACKLIST

 

 

 Cavalleria Rusticana (Mascagni) O süsse Lilie 43392 2282k G&T, Frankfurt-am-Main 1905

Mein Liebster ist ein Weber (Hildach) 43838 4649L G&T, Frankfurt-am-Main 1906-09

Peer Gynt (Grieg) Solveigs Lied 43462 1161z G&T, Frankfurt-am-Main 1903

Übers Jahr (Bohm) 43837 4648L G&T, Frankfurt-am-Main 1906-09