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The Croatian mezzo-soprano, Ruža Pospiš-Baldani, made her professional opera debut in 1961 at the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb as Konchakovna in Alexander Borodin's Prince Igor. She remained active at that theatre and at the National Theatre in Belgrade throughout the 1960’s. In 1965 she made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City as Maddalena in Giuseppe Verdi's Rigoletto. From 1970-1978 she was committed to the Bavarian State Opera. Between 1973 and 1987 she was a frequent guest artist at the Wiener Staatsoper; drawing particular acclaim there as Brangäne in Richard Wagner's Tristan und Isolde. In 1976 she made her debut at the Paris Opera as Amneris in Verdi's Aida, and made her first appearance at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo in the title role of Georges Bizet's Carmen. She has since appeared as a guest artist at the Cologne Opera. the Edinburgh Festival, the Greek National Opera, the Hamburg State Opera, the Houston Grand Opera, the Hungarian State Opera House, La Scala, the Liceu, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the National Opera of Sofia, the Salzburg Festival, the San Francisco Opera, the Savonlinna Opera Festival, the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, the Teatro di San Carlo, and the Teatro Municipal in Rio de Janeiro among others.
From the liner notes to the LP “J.S. Bach: St. Matthew Passion, Mass in B minor” (Jugoton, 1987):
“I cannot imagine a more noble rendition of Bach’s music than Ruža Pospiš-Baldani’s interpretation”, said Karl Richter, one of the greatest modern authorities for interpreting the works of J.S. Bach.
The artist is now giving the city and surroundings where she has been living and working for years all the nobility, skill and beauty of vocal art transformed in the music of the cantor of Leipzig. And once again she confirms the words of the late, as well as the praise of Herbert von Karajan, Luvro Matačić, Zubin Mehta and many other prominent names with she worked, often on the interpretation of J.S. Bach’s work. The peaks in the career of this great prima donna together form the art of one of the loveliest voices from Yugoslavia. One such peak, perhaps the most subtle, certainly the ones that Ruža Pospiš-Baldani most cherishes is her work on J.S. Bach/ Her discovery of the Baroque web of philosophical and musical thought has given this Carmen, Dalila, Amneris, Orpheus, Marina an enduring glow. The discovery of a true love for the contemplativeness of J.S. Bach’s harmony meant the discovery of new worlds, an entire Cosmos in the interweaving of the most simple of human truths. She approached Bach and Karl Richter with the question: “Maestro, how one does sing Bach?” and the conductor answered: “precisely as you sing him.” |
