Born: February 25, 1955 - Innsbruck, Austria
Died: April 27, 2016 - Vienna, Austria |
The Austrian soprano/mezzo-soprano, Gabriele Sima, was born in Innsbruck and raised in Salzburg, She was trained at the Mozarteum University Salzburg and the Academy of Music in Vienna. In 1979, she made her professional opera debut with Spectaculum, a Vienna-based opera company dedicated to performing Baroque operas. From 1979 to 1982 she was a member of the young artist program at the Wiener Staatsoper. She was then promoted to the role of resident artist with the Wiener Staatsoper, a position she maintained until 1988 when she became a principal artist at the Zürich Opera. She performed in roles associated with both the soprano and mezzo-soprano repertoires.
Gabriele Sima made her debut at the Salzburg Festival in 1980 in Ernst Krenek's Karl V, and continued to perform there regularly over the next decade. Her roles at Salzburg included Johanna in the world premiere of Friedrich Cerha's Baal (8 July 1981) and the Nurse in the world premiere of Luciano Berio's Un re in ascolto (July 7, 1984). She appeared at Salzburg in performances of Othmar Schoeck's Penthesilea (1982), Gottfried von Einem's Dantons Tod (1983), a concert of works by W.A. Mozart in 1987, and Richard Strauss' Elektra (1989).
In 1991 Gabriele Sima made her debut at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein as Cherubino in W.A. Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, a role which she also sang for her debut at the Teatro Comunale in Ferrara in 1994. She returned to the Wiener Staatsoper several times during the 1990s, including appearances as Annio in W.A. Mozart's La clemenza di Tito (1991), Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier (1991), and Nicklausse in The Tales of Hoffmann (1995). She performed in multiple production as the Hamburg State Opera during her career. In 2000 she performed the role of Juno in the first modern revival of Giovanni Legrenzi's La divisione del mondo at the Schwetzingen Festival.
Other roles Gabriele Sima has performed on stage include Barbarina in W.A. Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, Berta in The Barber of Seville, Esmeralda in The Bartered Bride, The Fortuneteller in Arabella, Flora in La traviata, Giannetta in The Elixir of Love, Papagena in W.A. Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, the Shepherd Boy in Tannhäuser, Siébel in Charles Gounod's Faust, and Xenia in Boris Godunov among others. She died in Vienna on April 27, 2016, aged 61, from undisclosed causes. |