Ljuba Welitsch |

Ljuba Welitsch

“I am not a German peysan, but a sexy Bulgarian,” soprano Lyuba Velich once said playfully, answering the question why she never sang Wagner. This answer is not the narcissism of the famous singer. It accurately reflects not only her sense of self, but also how she was perceived by the public in Europe and America – as the one of a kind goddess of sensuality on the operatic Olympus. Her temperament, her open expression, crazy energy, a kind of quintessence of musical and dramatic eroticism, which she bestowed on the viewer-listener in full, left a memory of her as a unique phenomenon in the world of opera.

Lyuba Velichkova was born on July 10, 1913 in the Bulgarian province, in the small village of Slavyanovo, which is not far from the country’s largest port of Varna – after the First World War, the town was renamed Borisovo in honor of the then Bulgarian Tsar Boris III, therefore this name is indicated in most reference books as the birthplace of the singer. Lyuba’s parents – Angel and Rada – came from the Pirin region (southwest of the country), had Macedonian roots.

The future singer began her musical education as a child, learning to play the violin. At the insistence of her parents, who wanted to give her daughter a “serious” specialty, she studied philosophy at Sofia University, and at the same time sang in the choir of the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in the capital. However, the craving for music and artistic abilities nevertheless led the future singer to the Sofia Conservatory, where she studied in the class of Professor Georgy Zlatev. While studying at the conservatory, Velichkova sang in the choir of the Sofia Opera, her debut took place here: in 1934 she sang a small part of the bird seller in “Louise” by G. Charpentier; the second role was Tsarevich Fedor in Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov, and the famous guest performer, the great Chaliapin, played the title role that evening.

Later, Lyuba Velichkova improved her vocal skills at the Vienna Academy of Music. During her studies in Vienna, Velichkova was introduced to the Austro-German musical culture and her further development as an opera artist was mainly associated with German scenes. At the same time, she “shortens” her Slavic surname, making it more familiar to the German ear: this is how Velich appears from Velichkova – a name that later became famous on both sides of the Atlantic. In 1936, Luba Velich signed her first Austrian contract and until 1940 sang in Graz mainly in the Italian repertoire (among the roles of those years – Desdemona in G. Verdi’s opera Otello, roles in G. Puccini’s operas – Mimi in La Boheme ”, Cio-Cio-san in Madama Butterfly, Manon in Manon Lesko, etc.).

During the Second World War, Velich sang in Germany, becoming one of the most famous singers of the Third Reich: in 1940-1943. she was a soloist at Germany’s oldest opera house in Hamburg, in 1943-1945. – soloist of the Bavarian Opera in Munich, in addition, often performs on other leading German stages, among which are primarily the Saxon Semperoper in Dresden and the State Opera in Berlin. A brilliant career in Nazi Germany later had no effect on Velich’s international successes: unlike many German or European musicians who flourished during Hitler’s time (for example, R. Strauss, G. Karajan, V. Furtwängler, K. Flagstad, etc.), the singer happily escaped denazification.

At the same time, she did not break with Vienna, which, as a result of the Anschluss, although it ceased to be a capital city, did not lose its significance as a world musical center: in 1942, Lyuba sang for the first time in the Vienna Volksoper the part of Salome in the opera of the same name by R. Strauss which has become her hallmark. In the same role, she will make her debut in 1944 at the Vienna State Opera at the celebration of the 80th anniversary of R. Strauss, who was delighted with her interpretation. Since 1946, Lyuba Velich has been a full-time soloist of the Vienna Opera, where she made a dizzying career, which resulted in her being awarded the honorary title of “Kammersengerin” in 1962.

In 1947, with this theater, she first appeared on the stage of London’s Covent Garden, again in her signature part of Salome. The success was great, and the singer receives a personal contract in the oldest English theater, where she constantly sings until 1952 such parts as Donna Anna in Don Giovanni by W. A. ​​Mozart, Musetta in La Boheme by G. Puccini, Lisa in Spades Lady” by P. I. Tchaikovsky, Aida in “Aida” by G. Verdi, Tosca in “Tosca” by G. Puccini, etc. Especially in view of her performance in the 1949/50 season. “Salome” was staged, combining the talent of the singer with the brilliant direction of Peter Brook and the extravagant set design of Salvador Dali.

The pinnacle of Luba Velich’s career was three seasons at the New York Metropolitan Opera, where she made her debut in 1949 again as Salome (this performance, conducted by conductor Fritz Reiner, was recorded and remains the best interpretation of the Strauss opera to this day). On the stage of the New York theater, Velich sang her main repertoire – in addition to Salome, this is Aida, Tosca, Donna Anna, Musetta. In addition to Vienna, London and New York, the singer also appeared on other world stages, among which the most significant were the Salzburg Festival, where in 1946 and 1950 she sang the part of Donna Anna, as well as the Glyndebourne and Edinburgh Festivals, where in 1949 At the invitation of the famous impresario Rudolf Bing, she sang the part of Amelia in G. Verdi’s Masquerade Ball.

The brilliant career of the singer was bright, but short-lived, although it officially ended only in 1981. In the mid-1950s. she began to have problems with her voice that required surgery on her ligaments. The reason for this probably lies in the fact that at the very beginning of her career the singer abandoned a purely lyrical role, which was more in line with the nature of her voice, in favor of more dramatic roles. After 1955, she rarely performed (in Vienna until 1964), mostly in small parties: her last major role was Yaroslavna in Prince Igor by A.P. Borodin. In 1972, Velich returned to the stage of the Metropolitan Opera: together with J. Sutherland and L. Pavarotti, she performed in G. Donizetti’s opera The Daughter of the Regiment. And although her role (Duchess von Krakenthorpe) was small and conversational, the audience warmly welcomed the great Bulgarian.

The voice of Lyuba Velich was a very extraordinary phenomenon in the history of vocals. Not possessing special beauty and richness of tone, he at the same time had qualities that distinguished the singer from other prima donnas. The lyrical soprano Velich is characterized by impeccable purity of intonation, instrumentality of sound, a fresh, “girlish” timbre (which made her indispensable in the parts of young heroines such as Salome, Butterfly, Musetta, etc.) and extraordinary flight, even piercing sound, which allowed the singer to easily “cut through” any, the most powerful orchestra. All these qualities, according to many, made Velich an ideal performer for the Wagner repertoire, to which the singer, however, remained completely indifferent throughout her career, considering the dramaturgy of Wagner’s operas unacceptable and uninteresting for her fiery temperament.

In the history of opera, Velich remained primarily as a brilliant performer of Salome, although it is unfair to consider her an actress of one role, since she achieved significant success in a number of other roles (in total, there were about fifty of them in the singer’s repertoire), she also successfully performed in an operetta (her Rosalind in “The Bat” by I. Strauss on the stage of the “Metropolitan” was appreciated by many no less than Salome). She had an outstanding talent as a dramatic actress, which in the pre-Kallas era was not such a frequent occurrence on the opera stage. At the same time, temperament sometimes overwhelmed her, leading to curious, if not tragicomic situations on stage. So, in the role of Tosca in the play “Metropolitan Opera”, she literally beat her partner, who played the role of her tormentor Baron Scarpia: this decision of the image met with the delight of the public, but after the performance it caused a lot of trouble for the theater management.

Acting allowed Lyuba Velich to make a second career after leaving the big stage, acting in films and on television. Among the works in the cinema is the film “A Man Between …” (1953), where the singer plays the role of an opera diva again in “Salome”; musical films The Dove (1959, with the participation of Louis Armstrong), The Final Chord (1960, with the participation of Mario del Monaco) and others. In total, Lyuba Velich’s filmography includes 26 films. The singer died on September 2, 1996 in Vienna.