ABSTRACT
Yugoslavian soprano, born Srebenka Jurinac in Tavnik. She studied in Zagreb and made her debut there as Mimi in 1942. Then she sang with the Vienna State Opera (1945), and went on to Salzburg, London, La Scala, and an American debut in San Francisco (1959). Although her repertoire covered Wagner, Puccini, Richard Strauss, Berg, and other modern works, Jurinac was particularly distinguished in Mozartean roles, from which most of the recordings were drawn. She was Donna Elvira in the complete Don Giovanni on Philips (00280-82), and also in the LP on Decca (#302); the Countess in one Nozze di Figaro (Philips complete recording 00357-59), and Cherubino in another (Columbia 410-425). She also did a Nozze for Epic LP (6022). With Fritz Busch at Glyndebourne, Jurinac created remarkable performances as Ilia in Idomeneo and Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte; these are sampled in an EMI Références CD (763199-2; 1990), which also offers Jurinac’s fine rendition of Richard Strauss’s four last songs, and works by Smetana and Tchaikovsky. There are many other CD reissues of her recordings available on a number of domestic and foreign labels.
