Wednesday, May 20, 2009
In memory of Madame Jarmila Novotna, who gave Stuyvesant Square Park the Dvorak statue
Jarmila Novotna, the Czech lyric soprano who sang major roles at the Meropolitan Opera from 1940 to 1956, passed away on February 9, 1994, at the age of 86.
She debuted in the US at San Francisco in 1949 in Madame Butterfly, and at the Met in 1940, in La Boheme, with Jussi Bjoerling. Some 193 performances followed, including tour, as Donna Elvira, Euridice, Manon, Melisande, Antonia and Marenka, and, in trouser roles, as Orlowsky in Fledermaus, Cherubino in Nocce and Octaviano in Rosenkavalier.
Her debut at 17 was in Prague National opera, after study with Emmy Destin, then in Milan. She was member of the Vienna Statsopera 1933-1938, and sang in all major European houses, opera and concerts. She married Baron George Daubek, the Central European representative of IBM, in 1931 . Toscanini brought her to the Met's attention in 1937, after she sand Pamina for him in Salzburg in 1937.
A friend of Ambassador Jan Masaryk, she recorded Czech songs with him. When he passed away in 1948, his protection ceased and the Daubeks' 3700 acre estate and castle were nationalized.
The bronze statue of Antonin Dvorak (1841-1904) by Ivan Mestrovic (1883-1962) was given by the Czech National Council of America to the NY Philharmonic in 1963, and it rested on the roof of Avery Fisher Hall for three decades, exposed to the elements. When Dvorak's old house at 327 East 17th Street lost its landmark status and became an AIDS residence for Beth Israel Hospital, Madame Jarmila Novotna persuaded the Philharmonic to give it a spot in the Park just oacross from the house where the composer created his New World Symphony (No.9), a Going Home moment for the four-foot statue, now freshly recovered with a new patina, on a pedestal created by the Czech-American architect Jan Hird Pokorny, a cooperation of the Dvorak American Heritage Association and the Stuyvesant Square Neighborhood Association, coordinated by Jack Taylor, the indefatigable preservationist.
She debuted in the US at San Francisco in 1949 in Madame Butterfly, and at the Met in 1940, in La Boheme, with Jussi Bjoerling. Some 193 performances followed, including tour, as Donna Elvira, Euridice, Manon, Melisande, Antonia and Marenka, and, in trouser roles, as Orlowsky in Fledermaus, Cherubino in Nocce and Octaviano in Rosenkavalier.
Her debut at 17 was in Prague National opera, after study with Emmy Destin, then in Milan. She was member of the Vienna Statsopera 1933-1938, and sang in all major European houses, opera and concerts. She married Baron George Daubek, the Central European representative of IBM, in 1931 . Toscanini brought her to the Met's attention in 1937, after she sand Pamina for him in Salzburg in 1937.
A friend of Ambassador Jan Masaryk, she recorded Czech songs with him. When he passed away in 1948, his protection ceased and the Daubeks' 3700 acre estate and castle were nationalized.
The bronze statue of Antonin Dvorak (1841-1904) by Ivan Mestrovic (1883-1962) was given by the Czech National Council of America to the NY Philharmonic in 1963, and it rested on the roof of Avery Fisher Hall for three decades, exposed to the elements. When Dvorak's old house at 327 East 17th Street lost its landmark status and became an AIDS residence for Beth Israel Hospital, Madame Jarmila Novotna persuaded the Philharmonic to give it a spot in the Park just oacross from the house where the composer created his New World Symphony (No.9), a Going Home moment for the four-foot statue, now freshly recovered with a new patina, on a pedestal created by the Czech-American architect Jan Hird Pokorny, a cooperation of the Dvorak American Heritage Association and the Stuyvesant Square Neighborhood Association, coordinated by Jack Taylor, the indefatigable preservationist.
# posted by Wally Dobelis @ 4:56 AM 
