SLOVAKIA SMÚTI An extraordinary personality and legend of Slovak culture has died
BRATISLAVA – At the age of 97, a prominent figure in Slovak culture, Jela Krčméry-Vrteľová, the daughter of the poet, literary historian and theorist Štefan Krčméry, died in Bratislava on Thursday, November 4. The death of the opera singer, librettist, translator and long-time dramaturg of the Opera of the Slovak National Theater was confirmed by Izabela Pažitková, SND press secretary. As follows, the last farewell will take place on Thursday, November 11 at 11:00 am in the large Evangelical Church on the Virgin.
Jela Krčméry-Vrteľová was born on January 7, 1924 in Martin. After studying at the Conservatory in Bratislava and at the Santa Cecilia Academy of Music in Rome, where she won the international singing competition at the Prague Spring, she was a soloist at the SND Opera from 1945 to 1952. She made her debut as Maddalena in Verdi’s opera Rigoletto. Later she played Flora in La traviate, Lola in Peasant Honor, Nicklauss in Hoffmann’s short stories or Carmen. She remained faithful to music and the SND as a playwright, librettist and translator. She is the author of libriettes for several operas, especially for the opera Svätopluk by Eugen Suchoň. She also created librettos for operas by Tibor Andrašovan, Miloslav Kořínek, Milan Dubovský and Ladislav Kupkovič.
She also co-created operas for children, from which The Great Doctor’s Fairy Tale returned to the repertoire several times. She is also known as a translator from Italian, French and German, she has translated over 70 pounds. She has released an album of classical, opera and choral songs, collaborated with radio, television, the Slovak Philharmonic, and published collections of verses. In 2018, she received the Award of the Minister of Culture of the Slovak Republic for her long-term creative activity at the SND Opera and exceptional contribution in the field of art and culture. Krčméry-Vrteľová was an active member of Živena, an association of Slovak women, in the work of which she actively participated until 2014. The Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs of the Slovak Republic awarded her the title of Exceptional Woman of Slovakia for these activities.