Trivia

Hoping to reside once more in Europe after WWII, Novotná and her husband, Baron Daubek, found their property in Czechoslovakia confiscated by the Communists. After living in America once more, the couple eventually retired to Vienna.

In 1948 she won acclaim for her leading role, as an Auschwitz survivor who searches for her young son, in The Search which co-starred Montgomery Clift.

Lyric soprano, who first performed, aged 17, with the Prague National Opera. Studied in Milan, then joined the Vienna State Opera, 1933-1938. Star of the Metropolitan Opera in 193 performances, beginning with "La Boheme" in 1940.

Jarmila Novotna went from Austria to England where she appeared in a movie with the title "The Last Walzt" (1936).

When she was invited to New York in 1939 by Arturo Toscanini in order to impersonate the role of Violetta in "La Traviata", this marked the beginning of her last career phase. She signed a contract with the Metropolitan Opera in 1940 and was very successful in whole USA. Especially her role as Violetta gave her the reputation as one of the best singer of that time.

In January 1933 she created the female lead in Jaromir Weinberger's new operetta Frühlingsstürme, opposite Richard Tauber at the Theater im Admiralspalast, Berlin. This was the last new operetta produced in the Weimar Republic, and she and Tauber were both soon forced to leave Germany by the new Nazi regime.

A student of Emmy Destinn, Novotná made her operatic debut at the Prague Opera House, on June 28, 1925as Marenka in Smetana's The Bartered Bride and six days later, she sang there as Violetta in Verdi's La traviata.

She lived in Berlin till 1933 where she launched a successful film career.

Jarmila Novotna retired from the public in 1956 and attended her family.

In the USA she also appeared on Broadway (among others in "Helen of Troy" and as Irene Adler at Basil Rathbone's side in "Sherlock Holmes") besides the opera stage.

When the political mood became more and more hostile she went to Austria where she met the composer Franz Lehar. He engaged her for the leading role for his new play "Giuditta. Because of the huge success she was signed on at the Viennese Staatsoper and was appointed to a Kammersängerin.

She made her film debut in 1925 with the Czech silent movie "Vyznavaci slunce" (25), but the great successes in the film business came with the talkies of the 30's.

Jarmila Novotna was able to expand her career beyond Prague from 1928. She got engagements in Verona, Neapel and Berlin.

She began her professional career as an opera singer in 1925 with Smetana's "Die verkaufte Braut" and aroused enthusiasm by her role as Violeta in Verdi's "La Traviata".

The opera singer and actress Jarmila Novotna studied voice by Emmy Destinn and Hilbert Vavia in Prague, later she went to Antonio Guarnieri in Milan.

Of her 208 appearances at the Met, 103 were in the breeches roles of Prince Orlofsky, Cherubino and Octavian.