Branka Beretovac
Branka Beretovac, soprano (maiden Gregorić, born in Zagreb in 1944), was primadona of Croatian National Theatre (Hrvatsko narodno kazalište, HNK) in Zagreb for 35 years. She graduated from the Academy of Music of the University of Zagreb, and made her debut in Croatian National Theatre in 1964 in the opera Nikola Šubić Zrinski by Ivan pl. Zajc.
Branka Beretovac in 1981
In 1967, she became a permanent soloist at the Opera Stadt Theater in German capital Bonn.
Upon returning back to Croatia in 1969, she had successful opera appearances not only in Croatia, but throughout Europe as well:
Bonn, Geneve, Monte Carlo, Paris, Madrid, St. Petersburg, Kiev, Berlin, Salzburg, Brno, Vienna, Luxembourg, Frankfurt am Main, Solingen, Ulm, Budapest, Freiburg and elsewhere.
Croatian Christmas carols, by Branka Beretovac and Hrvojka Mihanović-Salopek
In Vienna, she toured with the Nelson Mass at the Musikverein Hall, where she recorded a record that was later released on compact disc. She also performed as a soloist in Tales of Hoffmann at the Vienna Volksopera, with excellent reviews. She had a fruitful and frequent collaboration with internationally renowned Croatian conductor Lovro von Matačić.
Source: Hrvojka Mihanović Salopek, Kristalni plov / umjetnička djelatnost Branke Beretovac, prvakinje HNK u Zagrebu, Biakova d.o.o., Zagreb, 2019., pp. 309-310 |
