Gundula Janowitz

Gundula Janowitz was brought up in Graz, Austria but is originally of German extraction. She rose to fame in the 1960s and went on to become one of the most popular and best respected opera singers of the era. A student of the famous Graz Conservatory (she was made an honorary member in 1986), towards the end of the 1950s Janowitz began singing at the highest level but her career really began to take off after the famed Austrian conductor Herbert Von Karajan engaged her to take on the role of Barbarina in Mozart's 'Marriage of Figaro' performed by the Vienna State Opera. Her performance as Barbarina established her as a soprano of some stature and she was subsequently invited to become a permanent member of Vienna State in 1962.

As her reputation spread throughout the world she began to build an impressive catalogue of recorded work covering works from Sebastian Bach to Richard Strauss. During her career she has tended to avoid foreign language roles, preferring to sing in her native tongue although there are a handful recordings which exist of her singing in Italian, notably 'Don Carlos' and 'Requiem'.