Opera Circles – an evening with a personality from the world of Slovenian operatic art was dedicated to the personality and work of Ana Pusar Jerič (1946), who made her debut at the Ljubljana Opera, then performed in Berlin and was a guest at the Dresden Opera, and toured extensively throughout Europe. She has been a permanent member of the Ljubljana Opera since 1996. Ana Pusar Jerič is a winner of the Prešeren Fund Award.
The conversation was led by Peter Bedjanič
In collaboration with KD Glasbena Matica and SNG Opera and Ballet.
Soprano Ana Pusar was born on August 21, 1946 in Kolobje, Šentjur, from where the Ipavec musical family was known. She received her first musical education at the music school in Celje. She graduated from the teacher training college in Ljubljana, studied singing at the Secondary Music School in Ljubljana with Jelka Stergar, and graduated in 1971. She participated in several international competitions and won several international awards (the silver prize in Geneva in 1975, the first prize at the Totti del Monte in 1980, and the same year a prize at the Mario del Monaco competition). At the same time, she attended summer schools (Mozarteum in Salzburg). Already in 1971, she made her debut at the Ljubljana Opera and sang Rosina, Manon, Tatiana, Dido, Michaela, and Desdemona. Soon, the doors to abroad opened for her. She decided to join the Komische Oper in what was then East Berlin, led by the famous director Joachim Herz, and was a member of it from 1979 to 1985. She was also a regular guest at the Dresden Opera, where she had an extraordinary musical experience collaborating with the Staadskapelle orchestra. She also sang at the Berlin State Opera and received the Berliner Zeitung award for the best media-rated role of the season for her role as Liza. At the opening of the famous Semper Opera in Dresden in 1985, she sang the role of the Marshal in Der Rosenkavalier with exceptional success. The opera was also recorded on record and for television. Already in 1979, she received the Prešeren Fund Award for successful opera creations. She performed in around thirty major operas. Let us mention at least some of her most characteristic roles: Donna Ana in Don Giovanni, Elizabeth in Verdi's Don Carlos, Desdemona in Otello, Elsa in Lohengrin, Cho-cho-san in Madame Butterfly, Fiordiligi in Cosí fan tutte, Agatha in The Magician, Helen in Britten's Peter Grimes, the Marshal in Der Rosenkavalier, Araberlla in Strauss's opera of the same name, the Countess in Strauss's opera Capricco, Leonora in Fidelio, etc.
As an excellent coloratura singer, Pusar performs a very wide repertoire, ranging from Monteverdi to contemporary composers. From 1986, when she became a freelance artist, to 1996, when she became a member of the Ljubljana Opera, she sang and toured on the largest European opera stages - in Germany (Berlin, Munich, Hamburg, Dresden, Cologne), Austria (Vienna), Russia (Moscow, St. Petersburg), the Czech Republic (Prague), Switzerland (Zurich), Great Britain (Edinburgh), Canada (Montreal), Spain, Portugal, Italy, France and Japan, under the baton of the world's most distinguished conductors, such as Wolfgang Sawallisch, Riccardo Chailly, Melles, Gerd Albrecht, Sir John Pritchard, Nicolaus Harnoncourt, Lorin Maazel and others. In Vienna, Milan, Rome, Zurich and Florence, she also established herself as a concert singer in oratorios and soliloquies. She returned to the Ljubljana Opera as Leonora in Fidelio. She then sang major roles such as Abigaile, Amelia, the Countess, Donna Anna, Madame Butterfly, Marinka, Elizabeta, Ariadna, Liza, and most recently, she created the title role in Švar's opera Cleopatra on the Ljubljana stage.
In Slovenia, she has released several albums, including the Samospeve by Benjamin and Josip Ipavec and the album entitled Giuseppe Verdi – najslepše arije. Abroad, she has recorded a number of oratorios, including Dvořák's Stabat Mater. Bach's St. Matthew Passion, Bontempi's Requiem. She has recorded a disc with the sonatas of Hugo Wolf and Sergei Rachmaninoff, a video of her role as Agatha in The Magician was made in Tokyo, and she has recorded the operas Cosí fant tute and Don Giovanni for television.
Ana Pusar is renowned as a singer with an exceptional musical sense, refined dynamic nuances and pure pianissimos. Primož Kurent: One Hundred Slovenian Opera Stars, Calendar Collection, Prešernova družba dd; Ljubljana, 2005
