the "Slowakische Nachtigall" (Slovak Nightingale). Kesting recognized Gruberová as the last prima donna assoluta. Personal life Gruberová was married to Štefan Klimo, a Czech composer and musicologist. They divorced in 1983 and Klimo died by suicide soon afterwards. Beginning in the 1980s, she had a long professional and personal relationship with Friedrich Haider, a pianist and conductor. They separated in 2007. She is the mother of two daughters, including the dancer and choreographer Barbara Klimo. She moved her residence to Zürich in the mid-1980s for tax reasons. Gruberová died of an accidental head injury in Zürich on 18 October 2021 at age 74. Recordings Gruberová made many recordings, most notably in full-length opera, and extended selections from Donizetti's Tudor Queens' trilogy and other bel canto operas. She recorded Die Zauberflöte with conductors Alain Lombard, Bernard Haitink and Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Ariadne auf Naxos with Georg Solti, and Die Entführung aus dem Serail with Heinz Wallberg, among others. In her later years, she recorded exclusively on the Nightingale label that she founded. More than a dozen of her filmed and televised opera appearances have been released on DVD, including Die Zauberflöte, Così fan tutte, Die Entführung aus dem Serail, I puritani, Norma, Manon, Beatrice di Tenda, and Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia and Linda di Chamounix, and Ariadne auf Naxos. She recorded Bach's solo cantatas for soprano, such as Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen, BWV 51, and Mein Herze schwimmt im Blut, BWV 199, in 1979, with Helmut Winschermann conducting the Deutsche Bachsolisten and trumpeter Wolfgang Basch. Awards 1980: Austrian Kammersängerin 1988: Honorary member of the Vienna State Opera 1989: Bavarian Kammersängerin 1997: Bayerischer Verdienstorden 1999: Bavarian Maximilian Order for Science and Art (in the field of art) 2009: in Gold 2013: Herbert von Karajan Music Prize 2014: Goldener Schikaneder for her life's work 2016: Ehrenplakette of the in Garmisch-Partenkirchen 2021: International Classical Music Awards, Lifetime Achievement References Further reading External links Edita Gruberová (management) Hilbert Trevor Gillis: Edita Gruberová (video of Queen of the Night) 1 December 2016 Recordings of rehearsals and performances with Edita Gruberová in the online-archive of the Österreichische Mediathek 1946 births 2021 deaths Slovak operatic sopranos Musicians from Bratislava Czechoslovak emigrants to Austria Österreichischer Kammersänger Herbert von Karajan Music Prize winners 20th-century Slovak women opera singers 21st-century Slovak women opera singers Slovak expatriates in Switzerland