Gertrude Grob-Prandl

Who was Gertrude Grob-Prandl?

Gertrude Grob-Prandl was an Austrian Wagnerian soprano.

Grob-Prandl was born in Vienna and studied at the conservatory there. She originally intended to become a piano teacher but the professors at the conservatory began to notice the size of her voice and she was placed in a singing class. She made her debut at the Vienna Volksoper as Santuzza in Cavalleria rusticana. She graduated to heavier roles such as Isolde, Brunnhilde and Turandot. She retired in 1972.

Some of her colleagues considered her greater than the other great Wagnerian sopranos of her generation, Birgit Nilsson, Kirsten Flagstad, and Astrid Varnay. Irmgard Seefried once remarked that the "walls shook" when Grob-Prandl sang Turandot. A popular anecdote states that she was once interrupted while performing as Turandot, by fire-fighters. People outside the theater had mistaken her for a fire-alarm siren.

Unlike many big Wagnerians, she was dexterous enough to sing Mozart, and she was a supportive, unselfish ensemble-singer. Besides size, her voice had a distinctive burnished timbre and a tight, brisk, consistent vibrato.

Available recordings include Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, Isabelle in Robert le Diable, Brunhilde, Isolde, First Lady in The Magic Flute, and if one searches hard, Elektra, Turandot, and Elettra in Idomeneo. There is also an anthology of her solo work.