On Sept 7, 2022, the estate of Edita Gruberová will be auctioned at Dorotheum.

The Slovak soprano, who passed away in 2021, was considered the “queen of bel canto” and celebrated her international breakthrough at the Vienna State Opera in the 1970s. She went on to perform at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Bayerische Staatsoper, the Royal Opera House in London’s Covent Garden and the Metropolitan Opera.

Gruberová was also a passionate collector of sheet music and photographs, autographs, and paintings. She collected a wide variety of objects, which she also liked to exhibit in her home. Mementos to which she had a personal connection were particularly valuable to Gruberová, such as the songbook of Richard Strauss, whom she greatly admired.

Her estate also includes numerous stage costumes and an unusual necklace that the soprano wore exclusively during performances as well as many of her great gowns.

Gruberová had a special fondness for works by the Viennese painter Ernst Fuchs, whom she knew well and for whom she also sat as a model.