On Dec. 11, 2022 operetta singer and actress Olga Haasová-Smrčková died in Brno at the age of 85.

Haasová-Smrčková died after a long, serious illness and is said to have spent the last years of her life in a retirement home in Brno.

Born in 1937, she was the daughter of composer Pavel Haas who was murdered in the Holocaust, and niece of the famous director Hugo Haas.

She went on to become a stalwart at the National Theater in Brno where she sang numerous roles and won the hearts of many viewers. In a statement, the theater said, “From the 1960s to the early 1990s, she was one of the pillars and pillars of the opera company. On the Reduta stage, she embodied dozens of characters from the classic operetta repertoire and in musicals,” theater colleagues recalled.

Among the roles, she was well-known for was Kristina in Čapkov’s “Veča Makropulos.” She also won over audiences in the role of Augusta Panicetti in Gordi Kramer’s opera “When It’s Sunday in Rome.” She retired in 1991.

Haasová-Smrčková was the first wife of writer Milan Kundera and was the inspiration for the play “The Owners of the Keys.”