Szmytka Elżbieta, *18 September 1956 Prochowice, Polish singer (soprano). In 1982, she completed vocal studies as a student of H. Łazarska at the Academy of Music in Krakow and won first prize at a vocal competition in ʼs-Hertogenbosch. She made her debut as Susanna in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro at the Opera Krakowska in 1978, then sang at the Silesian Opera in Bytom and the Wrocław Opera. In 1984 she began her collaboration with the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels. Szmytka has also performed, among others, in Geneva, Vienna (since 1988), Berlin, Paris, Buenos Aires, and at festivals in Salzburg, Glyndebourne and Aix-en-Provence. She is highly regarded for her roles in operas: by Mozart, where she performed as Susanna, Queen of the Night, and Pamina in The Magic Flute, as Despina in Così fan tutte, as Constanze in Il Seraglio; by Verdi as Gilda in Rigoletto, Violetta in La traviata; by R. Strauss as Zerbinietta in Ariadne auf Naxos, as Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier, as the Empress (Die Kaiserin) in Die Frau ohne Schatten; by Rossini as Madama Cortese in Il viaggio a Reims in Frankfurt am Main in 2004; by Monteverdi in the title role in L’incoronazione di Poppea performed in Hamburg in 2005. She has collaborated with C. Abbado, G. Solti, P. Boulez, N. Harnoncourt, J.E. Gardiner, N. Marriner (a CD-record in 1989 with Così fan tutte, Philips), and S. Rattle, with whom she recorded Szymanowski’s works for EMI in 1994, Stabat Mater and Litany to the Virgin Mary (Gramophone Award 1995), and King Roger (as Roxane) in 1999, also written by Szymanowski.
