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Josip Rijavec

(February 10, 1890 - December 30, 1959)

The tenor Josip Rijavec (also José Riavez) was born on February 10, 1890, in Gradisca d'Isonzo. He took his first singing lessons from the Czech composer and choirmaster Josip Michl in Gorizia. After high school graduation, he enrolled in the Glasbena matica music school in Ljubljana. His teacher was Matej Hubad. In 1911 he was admitted to the Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, where he studied singing for four more years with the Finnish professor Filip Forstén. At the same time, he graduated in law as well. He first got a job as a teacher of harmony at the Glasbena matica school and made his debut a couple of years later, in 1916 in Zagreb in the opera Rosenkavalier directed by the composer Richard Strauss himself (Josip Križaj was also in the cast). Rijavec sang in many major cities - Dresden, Paris, Prague, Copenhagen, Barcelona, Buenos Aires, Moscow, Odessa, Vienna, Ljubljana etc. He was permanently engaged at the opera houses in Zagreb and Belgrade as well as the Berlin State Opera. In Berlin, he recorded Turiddu’s aria Siciliana from Cavalleria Rusticana, conducted by the composer Mascagni (1927). He liked to include works by Slovenian as well as Croatian and Serbian authors in concert programs. Frequently his recitals consisted exclusively of these works, such as in London in 1921 and Leningrad in 1936. From 1945 he was a professor at the Belgrade Academy of Music, where he taught the renowned mezzo-soprano Biserka Cvejić, among others. He died on December 30, 1959, in Belgrade.