In this Aug. 31, 2012 photo provided by the Austrian parliament 95 year-old soprano Hilde Zadek, left, receives the Great Medal of Honor of the Austrian Republic bey the speaker of the parliament Barbara Prammer, right, at the parliament in Vienna, Austria. For Zadek, the city she once despised as part of Hitler's evil empire has long become a home that she says she would never leave _ and one that is proud to call her own. She has been showered with medals, granted high honorary titles and a singer's competition named after her 13 years ago has turned into an international launching pad for future opera stars. (AP Photo/Parlamentsdirektion/Bildagentur Zolles KG/Jacqueline Godany)
The Canadian Press
VIENNA – It was 1947 in post-war Vienna, and Hilde Zadek remembers taking a deep breath behind the curtain. A rookie on her first opera gig, she was about to sing the prestigious role of Aida for an audience full of particularly harsh critics — whistle-packing Nazis she says were determined to show “that Jew from Palestine” she was not welcome at one of the world’s greatest opera houses
But their whistles stayed silent, as Zadek celebrated her first on-stage triumph.
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