Bahrija Nuri Hadžić

Bahrija Nuri Hadžić (4 March 1904 – 24 October 1993) was a Bosnian soprano and prima donna who is regarded as one of the first Yugoslav Muslim opera singers. She is best known for playing the titular roles in Richard Strauss's Salome and Alban Berg's Lulu. During her career, she was known in the press as The Belgrade Great. Nuri Hadžić also received the Yugoslav lifetime achievement award 'Sedmojulska nagrada' in 1988 for her contributions to art music, and was featured on a Bosnian stamp in 1996.

Early life and education Bahrija Nuri Hadžić was born on 4 March 1904 in Sarajevo, Bosnia, into a wealthy intellectual Muslim family. She was one of four daughters of the writer Osman Nuri Hadžić and Almasa (née Sokolović). Nuri Hadžić received piano lessons at the private music school Glasbena škola F. Matějovský run by nuns in Sarajevo, before transferring to a music school in Belgrade after her family moved there in 1921. While studying there, her singing teacher Ivanka Milojević noticed her vocal talent and encouraged her to pursue it further in Vienna. Nuri Hadžić followed her advice and started attending the Vienna Academy of Music, where T. Lierhammer was her tutor. She graduated from there in 1928.

Nuri Hadžić is regarded as one of the first Yugoslav Muslim opera singers to find fame in Europe, and as a result received widespread coverage in the Muslim press, with the Gajret journal calling her the "first recognised [Muslim] woman pioneer". The politician Mustafa Mulalić also promoted her as an example that Muslims could contribute to the wider culture while still maintaining their faith. To further demonstrate this, he compiled a series of photographs of Nuri Hadžić wearing a dimija, a traditional headscarf and in character as Salome.

On 2 June 1937 in Zurich, she originated the title role in the unfinished opera Alban Berg's Lulu, which became one of her best known roles.