Home » News » Prague State Opera Awards Honorary Membership to Kammersängerin Soňa Červená

Prague State Opera Awards Honorary Membership to Kammersängerin Soňa Červená

Oliver Dohnányi, General Director of the Prague State Opera, awarded honorary membership of the house to Soňa Červená, a distinguished mezzosoprano, on Saturday, September 4, 2010, before the performance of Bizet’s Carmen, on the occasion of the singer’s birthday.

“Soňa Červená made her mark in a number of leading opera houses all over the world as Carmen, and it is this opera that we are playing this Saturday to celebrate the singer’s birthday. Ms Červená has worked with great personalities – singers, conductors, and directors – always supporting modern theatre, living by the highest professional standards, and continues to be active in singing and acting despite her age," said Oliver Dohnányi, General Director of the Prague State Opera, on this unique occasion. He went on to wish Ms Červená the best of luck in her new role she is currently rehearsing in Robert Wilson’s production of The Makropulos Case by Karel Čapek at the National Theatre. “I am positive that Ms Červená will agree to co-operate with the Prague State Opera, too,” said Mr Dohnányi.

The internationally renowned Czech mezzo-soprano Soňa Červená embarked on her professional career in Prague, in the domains of musical, musical theatre, and film. Her exploits in opera started with seven seasons at Brno, followed up from 1959 by an engagement with the Berlin State Opera where, only two years into her membership, outstanding creations in the company’s productions of Monteverdi, Handel and Gluck operas earned her the title of Kammersängerin. After crossing the Berlin wall to the West under dramatic circumstances in January 1962, she came to win further acclaim, most notably for her renditions of Carmen, Ulrica, Brangäne, Erda, and Klytaimnestra. She became soloist of major opera houses in Vienna, Frankfurt, and San Francisco, as well as a sought-after guest of leading European and American stages, from Palermo and Milan to Salzburg, Munich, Bayreuth, Hamburg, Amsterdam, Brussels, Glyndebourne, Edinburgh, Paris, Barcelona and Lisbon, to Seattle, Chicago and Los Angeles. Early on, she focused her concert and opera repertoire on 20th century music (Mahler, Stravinsky, Janáček, Berg, Ligeti, Nono, Henze). Her outstanding achievement and long-time distinguished representation of the opera house were rewarded at Frankfurt by her second title of Kammersängerin. Her other merits have included model interpretations of Janáček in the Czech original, and accurate translations of note editions. After the close of her career in opera, she was engaged from 1989 with Hamburg’s Thalia drama company with whose ensemble she also toured in New York, Rio de Janeiro, Hong Kong, and Sydney. Upon her return to Prague, she was finally able in 2002 to appear on the stage of the National Theatre, performing an allegorical character in Janáček’s opera, Osud (Fate). She then created the title part, at the Klicpera Theatre of Hradec Králové, in Dürrenmatt’s The Visit of the Old Lady; at Prague’s Estates Theatre, the melodramatic role of Time in Hanzlík’s opera The Tears of Alexander the Great; and at Kolowrat Theatre in Prague the role of Milada Horáková in Aleš Březina’s musical dramatic fresco Tomorrow There Will Be… . In 2005 she received the Thalia Award, followed in 2009 by the Alfred Radok Award. She has continued to draw on her exceptionally versatile stage experience during her ongoing commitments as a melodrama reciter.

Soňa Červená made two guest appearances on the stage of today’s Prague State Opera, then Smetana Theatre, each time “by engagement” as the period practice would have it, in the years 1955 and 1956, coincidentally on the same date, April 13, singing the title role in Bizet’s Carmen. For political reasons, this was never followed up by permanent engagement with the National Theatre (of which the Smetana Theatre was at that time part), which in the end contributed to Soňa Červená’s decision to join the ensemble of the Berlin State Opera. While already there, she made yet another appearance at the Smetana Theatre, during the 1959 Prague Spring Festival, in a production of Handel’s opera Ariodante.

(Clicking on the thumbnail will open photo in new window)

Prague State Opera Awards Honorary Membership to Kammersängerin Soňa Červená Prague State Opera Awards Honorary Membership to Kammersängerin Soňa Červená Prague State Opera Awards Honorary Membership to Kammersängerin Soňa Červená Prague State Opera Awards Honorary Membership to Kammersängerin Soňa Červená Prague State Opera Awards Honorary Membership to Kammersängerin Soňa Červená Prague State Opera Awards Honorary Membership to Kammersängerin Soňa Červená Prague State Opera Awards Honorary Membership to Kammersängerin Soňa Červená Prague State Opera Awards Honorary Membership to Kammersängerin Soňa Červená

More News

Where to go next?

What you shouldn't miss
The Prague State Opera - Theatre History in Pictures and Dates - Book cover
The Prague State Opera – Theatre History in Pictures and Dates
Tomáš Vrbka
The Prague State Opera in cooperation with the Slovart publishing house publishes a representative book tracking the history of this significant cultural institution since its opening in 1888 till the end of the 2002/2003 season. The publication called The Prague State Opera – Theatre History in Pictures and Dates is focusing solely on the opera featured at the scene, even though the theatre under various names also served to presentation of drama plays, operettas and ballet. The Prague State opera plans to publish the volumes concentrating on those genres in the next years.

Copyright © 2004 – 2012, State Opera » web 2142.net » webmaster » RSS