Management

Mgr. Jaroslav Vocelka

Mgr. Jaroslav Vocelka

Intendant

Film and theatre organizer, theatre director. After having graduated from the department of organization and management of the art at the Film Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (1976), Jaroslav Vocelka worked as a filmmaker. At first, in the period of 1967 to 1969, he worked as a production manager at the Short Film Prague, from 1969 to 1973 in the Prague Laterna magika theatre as its chief producer. From 1976 Vocelka acted in position of the administrative and economic assistant manager in the Czechoslovak State Songs and Dance Ensemble. His years-lasting experience in management of different artistic genres brought him after 1989 into the position of the Czech Art Studio director that was managing the Czech Songs and Dance Ensemble, the Black Theatre of Jiří Srnec, the Chamber Ballet of Pavel Šmok and the Chamber Opera Prague. Since 1998, Vocelka has, at the same time, acted in position of the State Opera Prague administrative director and the Central-Bohemian Theatre in Kladno director.

Rudolf Krečmer, M.A.

Rudolf Krečmer, M.A.

Head of Opera

Rudolf Krečmer was born in Prague in 1950, into a family with a distinguished musical tradition. He obtained the rudiments of training in music with his stepfather, the conductor Václav Neumann. After studies at the Prague Conservatory, he pursued his schooling at the Academy of Music’s conducting course from which he graduated in 1978, still before that, in 1974, attending Hans Swarovsky’s master classes at the Vienna Academy. In 1978 he founded the Hradec Králové Philharmonic Orchestra with which he then spent ten years as its principal conductor, at the same time guest appearing with over forty Czech and Slovak orchestras. On the international circuit, he has worked on a frequent basis with the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra, the Bremen Philharmonic Orchestra, the Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Schwerin Philharmonic Orchestra, the Bruckner Orchestra in Linz, and others. Of particular note have been his regular working contacts with Japanese orchestras, including the Sapporo Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Tokyo Shinsei Symphony Orchestra, the Japanese Philharmonic Orchestra Tokyo, the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, and the NHK Symphony Orchestra.

Rudolf Krečmer has devoted an equal measure of his creative energies to opera. In 1981 he held the post of music assistant at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. In 1988 he took up a conducting position with the Prague National Theatre opera company, a commitment he combined with guest appearances in various prestigious international opera houses. His record there includes a new production of Eugene Onegin at the Theatro Municipal do Rio de Janeiro (1989), as well as conducting Tosca at the Hannover State Opera (1990), Smetana’s The Bartered Bride at the Bonn Opera, Die Zauberflöte at the Stuttgart State Opera (both 1992), or Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel at the Hamburg State Opera (1993). Most notably, however, he has focused his attention on the operatic output of Leoš Janáček (Jenůfa at the Teatro del Liceo in Barcelona, 1991; The Makropulos Affair at the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos in Lisbon, 1993; a cycle of Janáček operas at the Opéra du Rhin in Strasbourg, 1992–1995; and The Cunning Little Vixen at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires (for the first time in South America, 2000).

In 1999 Rudolf Krečmer was engaged as a conductor with the Prague State Opera. After becoming the company’s music director, Bohumil Gregor appointed him his deputy. At the Prague State Opera, he has to his credit new productions of Der Freischütz (1999), Un ballo in maschera (2001), and Die Zauberflöte (2002), as well as conducting numerous performances of Tosca, Carmen, Rigoletto, Die Zauberflöte, Turandot, Aida, The Queen of Spades, and the operetta, Die Fledermaus. Since the 2008/2009 season, he has been the head of the PSO opera ensemble.

Pavel Ďumbala

Pavel Ďumbala

Ballet Chief Executive

Pavel Ďumbala belongs to the first graduates from the Department of Dance at Košice Conservatory. During the third year of studies, Ďumbala already was included into the whole repertory at the Košice Theatre, where he studied many solo roles, as for instance Pas de trios and Clown in the Swan Lake, the Nut Cracker in the ballet of the same name, Colin in the Idle Prudence or Chipolino in the ballet fairytale called Chipolino. After having graduated, Ďumbala was engaged to the Forces Arts Ensemble in Prague, where he stayed as soloist after the elementary military service.

After the short intermezzo at the Košice Theatre, Ďumbala entered the Prague Chamber Ballet of Pavel Šmok, where he also received the most valuable professional experiences. He was then engaged as soloist at the Karlín Music Theatre and the Prague National Theatre and was appearing as external guest at Laterna Magica and at the alternative dance ensembles Unia Nova and Bohemia Ballet. In 1988 Ďumbala entered the Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts and studied dance pedagogy with Doc. Astrid Štúrová.

The artist’s nature and temperament have predetermined him mostly for high-principled roles, for the presentment of whose Ďumbala was awarded numerous prizes. Let us remind at least some of his favorite roles performed in Prague that include: Musica slovaca, From my Life, Sinfonietta, Kreutzer-Sonate, Evening Songs, The Boy and Death, From Fairytale to Fairytale, Amarus, Minotaur, The Dance Hall, The Journeys, Amerikana, The Returns, The Field Mess, Little Mr. Friedemann, Some Like It..., Tchaikovski.

Ďumbala decided to close his career of dancer at the age of 38 and invested the whole of his energy into the work at the DJKT ballet ensemble where he was working as an Artistic Director of Ballet since 1997.

Beside the obligations of the Director, choreographer and dramatic adviser, Ďumbala also devoted himself to education of young dancers, whom he was trying to pass his rich experiences to. It was also here that he experienced the work of choreographer for the first time – in the beginning for operetta, plays and opera (Paganini, Fiddler on the Roof, Gypsies Go to Heaven, Bel Ami, The Dispute, La Traviata, Aida, Onegin or The Strength of Fate).

In the season of 1999/2000, the artist staged his first ballet Don Quijote that he based on the original by Marius Petipa and Alexander Gorsky. In the season 2002/2003 Ďumbala adapted libretto and reintroduced the ballet Idle Prudence.

Since the season of 2003/2004 he has been in position of Artistic Director of Ballet at the Prague State Opera.