Jana Sýkorová

Prague State Opera soloist

Jana Sýkorová’s creations at the Prague State Opera since 1999 have included the title roles of Carmen, Orlando, Elephant Man (in Laurent Petitgirard’s Joseph Merrick dit Elephant Man), Phaedra (in the eponymous opera by Emil Viklický), Death (in Emil Viklický’s The Ploughman and Death), the last three of these in world premiere productions. Beyond that, her gallery of roles includes Ulrica, Maddalena, Fenena, and Suzuki. In 2002 she took over from Dagmar Pecková as Carmen in the Prague National Theatre production, and from then on until 2008 continued to appear as the company’s permanent guest in many major roles, including those of Káča (Dvořák: The Devil and Kate), Maid Róza (Smetana: The Secret), and others. To date, she has been cast in the title part of eight different productions of Carmen. The French critic of the web site Forum Opera commended in 2008 Jana Sýkorová’s account of the role in Bednárik’s staging at the National Theatre as “one of the most interesting Carmens currently around.”

Jana Sýkorová first attracted the attention of international critics in 2002, after the French premiere of Petitgirard’s opera Joseph Merrick dit Elephant Man at Nice, a live recording of which was then released on DVD by Marco Polo, and was made the Gramophone magazine’s “DVD of the Month” in February 2005. Jana Sýkorová guest appeared at the Wagner festival in Wels as Grimgerde, in Berlin as Death, and again at Nice, this time as Maddalena. In 2007 she made her successful debut in the same part at London’s Royal Opera House Covent Garden. She returned to London in 2008, as Mercédès and covering as Carmen, which makes her the sole member of the present generation of Czech singers to have featured in more than one opera production of this prestigious venue. In 2010 she added to her list another two creations of Carmen, appeared as Maddalena at Dijon, and made her debut as Charlotte in Massenet’s Werther at Ostrava.

Apart from her presence in the Elephant Man DVD, Jana Sýkorová’s other recordings include participation in Jiří Bělohlávek’s CD version of Dvořák’s opera The Stubborn Lovers (Supraphon 2004), and in Gerd Albrecht’s DVD of Dvořák’s oratorio Saint Ludmila (Netherlands Television 2009). As a soloist, she has appeared in numerous symphonic concerts in Italy, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain, Norway, Denmark, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, and in Japan where she sang among other parts Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass in Tokyo’s Suntory Hall, with the acclaimed NHK Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Charles Dutoit. Among other leading conductors with whom she has worked figure the names of Daniel Oren, Renato Palumbo, Marco Guidarini, Roberto Rizzi Brignoli, Leopold Hager, Friedrich Haider, Jan Latham-Koenig, Eliahu Inbal, Ondrej Lenárd, Zdeněk Mácal or Bohumil Gregor. The keynote of her programme last year was set by interpretations of Mahler’s Symphonies Nos 2 and 3 “Resurrection”. Earlier, in 2009, Jana Sýkorová was honoured by being assigned by Bernhard Klee, a noted connoisseur of German Romantic music and a personal friend of Rafael Kubelík, the solo part in the masterpiece of the contralto repertoire, Brahms’ Alto Rhapsody, and in 2010 she was engaged for the same part by Ingo Metzmacher.