Martin Bárta

Guest of the Prague State Opera

Mr. Bárta graduated from the high school in Hradec Králové, then completed his studies of singing  at the Conservatory in Pardubice, prof. Svatava Šubrtová (1990) and at the Prague Academy of Performing Arts, prof. René Tuček (2006). After the two-year educational performance in the field of vocal theory and practice  Mr. Bárta became  the solo singer of the Liberec Opera (1995) where he made his debut as Germont in La traviata. Besides the opera roles (e.g. Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor, Sharpless in Madama Butterfly, Ottokar in der Freischütz, Jeletzki in the Queen of Spades, etc.) Mr. Bárta has extended his repertoire by  musical comedy and musical comedy, operetta and musical (Freddy in My Fair Lady). In 1997 Mr. Bárta was engaged by the Prague State Opera House and debuted by the Herald in Lohengrin. He has created newly the parts of Eugene Onegin, Valentine in Faust, Papagena in the Magic Flute, Guglielmo in Così fan tutte, Escamillo in Carmen, Schaunard and Marcello in La Bohéme – Leoncavallo and Puccini, Amonasr in Aida, Nabucco (Nebuchadnezzar), Jana Mathis in K. Weiss the Polish Jew, etc. Mr. Bárta  gives regular guest performances on stages of the National Theatre Opera Prague (Don Giovanni, Almaviva in the Marriage of Figaro, Fotis in the Greek Passion, Premysl in Smetanas’ Libuse, Kalina in Smetana’s the Secret). In the Slovak National Theatre in Bratislava Mr. Bárta represented Don Giovanni and Silvio in Pagliacci, in the Brno National Theatre – Don Giovanni and Escamillo. From the concert and oratory literature the following belongs to Mr. Bárta’s most important repertoire: the solo part in Orff’s cantata Carmina Burana, in Fauré’s Requiem, in Beethoven’s IX. Symphony, in Bach’s St. John and St. Matthew Passion or in Martinů Opening of the Wells. The engagements brought Mr. Bárta to FRG, Austria, Italy, France, Switzerland, England, the Netherlands, Japan, South Korea and the USA. Mr. Bárta cooperated with the leading conductors (e.g. Leopold Hager, Pierre Boulez, Asher Fish, Jiří Kout, Jiří Bělohlávek, Enrico Dovico, Hilary Griffiths, Ondrej Lenárd) as well as with notable directors (Giancarlo del Monaco, Patrice Chéreau, Johannes Felsenstein, Jozef Bednárik). Mr. Bárta appears in the music festivals  – the Prague Spring, Smetana’s Litomyšl, Bratislava Musical Festival, Wiener Festwochen, Holland Festival, Festival Aix-en-Provence etc. In 2005 Mr. Bárta was awarded the prize of the Czech opera critics for the best interpretation performance in the role of the Miller in Novák’s opera the Lantern. Since 2006 Mr. Bárta has been teaching the solo singing at the Prague Academy of Performing Arts.