Pavla Vykopalová

Soloist of Prague State Opera

Pavla Vykopalová is one of the most versatile personalities of the contemporary generation of artists. Her repertoire ranges from Baroque to Romantic opera and also includes oratorios, cantatas and songs across styles right the way through to 20th century music. While still a student of the State Conservatory in Prague, she collaborated with Opera Mozart. Shortly after completing her studies, she was engaged by the Pilsen opera, where she sang, among other parts, the title role in Purcell’s opera Dido and Aeneas.

Since 1999 she has been a permanent guest of the National Theatre in Prague, rendering, among other roles, Mozart’s Cherubino (Le nozze di Figaro), Dorabella (Così fan tutte), Zerlina and Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), Pamina (Die Zauberflöte) and Vitellia (La clemenza di Tito, conductor: Alessandro De Marchi, stage directors: Ursel and Karl-Ernst Herrmann). Furthermore, she has portrayed Záviš (Smetana: The Devil’s Wall) and Karolka (Janáček: Jenufa). Most recently, she can be heard at the National Theatre in the title role of Smetana’s The Bartered Bride (2008).

Spring 2003 saw her house debut at the Théatre du Chatelet in Paris as Karolka in Janáček’s Jenufa.

Since the 2005/06 season, Pavla Vykopalová has been a permanent member of Prague’s State Opera, the first role being Rosina in Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia (under the conductor Enrico Dovico); other roles soon followed, including Mozart’s Pamina and – her special favourite – the title role in Dvořák’s Rusalka.

Since 2006 she has been a guest of the National Theatre Opera in Brno, performing Mařenka in Ondřej Havelka’s production of The Bartered Bride. Her portrayal of this role earned her a nomination in 2006 for the prestigious Thalia Award. Her most recent work for the National Theatre in Brno was in Ondřej Havelka’s unique joint production of Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi and Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci (2008), in which she has sung the roles of Lauretta and Nedda.

Abundant too is her concert activity both at home and abroad, which also includes spiritual and song music. At numerous concerts and opera performances she has collaborated with such renowned Czech and foreign conductors as Petr Altrichter, Petr Vronský, Jiří Kout, Sylvain Camberling, Jiří Bělohlávek, Leopold Hager, Oliver Dohnányi, Ascher Fisch and Ondrej Lenárd. On concert stages she has sung with Virtuosi di Praga, the Prague Symphony Orchestra, the Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra.

She has also featured on several CD recordings, e.g. Czech Christmas Mass by J. J. Ryba (Multisonic), Lenora by A. Rejcha (Orfeo) and compositions for organ and voice by Bedřich Antonín Wiedermann (Rosa).