Vladimír Chmelo

Prague State Opera guest artist

Vladimír Chmelo, graduate of the Janáček Academy of Music in Brno and winner of the Thalia Award, embarked on his international career by winning the Feruccio Tagliavini International Competition in Graz, Austria, in 1998. By then he already had behind him several seasons of engagement with the National Theatre in Brno, where he had built up the core of his operatic repertoire. Systematic work on perfecting the Italian bel canto technique has led to his attaining the status of a sought-after interpreter of Italian and French operas.

At present, he is a regular guest on both of Prague’s opera stages, the National Theatre and the Prague State Opera, as well as appearing at the National Theatre in Brno and the Slovak National Theatre in Bratislava. He likewise frequently performs in major European opera houses (Hamburg, Essen, Bonn, Innsbruck, Salzburg, Bielefeld, Geneva, Madrid, Genoa, Palermo), in a formidable gallery of leading baritone roles (Germont, Luna, Rodrigo, Iago, Macbeth, Rigoletto, Boccanegra, Ford, Renato, Figaro, Sharpless, Hamlet, Escamillo). He has to his credit several Japanese tours, singing Germont (opposite Maria Guleghina), Figaro, Wolfram, and Escamillo. He has appeared at numerous opera festivals (including those of Aix en Provence, Eutin or Gut Immling). Vladimír Chmelo has attached similar relevance to his career as a concert singer. Under the Millenium Project, he sang the title part in Liszt’s Christus oratorio during the concert for Pope John Paul II in the Vatican. His extensive song repertoire is centered around works of German, Czech and French composers. Among other commitments as a recital artist, he impressed the Austrian audience of his solo appearance in the Linz Brucknerhaus.

In March 2006 he made his debut on the stage of the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa, as Sharpless in a production of Madama Butterfly directed by Renata Scotto. At the international Wienerfestwochen in May 2007, he appeared in a production of Janáček’s From the House of the Dead conducted by Pierre Boulez and directed by Patrice Chéreau. The same production was successfully staged in Amsterodam and Aix-en-Provence in the same year. In November 2009 he made his debut, at the next stage of the production’s triumphant journey, at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, and in the spring 2010 repeated the experience at La Scala in Milan. In July 2010, linking up with a previous visit, he made a comeback to Palermo, as Amonasro (Aida). In November 2010 he will make his debut at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, in the role of Ford (Falstaff). In the 2010/2011 season, he is returning to the Metropolitan Opera in New York (Rigoletto and Scarpia in Tosca).

• For further information, see www.chmelo.com