3. 3. 2014
Gala Concert - Song Recital by Adam Plachetka
A. Dvořák: Dramatic Overture
A. Dvořák: Biblical Songs, Op. 99
B. Smetana: The Devil's Wall
B. Smetana: The Secret
B. Smetana: Dalibor
B. Smetana: Libuše
Soloist: Adam Plachetka, bass baritone
Conductor: Robert Jindra
Adam Plachetka
Born in Prague, he was educated at the Conservatory there, studying under Professor Luděk Löbl, and has won a number of competitions, including First Prize at the Antonín Dvořák International Singing Competition.
In 2005 he made his debut at the National Theatre in Prague, where he has since appeared as Don Giovanni, Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro), Nardo (La Finta Giardiniera), Argante (Rinaldo) and Guglielmo (Cosí fan Tutte), among other roles.
Adam has been a member of the Wiener Staatsoper Ensemble since September 2010. After his debut there as Schaunard (La Bohéme), he moved on to roles such as Melisso (Alcina), Don Giovanni, Dulcamara (The Elixir of Love), Figaro, Guglielmo, Publio (La Clemenza di Tito), Mustafá (The Italian Girl in Algiers) and Alidoro (La Cenerentola).
Adam`s engagements include appearances at the Salzburger Festspiele, the Seoul Arts Center, the Opéra de Nice, the Bayerische Staatsoper Munich, the Prague Spring, the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Bruxelles, London's Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, Vienna's Musikverein, the Baden-Baden Festpielhaus, the Opéra Comédie in Montpellier, the Glyndebourne Festival, the Deutsche Oper and Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin, and Milan's La Scala.
He has made recordings for Arte, Arthaus Musik, Czech Television, Czech Radio, Deutsche Grammophon, Mezzo, Naxos, Orfeo, ORF and Supraphon.
Conductors he has worked with include Alain Altinoglu, Marco Armiliato, Bruno Campanella, John Fiore, Asher Fisch, Valery Gergiev, Friedrich Haider, Daniel Harding, Jakub Hrůša, Patrick Lange, Louis Langrée, Marc Minkowski, Riccardo Muti, John Nelson, Tomáš Netopil, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Robin Ticciati and Franz Welser-Möst.
Robert Jindra
Robert Jindra graduated from Prague Conservatory’s classical singing course in 1999. He then studied conducting with Miroslav Košler, Jan Kasal and Miriam Němcová, completing this phase of his schooling under Němcová in 2003 conducting the Prague Conservatory Symphony Orchestra in his graduation concert. Since 1999, he has worked regularly with the Children’s Opera Prague (COP), recording a number of opera sets on CD with them. From 2000–2008, he taught at the Prague Conservatory, conducting his productions of several operas. From January 2001, he was Assistant Chorus Master at the National Theatre in Prague, and in the same year he conducted the world premiere of two operas by the contemporary composer Vladimír Wimmer - The Knight and Death, and Jelizaweta Bam - at the Prague State Opera. He has worked with the Prague Sinfonietta, the Virtuosi Pragenses chamber orchestra, the Prague Chamber Philharmonia, the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, and the Prague National Theatre Orchestra with whom he made the CD "Opera Is Fun", featuring prominent Czech opera singers. From January 2004 he held the post of assistant conductor at the Prague National Theatre, working on the company’s productions of the operas Nagano (Martin Smolka), Vanda (Antonín Dvořák), Montezuma (Lorenzo Ferrero), Aida (Giuseppe Verdi), Don Pasquale (Gaetano Donizetti), Don Giovanni (W.A. Mozart), The Secret (Bedřich Smetana), The Girl of the Golden West (Giacomo Puccini), Falstaff (Giuseppe Verdi), and Eugene Onegin (Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky). In addition he worked on the Prague National Theatre's first complete production of Richard Wagner’s Ring cycle in 2005. Since the 2005/2006 season, he has been engaged by the National Theatre as resident conductor (Don Giovanni, The Secret, Falstaff, Carmen, Cosi fan Tutte, and Káťa Kabanová). Among the leading international conductors he has worked with are John Fiore, Asher Fisch, and Gerd Albrecht. In 2006 he became associated with the Deutsche Oper am Rhein (Düsseldorf/Duisburg) where, as assistant to principal conductor John Fiore, he worked on their productions of Elektra (Richard Strauss) and Jenůfa (Leoš Janáček). The following season 2008/2009 saw him involved in further larger-scale projects when he was commissioned to take charge of the musical direction of the company’s productions of Czech operas including Dvořák’s Rusalka, and Janáček’s Káťa Kabanová, The Makropulos Affair, The Cunning Little Vixen, and From the House of the Dead - all this in addition to his work on The Ring cycle. In the spring of 2011, he made his debut at the Norwegian Royal Opera in Oslo, conducting Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos. From March 2010 he held the post of music director at Ostrava's National Theatre of Moravia-Silesia in Ostrava, where he conducted their productions of Massenet’s Werther, Janáček’s Jenůfa, The Makropoulos Affair and Káťa Kabanová, Verdi’s Falstaff, Hindemith’s Cardillac, Puccini’s La Bohème, Dvořák’s Armida, and Alfredo Catalani’s La Wally. In May 2013 he prepared a new National Theatre production of Smetana’s The Two Widows, and since August 2013, Robert Jindra has been Music Director at Prague's National Theatre Opera.