František Zahradníček

Bass-baritone František Zahradníček studied with Ivan Kusnjer at the Academy of Music in Prague. In 2000, he made his debut at the Prague National Theatre, as Masetto in Don Giovanni, subsequently building up a gallery of roles there including Mozart’s Figaro (Le nozze di Figaro), Leporello (Don Giovanni) and Papageno (Die Zauberflöte), as well as Collin (Puccini’s La bohème), Marbuel (Dvořák’s The Devil and Kate), the Gamekeeper and Huntsman (Dvořák’s Rusalka). Touring extensively, he has taken part in four editions of the Wexford Opera Festival in Ireland, appearing in operas by Flotow (Alessandro Stradella), Pavel Haas (The Charlatan), and Tchaikovsky (The Maid of Orleans). At the Teatro Lirico di Cagliari, he guest appeared in Tchaikovsky’s opera The Slippers, and at the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos in Lisbon he created Harašta in Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen. He is similarly busy as a concert artist, working with leading Czech orchestras (Prague Philharmonia, Prague Symphony Orchestra, Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, Pardubice Chamber Philharmonic, Bohuslav Martinů Philharmonic). He has accompanied these orchestras on international tours in Germany, Italy and other countries. In 2002 he sang at New York’s Carnegie Hall, in a concert commemorating the victims of the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001. The Prague State Opera has been hosting him in its productions of La traviata and La bohème.

For further information, see www.frantisekzahradnicek.eu.