Martina Janková
Encyclopedia
Martina Janková is a Czech
opera
tic soprano
. She has been successful in a number of important opera contests, including winning first prize at the Neue Stimmen in Gütersloh
. She has been a member of the Zürich Opera
since 1998. She is particularly known for her portrayals in operas by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
and George Friderich Handel.
and then pursued further studies in opera at the City of Basel Music Academy
. She has also studied in masterclasses with Carlo Bergonzi
, Gustav Kuhn and Michael Eliassen. She began her career in the mid 1990s as a member of the International Opera Studio at the Zürich Opera
and while in the program portrayed the roles of Rosina in Mozart’s La finta semplice
, Karolka in Leoš Janáček
’s Jenůfa
under the baton of Franz Welser-Möst
, and Gianetta in L'elisir d'amore
with conductor Nello Santi
. She also appeared in Carl Maria von Weber
's Oberon
under John Eliot Gardiner
. She is currently studying with Antonie Denygrova in Prague
.
Janková joined the roster of principal singers at the Zürich Opera in 1998 and has been a regular performer there ever since. Among the many roles she has portrayed there are Adele in Die Fledermaus
, Almirena in Rinaldo
, Amor in Gluck’s Orphée et Eurydice with conductorr William Christie, Celia in Mozart’s Lucio Silla
with conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt
, Echo in Ariadne auf Naxos
, Lenio in The Greek Passion
, Marzeline in Fidelio
, Pamina in The Magic Flute
, the Sand Man in Hänsel und Gretel, Serpetta in La finta giardiniera
, the Shepherd in Richard Wagner
’s Tannhäuser
under the baton of Franz Welser-Möst
, and Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro among others. Scheduled upcoming performances for Janková include Zerlina in Don Giovanni
(September 2009), Angelica in Orlando
(November 2009-January 2010), Despina in Così fan tutte
(December 2009), and Servilia in La clemenza di Tito
(March 2010).
In addition to her work in Zürich, Janková has also been active as a freelance artist. With the Prague State Opera
she has sung Despina for conductor Gustav Kuhn, Sofia in Rossini’s Il Signor Bruschino
, and Zerlina under the direction of Katherina Thalbach. At the Grand Théâtre de Genève
she has appeared in the title role of The Cunning Little Vixen
and as both Drusilla and Fortuna in Monteverdi’s L'incoronazione di Poppea
. In March 2009 she made her first appearance in the United States as Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro with the Cleveland Orchestra
and conductor Franz Welser-Möst
.
Janková has also appeared numerous times at the Salzburg Festival
in the last decade, portraying such roles as Echo with Christoph von Dohnanyi
, Iphis in Jephtha
, Karolka under John Eliot Gardiner, Prima Ancella in Cherubini’s Medea
with Sir Charles Mackerras, and most recently Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro at the 2009 festival. She has also performed the soprano solos in Mahler’s Symphony no. 8 under the baton of Franz Welser-Möst in Salzburg.
As a concert performer, Janková has appeared with orchestras in Poland, Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Italy and Japan. She also been active as an oratorio soloist, notably singing in Mendehlssohn's Elijah
with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra
under conductor Wolfgang Sawallisch
. She has also performed recitals of lieder at the Rheingau Musik Festival
, Janáček Spring Festival, the Chopin Festival in Marienbad, the Martinu Festival, the Festival de Saintes, and concerts with Philippe Herreweghe
in Gap and Chambéry to name just a few.
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
tic soprano
Soprano
A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
. She has been successful in a number of important opera contests, including winning first prize at the Neue Stimmen in Gütersloh
Gütersloh
Gütersloh is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, in the area of Westphalia and the administrative region of Detmold. Gütersloh is the administrative centre for a district of the same name and has a population of 96,320 people.- Geography :...
. She has been a member of the Zürich Opera
Zurich Opera
Oper Zürich is an opera company based in Zurich, Switzerland. The company gives performances in the Opernhaus Zürich which has been the company’s home for fifty years.-History:...
since 1998. She is particularly known for her portrayals in operas by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
and George Friderich Handel.
Biography
Janková began her musical training in OstravaOstrava
Ostrava is the third largest city in the Czech Republic and the second largest urban agglomeration after Prague. Located close to the Polish border, it is also the administrative center of the Moravian-Silesian Region and of the Municipality with Extended Competence. Ostrava was candidate for the...
and then pursued further studies in opera at the City of Basel Music Academy
City of Basel Music Academy
The City of Basel Music Academy is an institution for music education, located in Basel, Switzerland. It comprises a music school, college of music, and a center for early music research and performance...
. She has also studied in masterclasses with Carlo Bergonzi
Carlo Bergonzi
Carlo Bergonzi is an Italian operatic tenor. Although he performed and recorded some bel canto and verismo roles, he is above all associated with the operas of Giuseppe Verdi, including a large number of the composer's lesser-known works that he helped revive...
, Gustav Kuhn and Michael Eliassen. She began her career in the mid 1990s as a member of the International Opera Studio at the Zürich Opera
Zurich Opera
Oper Zürich is an opera company based in Zurich, Switzerland. The company gives performances in the Opernhaus Zürich which has been the company’s home for fifty years.-History:...
and while in the program portrayed the roles of Rosina in Mozart’s La finta semplice
La finta semplice
La finta semplice , K. 51 is an opera buffa in three acts for soloists and orchestra, composed in 1769 by then 12-year-old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian libretto by the court poet Marco Coltellini based on an early work by Carlo Goldoni...
, Karolka in Leoš Janáček
Leoš Janácek
Leoš Janáček was a Czech composer, musical theorist, folklorist, publicist and teacher. He was inspired by Moravian and all Slavic folk music to create an original, modern musical style. Until 1895 he devoted himself mainly to folkloristic research and his early musical output was influenced by...
’s Jenůfa
Jenufa
Jenůfa is an opera in three acts by Leoš Janáček to a Czech libretto by the composer, based on the play Její pastorkyňa by Gabriela Preissová. It was first performed at the Brno Theater, Brno, 21 January 1904...
under the baton of Franz Welser-Möst
Franz Welser-Möst
Franz Welser-Möst is an Austrian conductor who is currently the music director for the Cleveland Orchestra and the Vienna State Opera.- Biography :...
, and Gianetta in L'elisir d'amore
L'elisir d'amore
L'elisir d'amore is an opera by the Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti. It is a melodramma giocoso in two acts...
with conductor Nello Santi
Nello Santi
Nello Santi is an Italian conductor. He is often called "Papa Santi" by his fellow musicians to show their high respect for his work.-Biography:...
. She also appeared in Carl Maria von Weber
Carl Maria von Weber
Carl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber was a German composer, conductor, pianist, guitarist and critic, one of the first significant composers of the Romantic school....
's Oberon
Oberon (opera)
Oberon, or The Elf King's Oath is a 3-act romantic opera in English with spoken dialogue and music by Carl Maria von Weber. The libretto by James Robinson Planche was based on a German poem, Oberon, by Christoph Martin Wieland, which itself was based on the epic romance Huon de Bordeaux, a French...
under John Eliot Gardiner
John Eliot Gardiner
Sir John Eliot Gardiner CBE FKC is an English conductor. He founded the Monteverdi Choir , the English Baroque Soloists and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique...
. She is currently studying with Antonie Denygrova in Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
.
Janková joined the roster of principal singers at the Zürich Opera in 1998 and has been a regular performer there ever since. Among the many roles she has portrayed there are Adele in Die Fledermaus
Die Fledermaus
Die Fledermaus is an operetta composed by Johann Strauss II to a German libretto by Karl Haffner and Richard Genée.- Literary sources :...
, Almirena in Rinaldo
Rinaldo
Rinaldo may refer to:*Rinaldo , an Italian opera by George Frideric Handel*Rinaldo , a cantata by Johannes Brahms*Rinaldo , a character in Torquato Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered...
, Amor in Gluck’s Orphée et Eurydice with conductorr William Christie, Celia in Mozart’s Lucio Silla
Lucio Silla
Lucio Silla, K. 135, is an Italian opera in three acts composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The libretto was written by Giovanni de Gamerra.It was first performed on 26 December 1772 at the Regio Ducal Teatro in Milan....
with conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt
Nikolaus Harnoncourt
Nikolaus Harnoncourt is an Austrian conductor, particularly known for his historically informed performances of music from the Classical era and earlier. Starting out as a classical cellist, he founded his own period instrument ensemble in the 1950s, and became a pioneer of the Early Music movement...
, Echo in Ariadne auf Naxos
Ariadne auf Naxos
Ariadne auf Naxos is an opera by Richard Strauss with a German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Bringing together slapstick comedy and consuming beautiful music, the opera's theme is the competition between high and low art for the public's attention.- First version :The opera was originally...
, Lenio in The Greek Passion
The Greek Passion (opera)
The Greek Passion is an opera in four acts by Bohuslav Martinů. The libretto, by the composer, is based on the novel The Greek Passion by Nikos Kazantzakis. The opera exists in two versions. Martinů wrote the original version from 1954 to 1957...
, Marzeline in Fidelio
Fidelio
Fidelio is a German opera in two acts by Ludwig van Beethoven. It is Beethoven's only opera. The German libretto is by Joseph Sonnleithner from the French of Jean-Nicolas Bouilly which had been used for the 1798 opera Léonore, ou L’amour conjugal by Pierre Gaveaux, and for the 1804 opera Leonora...
, Pamina in The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute is an opera in two acts composed in 1791 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a Singspiel, a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue....
, the Sand Man in Hänsel und Gretel, Serpetta in La finta giardiniera
La finta giardiniera
La finta giardiniera , K. 196, is an Italian opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Mozart wrote it in Munich in January 1775 when he was 18 years old and it received its first performance on January 13 at the Salvatortheater in Munich...
, the Shepherd in Richard Wagner
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
’s Tannhäuser
Tannhäuser (opera)
Tannhäuser is an opera in three acts, music and text by Richard Wagner, based on the two German legends of Tannhäuser and the song contest at Wartburg...
under the baton of Franz Welser-Möst
Franz Welser-Möst
Franz Welser-Möst is an Austrian conductor who is currently the music director for the Cleveland Orchestra and the Vienna State Opera.- Biography :...
, and Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro among others. Scheduled upcoming performances for Janková include Zerlina in Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and with an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It was premiered by the Prague Italian opera at the Teatro di Praga on October 29, 1787...
(September 2009), Angelica in Orlando
Orlando (opera)
Orlando is an opera seria in three acts by George Frideric Handel written for the Royal Academy of Music . The Italian-language libretto was adapted from Carlo Sigismondo Capece's L'Orlando after Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, which was also the source of Handel's operas Alcina and...
(November 2009-January 2010), Despina in Così fan tutte
Così fan tutte
Così fan tutte, ossia La scuola degli amanti K. 588, is an opera buffa by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart first performed in 1790. The libretto was written by Lorenzo Da Ponte....
(December 2009), and Servilia in La clemenza di Tito
La clemenza di Tito
La clemenza di Tito , K. 621, is an opera seria in two acts composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian libretto by Caterino Mazzolà, after Metastasio...
(March 2010).
In addition to her work in Zürich, Janková has also been active as a freelance artist. With the Prague State Opera
Prague State Opera
The Prague State Opera , is an opera and ballet company in Prague, Czech Republic. The theatre was originally founded in 1888 as the New German Theatre and from 1949 to 1989 it was known as the Smetana Theatre....
she has sung Despina for conductor Gustav Kuhn, Sofia in Rossini’s Il Signor Bruschino
Il signor Bruschino
Il signor Bruschino, ossia Il figlio per azzardo is a one act operatic farce by Gioachino Rossini to a libretto by Giuseppe Maria Foppa, based upon the play Le fils par hasard, ou ruse et folie by Alissan de Chazet and E.T.M. Ourry...
, and Zerlina under the direction of Katherina Thalbach. At the Grand Théâtre de Genève
Grand Théâtre de Genève
Grand Théâtre de Genève is an opera house in Geneva, Switzerland.As with many other opera houses, the Grand Théâtre de Genève is both a venue and an institution. The venue is a majestic building, towering over Place Neuve, officially opened in 1876, partly destroyed by fire in 1951 and reopened in...
she has appeared in the title role of The Cunning Little Vixen
The Cunning Little Vixen
The Cunning Little Vixen is an opera by Leoš Janáček, with a libretto adapted by the composer from a serialized novella by Rudolf Těsnohlídek and Stanislav Lolek, which was first published in the newspaper Lidové noviny.-Composition history:When Janáček discovered Těsnohlídek's...
and as both Drusilla and Fortuna in Monteverdi’s L'incoronazione di Poppea
L'incoronazione di Poppea
L'incoronazione di Poppea is an Italian baroque opera comprising a prologue and three acts, first performed in Venice during the 1642–43 carnival season. The music, attributed to Claudio Monteverdi, is a setting of a libretto by Giovanni Francesco Busenello...
. In March 2009 she made her first appearance in the United States as Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro with the Cleveland Orchestra
Cleveland Orchestra
The Cleveland Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Cleveland, Ohio. It is one of the five American orchestras informally referred to as the "Big Five". Founded in 1918, the orchestra plays most of its concerts at Severance Hall...
and conductor Franz Welser-Möst
Franz Welser-Möst
Franz Welser-Möst is an Austrian conductor who is currently the music director for the Cleveland Orchestra and the Vienna State Opera.- Biography :...
.
Janková has also appeared numerous times at the Salzburg Festival
Salzburg Festival
The Salzburg Festival is a prominent festival of music and drama established in 1920. It is held each summer within the Austrian town of Salzburg, the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart...
in the last decade, portraying such roles as Echo with Christoph von Dohnanyi
Christoph von Dohnányi
Christoph von Dohnányi is a German conductor of Hungarian ancestry.- Youth and World War II :Dohnányi was born in Berlin, Germany to jurist Hans von Dohnányi and Christine Bonhoeffer. His uncle on his mother's side was Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a Lutheran pastor and theologian/ethicist...
, Iphis in Jephtha
Jephtha
Jephthah is a character in the Old Testament's Book of Judges, serving as a judge over Israel for a period of six years . He lived in Gilead and was a member of the Tribe of Manasseh. His father's name was also Gilead...
, Karolka under John Eliot Gardiner, Prima Ancella in Cherubini’s Medea
Medea
Medea is a woman in Greek mythology. She was the daughter of King Aeëtes of Colchis, niece of Circe, granddaughter of the sun god Helios, and later wife to the hero Jason, with whom she had two children, Mermeros and Pheres. In Euripides's play Medea, Jason leaves Medea when Creon, king of...
with Sir Charles Mackerras, and most recently Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro at the 2009 festival. She has also performed the soprano solos in Mahler’s Symphony no. 8 under the baton of Franz Welser-Möst in Salzburg.
As a concert performer, Janková has appeared with orchestras in Poland, Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Italy and Japan. She also been active as an oratorio soloist, notably singing in Mendehlssohn's Elijah
Elijah (oratorio)
Elijah, in German: Elias, is an oratorio written by Felix Mendelssohn in 1846 for the Birmingham Festival. It depicts various events in the life of the Biblical prophet Elijah, taken from the books 1 Kings and 2 Kings in the Old Testament....
with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra
Israel Philharmonic Orchestra
The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra is the leading symphony orchestra in Israel. It was originally known as the Palestine Orchestra, and in Hebrew as התזמורת הסימפונית הארץ ישראלית The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (abbreviation IPO; Hebrew: התזמורת הפילהרמונית הישראלית, ha-Tizmoret ha-Filharmonit...
under conductor Wolfgang Sawallisch
Wolfgang Sawallisch
Wolfgang Sawallisch is a retired German conductor and pianist.-Biography:Sawallisch was born in Munich, and studied composition and pianoforte there privately: at the conclusion of the war, in 1946 he continued his studies at the Munich High School for Music and passed his final examination for...
. She has also performed recitals of lieder at the Rheingau Musik Festival
Rheingau Musik Festival
The Rheingau Musik Festival is an international summer music festival in Germany, founded in 1987. It is mostly for classical music, but includes other genres...
, Janáček Spring Festival, the Chopin Festival in Marienbad, the Martinu Festival, the Festival de Saintes, and concerts with Philippe Herreweghe
Philippe Herreweghe
Philippe Herreweghe is a Flemish conductor.In his school years at the University of Ghent, Herreweghe combined studies in medical science and psychiatry with a musical education at the Ghent Conservatory, where Marcel Gazelle, Yehudi Menuhin's accompanist, was his piano teacher...
in Gap and Chambéry to name just a few.