Přemysl Kočí
Encyclopedia
Přemysl Kočí was a Czech operatic baritone
, actor, music educator, stage director, theater manager and official of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia
.
, Kočí attended high school in Bohumín
. After graduating, he initially wanted to become a teacher and pursued studies at the teacher training college in Ostrava
. He became interested in music and in 1937 began studying voice privately, first with J. Soupal and then Rudolf Vašek. In 1939 he made his professional opera debut as Escamillo in Georges Bizet
's Carmen
at the Antonín Dvořák Theatre
in Ostrava
.
In 1940 Kočí joined the roster of principal singers at the National Theatre
in Prague
. He sang there in major roles for over the next two years, collaborating often with conductor Vaclav Talich
. He returned to the opera house in Ostrava in 1943 where he remained committed through 1949.
At the behest of the then Minister of Culture Czechoslovakia Zdeněk Nejedlý
he returned to the National Theater in 1949, where he now had a long and successful career. Among the many roles he created at the theatre included, Don Manuel in Zdeněk Fibich
's The Bride of Messina
, Jan Tausendmark in Bedřich Smetana
's The Brandenburgers in Bohemia, Marbuel in Antonín Dvořák
's The Devil and Kate
, Mojmír in Eugen Suchoň
's Svätopluk
, Scarpia in Giacomo Puccini
's Tosca
, and the title heroes in Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
's Eugene Onegin
and Modest Mussorgsky
's Boris Godunov
. He recorded a number of these roles on complete opera recordings made on the Supraphon
label. Since 1966 he also worked as a stage director at the theatre. He retired from the opera stage in the late 1970s but continued to direct operas through 1983.
During the 1950s and 1960s, Kočí was also active as a guest artist in opera houses in Germany, Poland, Yugoslavia, Romania, Russia and Albania. He had a considerable amount of success at the Berlin State Opera
. At the Holland Festival
he sang the role of Kuligin in Leoš Janáček
's Káťa Kabanová
in 1959. In 1964 he appeared at the Edinburgh Festival
as the Prison Governor in the United Kingdom premiere of Janáček's From the House of the Dead
.
In 1963 Kočí joined the faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague
. After the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968, he became the Deputy Central Director of Czechoslovak Television
for s short while. He appeared as an actor in a number of Czech television programs and also appeared in Czech films and television productions of operas. He dedicated much of his latter life to teaching singing in Prague, both at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague and privately. Among his notable pupils was Libuše Márová
. He died in Prague in 2003.
Baritone
Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or...
, actor, music educator, stage director, theater manager and official of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia
Communist Party of Czechoslovakia
The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, in Czech and in Slovak: Komunistická strana Československa was a Communist and Marxist-Leninist political party in Czechoslovakia that existed between 1921 and 1992....
.
Biography
Born in RychvaldRychvald
is a town in the Karviná District, Moravian-Silesian Region, Czech Republic, in the historical region of Cieszyn Silesia. It has a population of 6,769 ....
, Kočí attended high school in Bohumín
Bohumín
Bohumín is a town in Karviná District, Moravian-Silesian Region, Czech Republic on the border with Poland. The confluence of the Oder and Olza Rivers is situated just north of the town. The town lies in the historical region of Cieszyn Silesia....
. After graduating, he initially wanted to become a teacher and pursued studies at the teacher training college in Ostrava
Ostrava
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...
. He became interested in music and in 1937 began studying voice privately, first with J. Soupal and then Rudolf Vašek. In 1939 he made his professional opera debut as Escamillo in Georges Bizet
Georges Bizet
Georges Bizet formally Alexandre César Léopold Bizet, was a French composer, mainly of operas. In a career cut short by his early death, he achieved few successes before his final work, Carmen, became one of the most popular and frequently performed works in the entire opera repertory.During a...
's Carmen
Carmen
Carmen is a French opéra comique by Georges Bizet. The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée, first published in 1845, itself possibly influenced by the narrative poem The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin...
at the Antonín Dvořák Theatre
Antonín Dvořák Theatre
Antonín Dvořák Theatre in Ostrava is one of the opera houses in the Czech Republic. It is a part of the National Moravian Silesian Theatre, founded in 1918.- History :...
in Ostrava
Ostrava
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...
.
In 1940 Kočí joined the roster of principal singers at the National Theatre
National Theatre (Prague)
The National Theatre in Prague is known as the Alma Mater of Czech opera, and as the national monument of Czech history and art.The National Theatre belongs to the most important Czech cultural institutions, with a rich artistic tradition which was created and maintained by the most distinguished...
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...
. He sang there in major roles for over the next two years, collaborating often with conductor Vaclav Talich
Václav Talich
Václav Talich was a Czech conductor, violinist and pedagogue.- Life :Born in Kroměříž, Moravia, he started his musical career in a student orchestra in Klatovy. From 1897 to 1903 he studied at the conservatory in Prague with Otakar Ševčík...
. He returned to the opera house in Ostrava in 1943 where he remained committed through 1949.
At the behest of the then Minister of Culture Czechoslovakia Zdeněk Nejedlý
Zdenek Nejedlý
Zdeněk Nejedlý was a Czech musicologist, music critic, author, and politician whose ideas dominated the cultural life of what is now the Czech Republic for most of the twentieth century...
he returned to the National Theater in 1949, where he now had a long and successful career. Among the many roles he created at the theatre included, Don Manuel in Zdeněk Fibich
Zdenek Fibich
Zdeněk Fibich was a Czech composer of classical music. Among his compositions are chamber works , symphonic poems, three symphonies, at least seven operas , melodramas including the substantial trilogy Hippodamia,...
's The Bride of Messina
The Bride of Messina (opera)
The Bride of Messina is a tragic opera in three acts, op. 18, by composer Zdeněk Fibich. The Czech language libretto by Otakar Hostinský is based on Friedrich Schiller's play Die Braut von Messina...
, Jan Tausendmark in Bedřich Smetana
Bedrich Smetana
Bedřich Smetana was a Czech composer who pioneered the development of a musical style which became closely identified with his country's aspirations to independent statehood. He is thus widely regarded in his homeland as the father of Czech music...
's The Brandenburgers in Bohemia, Marbuel in Antonín Dvořák
Antonín Dvorák
Antonín Leopold Dvořák was a Czech composer of late Romantic music, who employed the idioms of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia. Dvořák’s own style is sometimes called "romantic-classicist synthesis". His works include symphonic, choral and chamber music, concerti, operas and many...
's The Devil and Kate
The Devil and Kate
The Devil and Kate, Op. 112, B.201, is an opera in three acts by Antonín Dvořák to a Czech libretto by Adolf Wenig. It is based on a farce by Josef Kajetán Tyl, and the story also had been treated in the Fairy Tales of Božena Němcová...
, Mojmír in Eugen Suchoň
Eugen Suchon
Eugen Suchoň was one of the greatest Slovak composers of the 20th century.-Early life:...
's Svätopluk
Svätopluk (opera)
Svätopluk is a Slovak opera by Eugen Suchoň with the subtitle Musical drama in three acts. The libretto is by Eugen Suchoň, Ivan Stodola and Jela Krčméry-Vrteľová and is loosely based on Stodola's play Kráľ Svätopluk, which was in turn based on events in the life of King Svatopluk I. Suchoň...
, Scarpia in Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was an Italian composer whose operas, including La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot, are among the most frequently performed in the standard repertoire...
's Tosca
Tosca
Tosca is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900...
, and the title heroes in Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Russian: Пётр Ильи́ч Чайко́вский ; often "Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky" in English. His names are also transliterated "Piotr" or "Petr"; "Ilitsch", "Il'ich" or "Illyich"; and "Tschaikowski", "Tschaikowsky", "Chajkovskij"...
's Eugene Onegin
Eugene Onegin (opera)
Eugene Onegin, Op. 24, is an opera in 3 acts , by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The libretto was written by Konstantin Shilovsky and the composer and his brother Modest, and is based on the novel in verse by Alexander Pushkin....
and Modest Mussorgsky
Modest Mussorgsky
Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky was a Russian composer, one of the group known as 'The Five'. He was an innovator of Russian music in the romantic period...
's Boris Godunov
Boris Godunov (opera)
Boris Godunov is an opera by Modest Mussorgsky . The work was composed between 1868 and 1873 in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is Mussorgsky's only completed opera and is considered his masterpiece. Its subjects are the Russian ruler Boris Godunov, who reigned as Tsar during the Time of Troubles,...
. He recorded a number of these roles on complete opera recordings made on the Supraphon
Supraphon
Supraphon Music Publishing is a Czech record label, it is oriented mainly towards publishing classical music, with an emphasis on Czech and Slovak composers.- History :...
label. Since 1966 he also worked as a stage director at the theatre. He retired from the opera stage in the late 1970s but continued to direct operas through 1983.
During the 1950s and 1960s, Kočí was also active as a guest artist in opera houses in Germany, Poland, Yugoslavia, Romania, Russia and Albania. He had a considerable amount of success at the Berlin State Opera
Berlin State Opera
The Staatsoper Unter den Linden is a German opera company. Its permanent home is the opera house on the Unter den Linden boulevard in the Mitte district of Berlin, which also hosts the Staatskapelle Berlin orchestra.-Early years:...
. At the Holland Festival
Holland Festival
The Holland Festival is The Netherlands' oldest and largest performing arts festival, and takes place every June in Amsterdam. It comprises theater, music, opera and modern dance. In recent years, multimedia, visual arts, film and architecture were added to the festival roster...
he sang the role of Kuligin 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 Káťa Kabanová
Káta Kabanová
Káťa Kabanová is an opera in three acts, with music by Leoš Janáček to a libretto by Vincenc Červinka, based on The Storm, a play by Alexander Ostrovsky. The opera was also largely inspired by Janáček's love for Kamila Stösslová...
in 1959. In 1964 he appeared at the Edinburgh Festival
Edinburgh Festival
The Edinburgh Festival is a collective term for many arts and cultural festivals that take place in Edinburgh, Scotland each summer, mostly in August...
as the Prison Governor in the United Kingdom premiere of Janáček's From the House of the Dead
From the House of the Dead
From the House of the Dead is an opera by Leoš Janáček, in three acts. The libretto was translated and adapted by the composer from the novel by Dostoyevsky...
.
In 1963 Kočí joined the faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague
Academy of Performing Arts in Prague
The Academy of Performing Arts in Prague is a university level school of music, dance, drama, film, TV and multi-media studies.- Faculties :*Film and TV School - FAMU*Music Faculty - HAMU*Theatre Faculty - DAMU-Notable alumni:...
. After the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968, he became the Deputy Central Director of Czechoslovak Television
Czechoslovak Television
Czechoslovak Television was founded on 1 May 1953 in the former Czechoslovakia. Around its dissolution into Czechia and Slovakia in the end of 1992, ČST was abolished, and the new companies, public service broadcasters, emerged:...
for s short while. He appeared as an actor in a number of Czech television programs and also appeared in Czech films and television productions of operas. He dedicated much of his latter life to teaching singing in Prague, both at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague and privately. Among his notable pupils was Libuše Márová
Libuše Márová
Libuše Márová is a Czech operatic mezzo-soprano who has been a principal artist at the National Theatre in Prague since 1969...
. He died in Prague in 2003.