Biography
Jacek Strauch was born in London. After completing studies in medicine, Jacek Strauch devoted himself to private study of voice. He debuted in 1979 with the Glyndebourne Touring Opera. He had regular engagements in Würzburg and Saarbrücken from 1980 to 1984. In 1984 he won the 2nd prize, the Verdi prize and the Boston opera special prize at the Belvedere singing competition in Vienna. From 1992 to 1994 he was a company member in Nürnberg where he sang Flying Dutchman, Prus in the Macropulos Case and Wozzeck, followed by a long association with Graz where he sang Amonasro, Orestes, Doktor Faust (Busoni), Scarpia, Wozzeck, Germont, Dutchman, Luna, Pizarro, Rigoletto, Alfio, Tonio, Enrico, Macbeth, Falstaff. Since 1985 he has been a freelancer and guest performs on European stages including the Vienna State Opera, the Berlin Comic Opera, the Munich State Opera, the Welsh National Opera, Bavarian State Opera, and Grand Théatre de Genève. 1991-98 he sang Rigoletto in Linz, Rigoletto and Scarpia in the Prague State Opera and in March 2000 he made his Vienna State Opera debut as Alfio in Cavalleria rusticana and the same role at the Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona. In the summer of 2000 he sang the role of Renato in Verdi's Un ballo in maschera at the Bregenz Festival. He started the 2002/2003 season again in Prague during the Verdi Festival of the State Opera with Amonasro, Germont, Renato and Rigoletto. In St. Gallen he is engaged for the four villains in Les Contes d’Hoffmann. He sang Amfortas in a revival of Parsifal in Karlsruhe.
Jacek Strauch also devotes himself to lyric repertoire. In September 2001 the German Opera magazine “Opernwelt” acclaimed him as “singer of the year” for his impersonation is Falstaff. In Czech operas he has sung Podkoljosin in Bohuslav Martinů's The Marriage and Šiškov in Janáček's From the House of the Dead.