Jolana Fogašová

Guest of the National Theatre Opera. She studied voice at Bratislava’s conservatory (1986-90) and the Academy of Performing Arts under the tutelage of Viktória Stracenská (1990-94). Between 2002 and 2006 she studied there for a doctorate. She also attended voice master classes given by Carlo Bergonzi in Sienna. Since 1993 she has been a permanent guest of the Slovak National Theatre Opera, and also collaborated with Vienna’s Austroconcert agency, through which she launched her successful international career. She has worked with a host of leading orchestras, including Wiener Symphoniker, Münchner Philharmoniker, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra, Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg, Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, etc. She has been conducted on opera stages and in concert halls by such luminaries as Fabio Luisi, Leopold Hager, Yevgeni Svetlanov, Emmanuel Villaume, Jacques Mercier, Janos Kovács, Jiří Bělohlávek, Mario Venzago, John Fiore, Ondrej Lenárd, András Ligeti and others. Her extensive operatic repertoire includes, for example, the roles of Mozart’s Dorabella (Cosi fan tutte) and Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), Rossini’s Angelina (La Cenerentola), Fiorilla (Il Turco in Italia) and Rosina (Il barbiere di Siviglia), Verdi’s Amneris (Aida) and Eboli (Don Carlos), Santuzza (Mascagni: Cavalleria rusticana), Massenet’s Cherubin (Chérubin) and Charlotte (Werther), Bizet’s Carmen, The Witch and the Foreign Princess (Dvořák: Rusalka), Kristina (Janáček: The Makropulos Case), which she has performed in Teatro alla Scala and others. Her concert repertoire encompasses works by J. S. Bach, W. A. Mozart, L. van Beethoven, G. Verdi, A. Bruckner, G. Mahler, A. Dvořák, L. Janáček, B. Martinů, I. Stravinsky and other composers. In cooperation with the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra and the conductor Rastislav Štúr, she recorded a CD of arias (2000) and a CD entitled Lullabies (chamber arrangement of world lullabies, 2002), and with the conductor Gérard Korsten Weber’s opera Euryanthe (Italy, 2003). Update: April 2009