Svatopluk Sem
Guest of the National Theatre Opera
Svatopluk Sem studied voice at the Conservatory in České Budějovice under the tutelage of Dagmar Volfová. While still a student, he collaborated with the South Bohemia Theatre in České Budějovice, where in 1998 he was engaged. There he had the opportunity to perform numerous roles of the baritone and bass-baritone repertoire, including Mozart’s Papageno (Die Zauberflöte) and Guglielmo (Così fan tutte), Figaro (Rossini: Il barbiere di Siviglia), Giorgio Germont (Verdi: La traviata), Valentin (Gounod: Faust), Fra Melitone (Verdi: La forza del destino), Belcore (Donizetti: L’elisir d’amore) etc. In 2007 he debuted on the stage of Prague State Opera as Giorgio Germont and in the next year he portrayed Marcello (Puccini: La bohème). From 2009 to 2011 he was a Prague State Opera Prague soloist and extended his repertoire on this stage by the roles of Figaro, Sharpless (Puccini: Madama Butterfly), Escamillo (Bizet: Carmen), Melot (Wagner: Tristan und Isolde) and Count Luna (Verdi: Il trovatore). In 2009, he debuted at the National Theatre in Prague as the Devil (Martinů: The Miracles of Mary). He has guest appeared on this stage as Mozart’s Guglielmo and Don Giovanni, Belcore (Donizetti: L'elisir d'amore), Klingsor (Wagner: Parsifal) and Bohuš of Harasov (Dvořák: The Jacobin). He has also regularly performed at the National Theatre Brno, singing the roles of Figaro (Il barbiere di Siviglia) or Harašta (Janáček: The Cunning Little Vixen), and at the Moravian-Silesian Theatre in Ostrava where he has created Marcello (La bohème), Escamillo (Bizet: Carmen), Jaroslav Prus (Janáček: The Makropulos Affair), Vincenzo Gellner (Catalani: La Wally) and the King's Herald (Wagner: Lohengrin).
With the ensemble of the South Bohemia Theatre he has annually performed at the revolving theatre at Český Krumlov Castle, singing Masetto, Papageno, the Gamekeeper (Dvořák: Rusalka), Valentin, Fra Melitone, and in 2011, at the Internationl Music Festival Český Krumlov the role of Silvio (Leoncavallo: I pagliacci) alongside José Cura as Canio. He has guest appeared also at the International festivals Prague Spring and Smetana’s Litomyšl. A dedicated concert artist, Svatopluk Sem has sung at the Czech Republic as well abroad, in Japan, Denmark, South Korea, Austria, Russia, England, Greece and Bulgaria. In 2011, he has cooperated on a recording of Smetana’s The Bartered Bride (the role of Krušina) together with the BBC Symphony cunducted by Jiří Bělohlávek (French label Harmonia Mundi).
Update: February 2013
