Agia Schindlerová Formánková passed away

She was born in Brno on 14 February 1934. In 1952, she graduated from a secondary grammar school in Brno and followed by studying opera singing at the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Brno between 1957 and 1961 under the guidance of Jarmila Vavrdová. She was first engaged by the opera in Olomouc in 1960, where she sang major soprano roles in an ensemble directed by chief of the opera, Zdeněk Košler. She sang, for example, Katya Kabanova in Janáček’s opera of the same name (1961), Donna Elvira in Mozart’s Don Giovanni (1961) and the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro. In 1963, she followed Zdeněk Košler to the State Theatre of Ostrava, where she worked as a leading soloist of the ensemble until 1974. She first appeared on the stage of the National Theatre on 18/03/1970, still as a guest, singing Kostelnička Buryjovka in Janáček’s Jenůfa followed, by Giulietta (Offenbach: Les contes d'Hoffmann), Ortrud (Wagner: Lohengrin), Amelia (Verdi: Un ballo in maschera) and the title role in Smetana’s Libuše. In 1974, she joined the National Theatre ensemble performing Jenůfa in Italy. She was a soloist of the National Theatre Opera from 01/08/1974, remaining with the ensemble until 30/09/1990, when she retired. In Prague, she sang a number of other roles including The foreign princess (Dvořák: Rusalka), Fricka (Wagner: Das Rheingold), The prima donna / Ariadne (Strauss: Ariadne auf Naxos), Kabanicha (Janáček: Katya Kabanova), Larina (Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin), Háta (Smetana: The Bartered Bride) or Kateřina (Kovařovic: Psohlavci).

We honour her memory!