The National Theatre has won four Thalia Awards!

In the field of ballet, dance and physical theatre, Giovanni Rotolo won the Thalia Award for the title role in the production of Liliom, choreographed by John Neumeier. A long-standing pillar of the National Theatre Ballet, he portrayed a charismatic, spirited yet internally conflicted hero, whose self-assurance gradually reveals his doubts and his inability to express his own feelings. In his performance, Rotolo combined masterful dance technique, musicality and mature acting.

Štefan Margita won the Thalia Opera Award for his role as Loge in Wagner’s Das Rheingold, directed by Sláva Daubnerová and conducted by Robert Jindra. He performed this role – one with which he has experience from numerous major international stages – in the Prague production with exceptional vocal and acting mastery. His elegant, cunning and sarcastic Loge became one of the production’s main driving forces, as well as an observer of the weaknesses of the world of gods, giants and the Nibelungs.

The National Theatre is also particularly delighted by the two Thalia Awards for lifetime achievement, which were won this year by figures with long-standing ties to the leading Czech theatre.

In the opera category, the award was presented to Luděk Vele, who was a soloist with the National Theatre Opera from 1983 to 2018. Over the course of thirty-five years, he created dozens of roles from both the Czech and international repertoire – including Kecal in The Bartered Bride, the Water Sprite in Rusalka, the Gamekeeper in The Adventures of Vixen Bystrouška and Leporello in Don Giovanni, a role he sang for more than a quarter of a century. The award for lifetime achievement is already his third Thalia Prize.

In the field of ballet, dance and physical theatre, the award for lifetime achievement went to Nelly Danko, a dancer, ballet mistress and teacher who has spent a significant part of her artistic career with the National Theatre Ballet. She excelled particularly in character and dramatic roles, in which she was able to combine dance technique with powerful acting. In 1998, she won the Thalia Award for the title role in the ballet Isadora Duncan.

This year’s Thalia Awards ceremony thus became, for the National Theatre, an extraordinary celebration of contemporary artistic achievements and of the personalities who have left an indelible mark on its history.