Jana Sýkorová

Biography

As a leading soloist with the State Opera Prague from 1999 to 2011 and with the National Theatre since 2012, contralto Jana Sýkorová‘s performances have included the title roles of Bizet’s Carmen, Thomas‘ Mignon, Vivaldi’s Orlando furioso, Petitgirard’s Elephant Man and Viklický‘s Phaedra and The Ploughman and the Death – the last three ones in world premieres. Her signature parts also include Verdi’s Azucena (Il trovatore), Fenena (Nabucco) and Maddalena (Rigoletto), Massenet’s Charlotte (Werther), and Dvořák’s Káča (The Devil and Kate) and Ježibaba (Rusalka). She has reprised the role of Carmen in eight productions and she was dubbed by a French critic at Forum Opera as “one of the most interesting Carmen”. In 2007, she made her debut as Maddalena with the London Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, where she returned to perform the role of Mercédès and to cover the title role of Carmen. She had further more guest performances at the opera festival in Wels and in Berlin, Dijon, Nice and in Helsinki (2018). Of her commitments as a soloist with the Czech Philharmonic, Prague Symphony Orchestra and orchestras in another ten countries, particular mention should be made of Jana Sýkorová’s European performances under the baton of Gerd Albrecht, including a DVD recording of Dvořák’s oratorio Saint Ludmila, her participations in performances of Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass in Tokyo, with the NHK Symphony Orchestra conducted by Charles Dutoit, Brahms’ Alto Rhapsody with Bernhard Klee and Ingo Metzmacher, and her creations of Mahlerian parts, with Tomáš Netopil and Jakub Hrůša. She has been involved in numerous recording projects, including among others a complete set of Dvořák’s opera The Stubborn Lovers, conducted by Jiří Bělohlávek, or Dvořák’s Requiem, which won the Japanese critics’ Tokusen Award.