Marek Žihla
Biography
Tenor Marek Žihla makes his debut at the National Theatre Opera as Peter in the production LouTkáček (Tuttifäntchen, 2023).
Since 2018 he has been studying classical singing at the Prague Conservatory. Since the 2021/22 season, he has been a regular guest on the stage of the J. K. Tyl Theatre in Pilsen, where he has appeared as Evandro in Gluck‘s Alceste, as well as the Governor, Ragotski and Vanderdendur in Bernstein‘s Candide and Lindoro in Rossini‘s L'italiana in Algeri. In the 2021/22 season he made his debut on the stage of the South Bohemian Theatre in České Budějovice. He appeared there in the tenor part of Handel‘s Messiah, as the First Armoured Man and Priest in Mozart‘s Die Zauberflöte, the First Philistine and the Messenger in Saint-Saëns‘ Samson et Dalila and in the tenor part of the stage version of Ryba‘s Czech Christmas Mass. At the Moravian Theatre Olomouc he performed the role of Tito in Mozart‘s La clemenza di Tito and Belmonte in Mozart‘s Die Entführung aus dem Serail. In the 2020/21 season he made his debut as the Warrior of Athens in Martinů‘s Ariane at the Smetana Litomyšl Festival. He regularly performs at the Zlatá pecka Festival, organised by opera singer Dagmar Pecková.
In 2019, he participated in the Bohuslav Martinů Song Competition, where he became the absolute winner. In addition, he won the Zora Jehličková Award and the Life of an Artist Foundation Award. In the same year, he participated in the Antonín Dvořák International Singing Competition in Karlovy Vary, where he won in the Opera Hope category. In the same competition in 2023 he won the 2nd prize in the Song category.