Biography
Soprano Marie Fajtová has been a soloist of the National Theatre Opera since the 2006/2007 season. She made her debut on the stage of the Estates Theatre as Norina in Rossini‘s Don Pasquale.
She studied piano at the Prague Conservatory and then opera singing with Jiří Kotouč. She continued her singing studies with the American soprano Nancy Henninger. At the National Theatre in Prague, her repertoire included such roles as Mozart‘s Donna Elvira and Donna Anna (Don Giovanni), Susanna and the Countess (Le nozze di Figaro), Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte) and Arminda (La finta giardiniera), Verdi's Violetta (La traviata), Oscar (Un ballo in maschera) and Gilda (Rigoletto), Frasquita (Bizet: Carmen), Clorinda (Rossini: La Cenerentola), Armida (Handel: Rinaldo), Adina (Donizetti: L’elisir d‘amore), Antonia (Offenbach: Les contes d‘Hoffmann), Euridice (Gluck: Orfeo ed Euridice), Karolina (Smetana: The Two Widows) and Bellini‘s Norma. She has appeared as a guest on other Czech stages, e.g. as Violetta at the Prague State Opera or as Lauretta (Puccini: Gianni Schicchi) and Nedda (Leoncavallo: Pagliacci) at the National Theatre in Brno. Abroad, she appeared as Susanna and Pamina on tour in Japan, as Violetta in Regensburg and Mannheim, Germany, and as Marguerite (Gounod: Faust) at the Finnish National Opera. She has performed in Finland and France in the lead role of Serpina in Pergolesi‘s La serva padrona. With the National Theatre Opera's production of Rinaldo she has successfully toured in Caen, Rennes, Luxembourg and L‘Opéra Royal de Versailles. Baroque music is an important part of her artistic activity, especially in collaboration with the ensembles Capella Regia Praha, Collegium Marianum, Collegium 1704 and Camerata Nova. In 2006 she created the title role in Handel‘s Alcina for the festival in Valtice. She also appeared as Angelica (Vivaldi: Orlando furioso) and Agenore (Bononcini: Astarto) and at the Prague Spring Festival 2004 she performed as Primislao in the Baroque pasticcio Praga nascente da Libussa e Primislao. In 2014 at the Prague Spring Festival, together with the Wihan Quartet, she performed Jan Klusák's La jolie rousse.
In 2004 she was a finalist in the Antonín Dvořák International Vocal Competition in Karlovy Vary, where she received the prize of the Prague Symphony Orchestra. In 2008 she won the main prize in the Barbara Hendricks International Singing Competition in Strasbourg.
www.mariefajtova.com
Photo: Jakub Ludvík