Gabriela Beňačková soprano

The Gabriela Benackova (soprano) is a world-wide opera singer. She was born in Bratislava (Slovakia), however most of the time in her live she has spent at international opera scenes where she performed almost 40 roles. The first most significant opera house was National theatre in Prague. Main stem of her career was engagement in Metropolitan theatre in New York where she performed the excellent Rusalka. Further, she performed in Metropolitan theatre in New York in many other opera titles. Regularly she was performing in State opera in Munich, Coven Garden in London, Vienna Stadtoper, La scala of Milano, Bolshoi theatre in Moscow and basically in all worlds’ front stages. Her most favorite roles are: Marenka from the Bartered Bride (B.Smetana), Rusalka (A.Dvorak), Jenufa a Kata Kabanova (L. Janacek) and Mimi from La Boheme (Puccini).

Gabriela Benackova is presently intensively performing at the concerts.
Lately she has performed at concert’s tour together with guitarists Lubomír Brabec.

One of her unforgettable experience was the performance for Jan Pavol II in Vatican. Moreover, in Rome she often sung oratorios.

During her career she cooperated with the most distinguished directors and conductors of era, for instance Leonard Bernstein, Claudio Abbado, Zubin Metha, Charles Mackerras and our Vaclav Neumann.

Placido Domingo, Luciano Pavarottti, Thomas Hampson or Piero Cappuccilli was her famous opera partners.

She earned many different appraisals and was nominated for the prize of Grammy in New York for the Czech song invention with co-star Rudolf Firkusny. She is laureate of Paris Prize of Arturo Toscanini, Gold medal of Giuseppe Verdi and Austrian Bayern honorable title of Kammersängerin.

She has recorded tenths of CDs and radio recordings; moreover the Marenka from the Bartered Bride (1981) is her most key role in TV.
 

 Peter Dvorský tenor

The starry career of Slovakian tenor Peter Dvorsky has begun in 1978 in Slovak National Theatre Bratislava in the role of Lenskij in Tchaikovski´s Eugen Onegin. Since then, he has performed on more that sixty operatic stages of twenty-five counties all over the world. He is considered one of the five world’s best tenors; Mario Morini, Italian critic and musicologist acclaimed him as „the last successor of the traditional Italian school“ and Leo Nucci – famous baritone titled him as „a literary Italian tenor“. Due to his „Italian-tutored voice of an exceptionally beautiful velvet color and master cantilena he is usually cast in roles of French and Italian romantic and veristic era.


Peter Dvorský was born in September 25, 1951 in the city of Partizánské, Czechoslovakia. He inherit his talents from his parents who come from Horni Ves: his father has been an amateur violin player, his mother sang in the local choir. His grandfather - Štefan Gregor was an excellent singer, too. Peter was not the only inspired child of his parents; his tree brothers Pal’o, Miroslav and Jaroslav are also opera singers, only his oldest brother - Vendelín is an economist. Peter’s enjoyable childhood in Nova Ves is still well remembered by him. Although he feels home in Bratislava, Horni Ves remains unique to him and he has a special place in his heart since that is where he took his first steps and made decision in his future career.

As a child, he liked to sing. Leoš Janáček once described Antonin Dvořák´s gruffness saying ‘He expressed himself with music’. Similarly, Peter Dvorsky could be described as ‘He speaks by singing.’ “I have been singing since I can remember. Often, with my mother we were communicating as if in an opera.”

At first, he studied piano play, yet, singing prevailed. In the age of fifteen, he has become the youngest student of the Bratislava Conservatory under the leadership of professor Ida Čermecká. That was when his dream was born – to debut in the role of Lenskij in Tchaikovski´s Eugen Onegin. He has seen this opera for the first time when he was eleven years old. His dream came true on the stage of the Slovak National Theater Bratislava where he has been accepted in September 1, 1972 as a soloist.
In 1974 he became a laureate of Tchaikovski Singing Competition in Moscow, a year later he won singing competition in Geneva. Between 1975 – 76 he was a resident in La Scala of Milano. There, he has been chosen by Luciano Pavarotti to perform on a singing recital in Teatro Comunale, Modena. Mr. Pavarotti introduced him as his legitimate successor. In that time, Peter Dvorský sung the role of the Count in Verdi´s Rigoletto in Busetta and Gounod´s Faust in Vienna with Slovak National Theatre Opera. Then director of the Vienna Egon Seefehlner has been so fascinated with him that he immediately offered him the role of the Italian Singer in Straus’s Der Rossenkavalier. Thus was the starry international career of twenty-six year old Peter Dvorsky started.

Vienna Stadtoper became his second home-scene. Still in 1977 he introduced himself as Alfred in Verdi´s La Traviata with Ileana Cotrubas, two year later he sung Edgar in Donizetti´s Lucia di Lammermmoor along with famous Edita Grúberová. In April 1980 he introduced himself for the first time as Nemorino in Donizetti´s L´elisir d´amore under the direction of Otto Schenk, once again accompanied by Ileana Cotrubas. In Vienna, Peter Dvorsky performed many times with Mirella Freni who become his most-frequent partner on many of the world’s stages in La Bohéme, Manon Lescaut, Adriana Lecouvreur, Simon Boccanegro, Eugen Onegin – in this opera they performed in its Bratislava 1985 production. They first met on the stage in 1980 in La Bohéme in Covent Garden, London. „I didn’t know the your tenor who was interpreting Rudolph. Yet, Peter prepared one of the sweetest surprises in my theatre life”, Freni remembers. „I loved his immediacy from the first time we have met. Then, I have heard him sing and I loved his lovely voice with the sounding timbre and feeling for interpretation…. Peter’s artistic career is known to the opera audience all over the world. I like to remember this gentle friend, a humble and a sincere man who assured everyone back in then London that his sincere smile mirrors his inborn humanity.” Under the direction of Giuseppe Sinopoli, he debuted in Vienna Stadtoper in Verdi´s Macbeth in February 1985. For the same role he later received the Audience Award in Milano´s La Scala. One year later he received a diploma with a title of ‘Kammersänger’ (Chamber Singer) from the hands of Austrian president dr. Rudolf Kirchsläger.

The third home scene of Peter Dvorský is La Scala of Milano. Here also, his career was very fast and bright. In April 13, 1979 he substituted for suddenly-ill José Carreras in the role of Rudolph in Puccini´s La Boheme with conductor Carlos Kleiber and under the direction of Frank Zeffirelli. Following a triumphal success, he appeared in the same role two more times in that same month. Reviews in the prestigious daily Corriere Della Sera wrote in April 22, 1979: “All the young Bratislava tenor needed were three performances in La Bohéme in La Scala to fly high above the horizon as a fiery bird to shine in front of the demanding and fastidious Milano audience...” With Luciano Pavarotti in 1983, Peter alternated in Donizetti´s Lucia di Lammermmoor. An Italian critic from the daily Il Giornale then wrote: „The most spellbinding performance has been done by Czechoslovak tenor Peter Dvorský who already appeared in La Scala and who is to return there next year. Because of his Edgar, La Scala almost fell down due to the thunderous applause.” Luciano Pavarotti said about the fascinating tenor with deep green eyes: “I know that Peter Dvorský is the only one who has an amazing voice and who also sings clearly.” That us some good critic considering both the renomé of its author and the difficulty of the role of Edgar. In 1985 Peter Dvorský introduced himself once again in La Scala in another crucial role of his repertoire, i. e. Macduff in Verdi´s Macbeth in Claudio Abbado production.

Another key role of Peter Dvorský´s career is the Count of Verdi´s Rigoletto. In this role he made him debut in London’s Covent Garden in 1978. Since then, he sung this role on many stages, including the Great Theatre of Geneva in 1981 (due to the TV broadcast, the whole Europe could witness his mastership) and festival Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Florence in 1989 under the controversial direction of Yuriy Liubimov. His debut in the role of Alfred in Verdi´s La Traviata came in 1977 in New York Metropolitan Opera. La Traviata has been the first opera he sung in The Arena of Verona (July 29, 1979 with Katia Ricciarelli and Renato Bruson). Many times, Peter Dvorský interpreted Pinkerton in Puccini´s Madama Butterfly (Vienna 1982, La Scala and Chicago 1985, New York Metropolitan Opera and West Berlin 1987, Munich 1989 etc.), Cavaradossi in Tosca (Vienna, Covent Garden with Grace Bumbry, directed by Frank Zeffirelli and Giuseppe Sinopoli, conductor 1987, Salcburk with George Pretra, conductor 1989, etc.) and the Knight Des Grieuxe in Manon Lescaut (premiered with Mirella Freni and Giuseppa Sinopoliho, conductor in Vienna, February 2, 1985 and basically in all world’s front stages, including Munich, Hamburg, Barcelona, Metropolitan Opera New York, many Japanese theatres, La Scala of Milano, Macerata with Eva Marton or Modena with Mirella Freni at the occasion of her career 35th anniversary). Following the Vienna production, several critics titled Peter Dvorský as the best interpreter of this role.

Mauricio in Francesco Ciley´s Adriana Lecouvreur belongs among other unforgettable interpretations of Peter Dvorský (performed with Mirella Freni in Bologna in 1985, v La Scala in 1989 and 1991 – a video-recording of this performance has been a successful seller of 200 000 copies! –, in Bastile of Paris in 1993, in Lecca in 1999, etc.). After one of the performances in La Scala, Giuseppe di Stefano, the last representative of Mauricio in La Scala (January 4, 1958) came to personally congratulate Peter Dvorský. For the interpretation of Mauricio, Peter Dvorský received L’Oscar d’Oro Francesco Cilea, represented by the composer’s bust.

He introduced himself in the role of Riccardo in Verdi´s Un ballo in maschera in the Slovak National Theatre Bratislava in 1986 with Ondrej Lenárd, conductor. He sung this role in Vienna, Munich with Pier Cappuccilli, Metropolitan Opera New York with Sherril Milnes. In London´s Covent Garden he substituted this role for suddenly-ill Giacoma Aragalla; that was a coincidence since he was to perform Eugen Onegin in London with Mirella Freni

Another important role in the artistic ripening of Peter Dvorský has been Don Alvaro in Verdi´s La forza del destino. The cast of the premiere (April 9, 1989) was Peter Dvorský, Eva Marton, Renato Bruson, Robert Lloyd, Juan Pons and Garcia Navarro, conductor. It was another of Peter´s triumphant successes, yet the audience has been less pleased with Giancarla del Monaco´s pseudo-modern direction. Peter himself considers La forza del destino to be the most difficult role for a tenor. In the interview for Corriere del Teatro in January of 2001 he said about Don Alvaro: “This great role of Verdi´s is cunning both artistically and musically. I have tried to portray this in its fullness in Florence Music May with Zubin Mehta, conductor in 1992…”

In the 2002/03 season he expanded his repertoire when he sung Andrea Chénier. Yet, when trying to name all the roles of Peter Dvorsky we must not omit Gounodov´s Faust, Massenet´s Werther (performed in film version under the direction of Peter Weigl), Verdi´s Othello and broad rosters of Czech and Slovak operas. In the Czech production of Dvořák´s Rusalka in Vienna (1987), he sung the role of the Prince, yet he performed in this role eleven years earlier in Munich TV production of this Opera. Both his Laca from Jenufa and his Jeník from the Bartered Bride performed several times in the Prague National Theatre with Gabriela Beňačková are absolutely unforgettable. He even sung the latter role in the TV production of this opera. Let us mention the stunning performance of Jenufa in the Prague National Theatre with his brother Miro (Štefa) and Gabriela Beňačková (Jenufa) from May 10, 1999. In Washington with Eva Urbanová (Kostelnička) in 2000, he was Laca, too. For the role of Ondrej in Euren Suchoň´ s Whirlpool (Katrena) performed in Slovak National Theatre he received the 1999 Award of the Secretary of Culture of the Slovak Republic.

Peter Dvorský is also a frequent guest in Japan. He has performed 16 times in this country. His Japanese debut was in 1981 with La Scala in Puccini´s La Bohéme with Carlos Kleiber, conductor. His last performance in Japan was in a recital with famous Japanese soprano Shinobu Satoh in January 2003.

So far, we have mentioned only operas. Yet, concert activities of Peter Dvorský are also very important. An exceptional place in this genre hold Verdi´s Requiem that he interpreted also in September 14, 1985 along with Samuel Ramey, Montserrat Caballé and Lucia Valentini Terrani, the Choir and the Orchestra of Las Scala with conductor Claudio Abbado in Dome of St. Mark in Milano. (This is where Verdi premiered his Requiem in 1874). One year later, in July 1, 1986 he sung Requiem on Piazza Signoria in Florence with Zubina Mehta, conductor; in July 31 the same piece with Gabriela Beňačková, Waltraude Meier and Kurt Rydl in theatre La Fenice in Florence in Giuseppe Sinopoli production. He returned to Florence with Requiem in 1991 accompanied by Samuel Ramey, Deborah Voigt and Luciana D’Intino. The production with conductor Viekoslav Sutei has been performed at the courtyard of Palazzo Ducale. Along with his stage partner Mirella Freni, her husband Nikolai Giaurov and Jelena Obrazcovova, he participated in the recording of Requiem for Music Mondial (1987) with the choir and orchestra of Sophia National Opera. This list is far from being complete.

On his concerts, he usually interprets both opera arias but also Italian, Slovak and Czech songs. He performed in a recital with Ludovít Marcinger in La Scala of Milano in 1984 when he introduced a very unique program to the Italian audience: Leopold Kozeluh´s Ariettas, Evening songs by Bedrich Smetana, Gypsy tunes by Antonin Dvořák, series Tears and Smiles by Mikuláš Schneider-Trnavský and Tchaikovski´s songs. We can read in Corriere della Sera from February 29: “The audience has applauded as never before.”