Opera
Don Giovanni
Donna Elvira
The Estates Theatre
Biography
Soprano Alžběta Poláčková has been a soloist at the National Theatre in Prague since 2003, where she made her debut a year earlier as Zerlina in Mozart's Don Giovanni.
She studied singing at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. She has appeared on the stage of the National Theatre as Mozart's Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni) and Countess (Le nozze di Figaro), Euridice (Gluck: Orfeo ed Euridice), Micaela (Bizet: Carmen), Mimi (Puccini: La bohème) or Marguerite (Boito: Mephistophele) and in many roles of the Czech operatic repertoire, such as Smetana's Mařenka (The Bartered Bride) and Jitka (Dalibor), Dvořák's Terinka (The Jacobin), Rusalka and Armida, Fibich's Margit (The Fall of Arkun), Janáček's Kristina (The Makropulos Affair), Bystrouška (The Cunning Little Vixen), Karolka and Jenůfa (Jenůfa), Málinka/Etherea/Kunka (The Excursions of Mr.Brouček), Martinů's Mary and Mariken (Martinů: The Miracles of Mary) and the titular Juliette, The Talking Book and The Mermaid (Ivanović: Enchantia) and The Princess (Kašlík: Krakatit). In June 2011, her portrayal of Lise in Philip Glass's opera Les Enfants terribles, presented by the National Theatre Opera as part of the Prague Quadrennial of Scenography and Theatre Space on the grounds of the Psychiatric Hospital in Prague, attracted extraordinary attention.
In 2015, she made her debut at the Opéra Bastille in Paris in the role of the Second Wood Nymph (Dvořák: Rusalka). This was followed by her debut with the BBC Symphony Orchestra in the role of Jitka (Smetana: Dalibor) under the baton of Jiří Bělohlávek. In 2016 she sang The Fox in Janáček's The Cunning Little Vixen at the Glyndebourne Festival. She has also performed in concert in Vienna at the Musikerlebnis Mitteleuropa festival and in Krakow at the Österreichische Europa-Tage.
Together with the trio ArteMiss she recorded Shostakovich's Vocal Instrumental Suite. She participated as soprano soloist in the 2014 Supraphon recording of Janáček's Eternal Gospel with conductor Tomáš Netopil. She has successfully participated in several international vocal competitions, including the first prize and the Emmy Destinn Prize at the Anglo-Czechoslovak Trust Competition in London and the National Theatre Prize at the International Antonín Dvořák Vocal Competition in Karlovy Vary (2002).
