Luděk Vele
Soloist of the OperaBiography
Luděk Vele graduated from the Prague conservatoire, where he was led by professor Jaroslav Horáček and in the final year of his studies he accepted an engagement at the Liberec opera. The regional scene allowed him to quickly grow artistically and in a short period of time he created several roles from Czech and international repertoire there – among other roles Smetana’s Kecal (The Bartered Bride) and Mumlal (The Two Widows), Dvořák’s Water Sprite (Rusalka), Angelotti (Puccini: Tosca), Mefisto (Gounod: Faust), Philip II. (Verdi: Don Carlos), Leporello (Mozart: Don Giovanni), and Bartolo (Rossini: Il barbiere di Siviglia). He has been a National Theatre soloist since 1983. He enriched his repertoire here by almost all significant bass roles that the local dramaturgy could offer him. Next to his masterly refined Water Sprite, Kecal and Leporello he also studied Donizetti’s Don Pasquale, Verdi’s Sparafucile (Rigoletto) and Banco (Macbeth), Colline (Puccini: La bohème), Lorenzo (Gounod: Roméo et Juliette), Zuniga (Bizet: Carmen), Priest Grigoris (Martinů: The Greek Passion), Filip (Dvořák: The Jacobin), Gamekeeper and Badger/Priest (Janáček: The Cunning little Vixen), Bartolo (Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro), Il Commendatore (Mozart: Don Giovanni) and many other roles of the Czech operatic repertoire. For his outstanding execution of Smetana’s Chrudoš (Libuše) and Richard Strauss’s Baron Ochs (Der Rosenkavalier) he was awarded the Thálie Award in 1995 and 1996. He co-operates with radio and television and is a frequent guest of opera and concert stages in the Czech Republic and abroad. He has also made number of recordings with domestic and international recording labels.