Maria Kobielska

Biography

After graduating from the University of Performing Arts in Bratislava, Maria Kobielska was engaged by the Moravian Theatre in Olomouc. Between 1996 and 2002 she was a soloist of the Prague State Opera, where she performed numerous soprano roles, including the Princess (Zemlinsky: Es war einmal), Anetta (Weis: The Polish Jew), Marguerite (Gounod: Faust), Isabella (Meyerbeer: Robert le diable), Mimi (Puccini: La bohème) and Elena (Verdi: I vespri siciliani). Since the 2002/2003 season she has been a soloist of the National Theatre Opera in Prague, performing as Janáček’s Bystrouška (The Cunning Little Vixen) and in the triple role of Málinka, Etherea and Kunka (The Excursions of Mr Brouček), Alice Ford (Verdi: Falstaff), key roles in operatic works of the composer Bedřich Smetana - Mařenka (The Bartered Bride), Blaženka (The Secret), Vendulka (The Kiss) and Anežka (The Two Widows); Martinů’s Mariken (The Miracles of Mary) and Juliette, Micaëla (Bizet: Carmen), Mimi (Puccini: La bohème), Janáček’s Káťa Kabanová, Dvořák’s Rusalka and Julie (The Jacobin), Amelia Grimaldi (Verdi: Simon Boccanegra) and Helga (Fibich: The Fall of Arkun). On the stage of the State Opera in Prague she has perfomed as Nedda (Leoncavallo: I pagliacci), Mimi (Puccini: La bohème) and Minnie (Franz: War with the Newts). Extensive too is her concert activity on stages both at home and abroad. She has collaborated with renowned orchestras, including the BBC Symphony Orchestra, with which she has appeared at the opening concert of the BBC Proms in London (2007), the Sao Paulo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Silesian Philharmonic Orchestra Katowice, the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, the Czech Philharmonic, the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, the Prague Symphony Orchestra, the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra Olomouc, the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra, the Slovak State Philharmonic Košice etc. With the BBC Orchestra and its principal conductor Jiří Bělohlávek she recorded the triple role in Janáček’s The Excursions of Mr. Brouček for Deutsche Grammophon. This album won the Midem Classical Award 2009 at the record industry’s trade fair in Cannes.