Ondřej Koplík

Biography

He was born in Brno. After having finished Biskupské gymnázium (Bishopric Grammar School) in Brno, he had his first engagement as a chorus singer at the Janáček Opera of the National Theatre in Brno. From 2000–2005 he studied opera singing at the Janáček Academy of Music (JAMU). He regularly took part in the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, Italy, and joined summer interpretation courses lead by Master Bruno de Simone (Italy). He also took private lessons with Bojidar Nikolov (Vienna). In January 2006 he became a deputy member of the chorus of Theater der Bundesstadt Bonn (Germany), from September 2006 he had a permanent engagement as an opera chorus singer in Semperoper Dresden. From 1993–2006 he was also an organist and later a choirmaster in the Basilica of the Assumption of Virgin Mary in Brno. Since October 2006 he has been taking private lessons of opera singing with Matthias Beutlich in Dresden. He studied opera singing under Magdaléna Hajóssyová at the Academy of Music in Prague. He played many roles during his studies mainly in the Chamber Opera of the Janáček Academy of Music, out of which we can mention e.g. captain Macheath (Britten: The Beggar’s Opera), Adrian Prochorov (Tučapský: The Undertaker), Adolf (Janáček: The Beginning of a Romance), Jephta (Carissimi: Jephta), Monostatos (Mozart: The Magic Flute), Števa (Janáček: Jenůfa), Mikeš (Martinů: Mikes of the Mountains), or at the opera house in Ústí nad Labem (Lehár: The Mary Widow, the role of Camille de Rosillon, or Verdi: Requiem).
Since 2009 he has had an engagement as an opera soloist in the Moravian Theatre Olomouc. He has sung, among others, Ferrando in Mozart's Così fan tutte, Alfredo in Verdi's La traviata, Lensky in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin, Vašek in Smetana's The Bartered Bride, Remendado in Bizet's Carmen), Joe -Josephine in Sugar (a musical by J. Styne, P. Stone), shepherd Jirka in Dvořák's The Devil and Kate. In 2009, together with his colleagues Jan Šťáva and Lucie Kašpárková, he founded an arts association Wopera-sérija trying to popularize classical opera in a modern and unconventional way and make it attractive even to the “uninitiated” spectators so as to ensure new audiences for this genre in 21st century. He also cooperates with the National Theatre Brno in the production of Haydn's The Apothecary (Mengone), Puccini's Turandot (Pang), or Offembach's La Périchole (Piquillo). During the Janáček Festival 2011, he also sang Lumír in Janáček's Šárka in the National Theatre Brno (world premiere of the original version from 1887), or as a guest with the Chamber Opera of the Faculty of Music of JAMU in the production of Janáček's The Diary of One Who Disappeared. He cooperates also with the National Moravian-Silesian Theatre in Ostrava, namely in the productions of Carmen, Offenbach's Orpheus in the Underworld, Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress or Dvořák's Armida. In 2011 he sang the leading role (Mr. Snow) at the world premiere of The Journey to the West, an original Chinese opera. Subsequently he went on an opera concert tour in China and Mongolia.