Biography
Vladimír Chmelo, graduate of the Janáček Academy of Music in Brno and winner of the Thalia Award, embarked on his international career by winning the Ferruccio Tagliavini International Competition in Graz, Austria, in 1998. By then he already had behind him several seasons of engagement with the National Theatre in Brno, where he had built up the core of his operatic repertoire. Systematic work on perfecting the Italian bel canto technique has led to his attaining the status of a sought-after interpreter of Italian and French operas. He likewise frequently performs in major European opera houses (Hamburg, Essen, Bonn, Innsbruck, Salzburg, Bielefeld, Genoa, Palermo, Wroclaw). He has to his credit several Japanese tours, singing Germont (opposite Maria Guleghina), Figaro, Wolfram von Eschenbach, and Escamillo. He has appeared at numerous opera festivals (including those of Aix-en-Provence, Eutin or Gut Immling). Vladimír Chmelo has attached similar relevance to his career as a concert singer. Under the Millenium Project, he sang the title part in Liszt´s Christus oratorio during the concert for Pope John Paul II in the Vatican. His extensive song repertoire is centred on works of German, Czech and French composers. At the international Wiener Festwochen in May 2007, he appeared in a famous production of Janáček´s From the House of the Dead conducted by Pierre Boulez and directed by Patrice Chéreau, which was staged in Amsterodam and Aix-en-Provence in the same year. In November 2009 he made his debut, at the next stage of the production´s triumphant journey, at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, in 2010 at La Scala in Milan and in 2011 he at the Staatsoper Berlin (again in 2014). In November 2010 he made his debut at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, in the role of Ford (Falstaff). Since the season 2010/2011 he has been regularly cooperating with the Metropolitan Opera in Rigoletto,Tosca, Madama Butterfly, Rusalka (Gamekeeper) in which he was seen in the live transmission (February 8, 2014), and in February 2015 he sang opposite Anna Netrebko in Jolanta by P.I. Tchaikovsky (the role of Ibn-Hakia).
Update: October 2015