Alexandr Beň

Biography

He hails from Luck in Ukraine (*1963). He graduated as a baritone singer from the Lvov State Conservatory (1990). While still a student, following his success as a laureate of the International Vocalist Competition in Belgrade, he launched his career as a soloist in the Ivan Frank Lvov Opera House. Here he made his debut in 1991 singing the lead in Eugene Onegin by Tchaikovsky, which became his “hallmark” role; he repeated it on the stage of the Prague National Theatre (stage director F. Winter), similarly according to the concept of J. Kališová (South Bohemian Theatre in České Budějovice). While giving a concert version of Tchaikovsky’s Yolanta he also recorded the complete version of Robert’s role on a CD, accompanied by the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by H. Rotman, (issued by CPO - Classic Production Osnabrück).
Since 1994 he has been one of the foremost soloists in the opera ensemble of the South Bohemian Theatre in České Budějovice. Here he has created a whole range of baritone roles, especially Verdi characters, as well as roles in verism operas (Puccini, Giordano). He created the lead in Mozart’s Don Giovanni for a series of performances presented on the open-air revolving stage in the palace gardens in Český Krumlov. Meanwhile A. Beň has expanded his repertoire to include Czech works (as a guest artist in the role of Přemysl in Šárka by Zdeněk Fibich staged in Plzeň), concerts (the German Requiem by J. Brahms) and he is continuing in his presentation of a “traditional” Russian repertoire (as a guest in the role of Yelecky in Tchaikovsky’s Queen of Spades in the Prague National Theatre).
He performed the role of Beast in a very successfull production of Philip Glass's opera La Belle et la Bête at the National Theatre in Prague.