Biography
The Czech mezzo-soprano Dagmar Pecková is a regular guest of the National Theatre in Prague, where she made her debut in 1984 as Olga in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin.
She studied at the State Conservatory in Prague and was a member of the opera studio of the Saxon State Opera in Dresden. At the National Theatre in Prague, she has guest-starred as Siebel (Gounod: Faust), Cherubino (Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro), Suzuki (Puccini: Madama Butterfly), appeared in the title role of Bizet's Carmen, in the double role of the Witch and the Foreign Princess (Dvořák: Rusalka) and as Anna I in Kurt Weill's opera The Seven Deadly Sins. She has performed on opera and concert stages worldwide, including the State Operas in Berlin, Munich and Hamburg, Carnegie Hall in New York, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Opéra national de Paris, Grand Théâtre de Genève, Opéra de Monte-Carlo, Opernhaus Zürich, Royal Opera House in London, San Francisco Opera, Semperoper in Dresden, Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, Wigmore Hall in London, etc. Her repertoire includes the roles of Preziosilla (Verdi: La forza del destino), Maddalena (Verdi: Rigoletto), Varvara (Janáček: Katya Kabanova), Geneviève (Debussy: Pelléas et Mélisande), the Fox (Janáček: The Cunning Little Vixen), Ortrud (Wagner: Lohengrin) and Herodias (R. Strauss: Salome). She has made frequent appearances at such prestigious events as the Edinburgh International Festival, Salzburger Festspiele, Prague Spring Festival and Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, where in 2014 she was Artist in Residence.
In 2000, Dagmar Pecková received the prestigious Thalia Award for her portrayal of Carmen in a National Theatre production. In addition to opera, her repertoire encompasses songs, especially those of Gustav Mahler. In collaboration with the conductor Jiří Bělohlávek, she recorded a number of CDs with songs by Late-Romantic and Modernist composers for the Supraphon label. She also features on other Supraphon recordings, including of Janáček's The Diary of One Who Disappeared. In 2015, the label released her acclaimed album Sinful Women. Her albums Dvořák: Songs (2001), Wanted (2017) and Nativitas (2018) earned Supraphon Gold Discs. She has also collaborated with Hänssler Classic, Teldec and Warner Music. In 2017, she founded the Zlatá Pecka Music Festival in Chrudim, her hometown.
Photo: Pavel Petruška