Ivo Hrachovec

Biography

Bass Ivo Hrachovec is a native of Nový Jičín, northern Moravia. He studied clarinet with Petr Bohuš and solo voice with Drahomíra Míčková, at the Ostrava Conservatory. He then pursued his training under the latter’s guidance at the Ostrava University from which he graduated in 1997. In 1993, he attended a summer course with Carlo Bergonzi in Siena, Italy. He made his stage debut in April 1996, as the monk Varlaam (Musorgsky, Boris Godunov), at the Prague State Opera. This was followed by the role of Geronio in a production of Rossini’s Il Turco in Italia which was recorded by Czech Television, and in 1998 by the part of the monk (Verdi, Don Carlos). In the same year, he successfully passed an audition for a new production, at the National Theatre in Prague, of Rameau’s opera Castor et Pollux (premiere 1999). From 2003 to 2011 he was a soloist of the Prague State Opera, since January 2012 he has been a soloist of the National Theatre Opera, there he has performed for example as Il Re (Verdi: Aida), Sparafucile (Verdi: Rigoletto), Basilio (Rossini: Il barbiere di Siviglia), Colline (Puccini: La bohème) and Troykin (Shostakovich: Anti-formalist rayok). He is laureate of several international competitions held in Europe, including the Antonín Dvořák International Singing Competition in Karlovy Vary (1994, 1995, and first prizes in the opera and song categories in 1997), the M.Schneider-Trnavský International Singing Competition in Trnava (1995), the Concorso internazionale Tito Schipa in Lecce (1995), and the Concorso internazionale per giovanni cantanti lirici citta di Enna, Sicily (1996). He  couples his opera engagement with commitments on the concert platform. He is a dedicated singer of coloratura bass parts of oratorios, both comic and serious Baroque opera characters, arias from Italian composers of lyrical operas, as well as of old Russian romances and Negro spirituals.