Petra Alvarez Šimková

Biography

Petra Alvarez Šimková studied voice at the pop music department of the Prague Conservatory (with Prof. Lída Nopová). She began devoting to opera singing while attending the Conservatory in Mantua, Italy. She rounded off her opera studies at Vienna’s Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst (with Prof. Claudia Visca and Edith Mathis). She gained success in international voice competitions: Ismaele Voltolini and Riccardo Zandonai in Italy, Ada Sari in Poland, Ferruccio Tagliavini in Austria and the Antonín Dvořák competition in Karlovy Vary. Her very first appearance in the Czech Republic was in the role of Mozart’s Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro), which she performed at the J. K. Theatre in Plzeň. Other roles in her repertoire include the Fox (Janáček: The Cunning Little Vixen); the title role in Martinů’s Juliette; Susanna (Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro); Antonia (Offenbach: Les contes d’Hoffmann), which she sang at Schlosstheater Schönbrunn in Vienna, and Puccini’s Mimi (La bohème), with which she debuted at the Krakow Opera. Mimo was her another role for J. K. tyl Theatre in Plzeň, together with Mařenka (Smetana: The Bartered Bride), Mozart’s Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro) and Donna Anna (Don Giovanni), Puccini’s Liù (Turandot) and Tosca, Ponchielli’s Gioconda, Gounod’s Marguerite (Faust) and Verdi’s Violetta (La traviata). As Gilda (Verdi: Rigoletto) and Nedda (Leoncavallo: I pagliacci) she has guest appeared at the F. X. Šalda Theatre in Liberec. Another stage she likes returning to is Theater an der Wien, where she debuted in the role of the Chambermaid (Menotti: Goya) opposite Plácido Domingo. She also rendered the role of Janáček’s Fox at the festival in Aix-en-Provence. On the stage of the National Theatre Prague she debuted as Mařenka in The Bartered Bride. Her latest roles are Tosca, Krasava (Libuše), Woman (Erwartung), and Marschallin (Der Rosenkavalier).