Jaroslav Březina
Soloist of the National Theatre Opera.
He studied at the Prague conservatory under the tutelage of Professor Zdeněk Jankovský and after graduating further honed his technique with Václav Zítek. His concert activity is extensive, primarily as regards projects pertaining to the baroque and classical repertoire. He has appeared on concert stages in Japan, Austria (Salzburg), Norway, Italy (performance of Dvořák’s Stabat Mater in Rome and Pisa), Germany, France and Spain. He has collaborated with a number of celebrated conductors, among them: Jiří Bělohlávek, Sir Charles Mackerras, Oliver Dohnányi and Serge Baudo.
Since 1993 he has been a soloist of Prague’s National Theatre Opera, where he has created a host of roles from both the Czech and world repertoire. He has above all excelled as Mozart’s Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni), Tito (La clemenza di Tito) and Ferrando (Così fan tutte), Count Almaviva (Rossini: Il barbiere di Siviglia), Benvolio (Gounod: Roméo et Juliette), Dancairo (Bizet: Carmen), Fenton (Verdi: Falstaff), Beppe (Leoncavallo: Pagliacci), Tinca (Puccini: Il tabarro), Zinovij Borisovich (Shostakovitch: Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk), Vašek and Jeník (Smetana: The Bartered Bride), Yannakos and Panait (Martinů: The Greek Passion).
Jaroslav Březina has recorded for Deutsche Gramophon a CD of Ryba’s Czech Christmas Mass. He has also participated in the recording of Zelenka’s coronation opera Sub olea pacis et palma virtutis for the company Supraphon, which won the 2002 Cannes Classical Awards, as well as Janáček’s Šárka and Dvořák’s comic opera The Stubborn Lovers. He has rendered Janáček’s song cycle The Diary of One Who Disappeared at Teatro Real Madrid, within the concert season of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra and others.