Václav Zítek is a Czech

Czech Republic

The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....

 opera

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

 singer. A lyric baritone with a beautiful timbre and a wide vocal range

Vocal range

Vocal range is the measure of the breadth of pitches that a human voice can phonate. Although the study of vocal range has little practical application in terms of speech, it is a topic of study within linguistics, phonetics, and speech and language pathology, particularly in relation to the study...

, he was one of the leading Czech singers of the postwar generation. He particularly excelled in portraying Janáček

Leoš Janácek

Leoš Janáček was a Czech composer, musical theorist, folklorist, publicist and teacher. He was inspired by Moravian and all Slavic folk music to create an original, modern musical style. Until 1895 he devoted himself mainly to folkloristic research and his early musical output was influenced by...

 and Smetana

Bedrich Smetana

Bedřich Smetana was a Czech composer who pioneered the development of a musical style which became closely identified with his country's aspirations to independent statehood. He is thus widely regarded in his homeland as the father of Czech music...

 heroes. His voice is preserved on numerous opera recordings made with the Supraphon

Supraphon

Supraphon Music Publishing is a Czech record label, it is oriented mainly towards publishing classical music, with an emphasis on Czech and Slovak composers.- History :...

 record label.

Biography

Born in Tisá

Tisá

Tisá is a village and municipality in Ústí nad Labem District in the Ústí nad Labem Region of the Czech Republic.The municipality covers an area of , and has a population of 786 ....

, Zítek studied singing privately with E. Matoušková, M. Linka, D. Levytský, and Zdeněk Otava

Zdeněk Otava

Zdeněk Otava was a Czech operatic baritone who had a length career at the Prague National Theatre that spanned more than four decades...

. Between 1955-1959 he worked on the staff at the National Theatre

National Theatre (Prague)

The National Theatre in Prague is known as the Alma Mater of Czech opera, and as the national monument of Czech history and art.The National Theatre belongs to the most important Czech cultural institutions, with a rich artistic tradition which was created and maintained by the most distinguished...

 in Prague

Prague

Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...

 and sang in some smaller roles. In 1959-1960 he worked as a principal artist at the Zdeněk Nejedlý Theatre in Ostrava

Ostrava

Ostrava is the third largest city in the Czech Republic and the second largest urban agglomeration after Prague. Located close to the Polish border, it is also the administrative center of the Moravian-Silesian Region and of the Municipality with Extended Competence. Ostrava was candidate for the...

. He then was a leading baritone at the opera house in Ústí nad Labem

Ústí nad Labem

Ústí nad Labem is a city of the Czech Republic, in the Ústí nad Labem Region. The city is the 7th-most populous in the country.Ústí is situated in a mountainous district at the confluence of the Bílina and the Elbe Rivers, and, besides being an active river port, is an important railway junction...

 from l960-1969. While there he also appeared occasionally as a guest artist at the Prague National Theatre. He eventually left Ústí nad Labem for that house, singing as a leading baritone at the National Theatre from 1969 through 1991.

Among Zítek's signature roles are several parts in operas by Bedřich Smetana

Bedrich Smetana

Bedřich Smetana was a Czech composer who pioneered the development of a musical style which became closely identified with his country's aspirations to independent statehood. He is thus widely regarded in his homeland as the father of Czech music...

, including Kalina in The Secret

The Secret (opera)

The Secret is a comic opera in three acts by Bedřich Smetana. The libretto was written by Eliška Krásnohorská. The premiere took place September 18, 1878 at the Nové České Divadlo in Prague.-Background:...

, Tomeš in The Kiss

The Kiss (opera)

The Kiss is an opera in two acts, with music by Bedřich Smetana and text by Eliška Krásnohorská, based on a novel by Karolina Světlá. It received its first performance in Prague on November 7, 1876.- Roles :- Act I :...

, Vladislav in Dalibor, Lord Vok in The Devil's Wall

The Devil's Wall

The Devil's Wall is a comic-romantic opera in three acts, with music by Bedřich Smetana and libretto by Eliška Krásnohorská, in their third operatic collaboration...

, and Přemysl in Libuše

Libuše (opera)

Libuše is a '"festival opera" in three acts, with music by Bedřich Smetana. The libretto was originally written in German by Josef Wenzig, and was then translated into Czech by Ervin Špindler. In Czech historical myth, Libuše, the title character, prophesied the founding of Prague. The opera...

; the latter of which he sang for the reopening of the Prague National Theater in 1983. He is also known for the role of Prince Vasilij Šujský in Antonín Dvořák

Antonín Dvorák

Antonín Leopold Dvořák was a Czech composer of late Romantic music, who employed the idioms of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia. Dvořák’s own style is sometimes called "romantic-classicist synthesis". His works include symphonic, choral and chamber music, concerti, operas and many...

's Dimitrij

Dimitrij

Dimitrij is an opera by Antonín Dvořák in 4 acts, set a libretto by Marie Červinková-Riegrová. More specifically, it belongs to the genre of Grand Opera. The work was first performed in Prague, at the Nové České Divadlo on 8 October 1882, after Dvořák began composition during May 1881...

and for several Janáček

Leoš Janácek

Leoš Janáček was a Czech composer, musical theorist, folklorist, publicist and teacher. He was inspired by Moravian and all Slavic folk music to create an original, modern musical style. Until 1895 he devoted himself mainly to folkloristic research and his early musical output was influenced by...

 heroes, including Stárek in Jenůfa

Jenufa

Jenůfa is an opera in three acts by Leoš Janáček to a Czech libretto by the composer, based on the play Její pastorkyňa by Gabriela Preissová. It was first performed at the Brno Theater, Brno, 21 January 1904...

, Forester in The Cunning Little Vixen

The Cunning Little Vixen

The Cunning Little Vixen is an opera by Leoš Janáček, with a libretto adapted by the composer from a serialized novella by Rudolf Těsnohlídek and Stanislav Lolek, which was first published in the newspaper Lidové noviny.-Composition history:When Janáček discovered Těsnohlídek's...

, and Baron Jaroslav Prus in The Makropulos Affair. His recording of the role of Alexandr Petrovič Gorjančikov in Janáček's From the House of the Dead

From the House of the Dead

From the House of the Dead is an opera by Leoš Janáček, in three acts. The libretto was translated and adapted by the composer from the novel by Dostoyevsky...

won the Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording

Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording

The Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording has been awarded since 1961. The award was originally titled Best Classical Opera Production. The current title has been used since 1962....

 in 1982. Other roles in his repertory include Count Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro

The Marriage of Figaro

Le nozze di Figaro, ossia la folle giornata , K. 492, is an opera buffa composed in 1786 in four acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte, based on a stage comedy by Pierre Beaumarchais, La folle journée, ou le Mariage de Figaro .Although the play by...

, the title role in Don Giovanni

Don Giovanni

Don Giovanni is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and with an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It was premiered by the Prague Italian opera at the Teatro di Praga on October 29, 1787...

, Escamillo in Carmen

Carmen

Carmen is a French opéra comique by Georges Bizet. The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée, first published in 1845, itself possibly influenced by the narrative poem The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin...

, and the title hero in Eugene Onegin

Eugene Onegin (opera)

Eugene Onegin, Op. 24, is an opera in 3 acts , by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The libretto was written by Konstantin Shilovsky and the composer and his brother Modest, and is based on the novel in verse by Alexander Pushkin....

.

Zítek's appearances on the international stage include performances at the Bolshoi Theatre

Bolshoi Theatre

The Bolshoi Theatre is a historic theatre in Moscow, Russia, designed by architect Joseph Bové, which holds performances of ballet and opera. The Bolshoi Ballet and Bolshoi Opera are amongst the oldest and most renowned ballet and opera companies in the world...

, the Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux

Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux

Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux, is a Theatre in Bordeaux, France, first inaugurated on 17 April 1780. It was in this theatre that the ballet La Fille Mal Gardée premiered in 1789, and where a young Marius Petipa staged some of his first ballets....

, the Romanian National Opera

Romanian National Opera

The Romanian National Opera is one of the national opera companies of Romania, situated in a historical building in Bucharest, near the Cotroceni neighbourhood....

, and at the State Opera

Berlin State Opera

The Staatsoper Unter den Linden is a German opera company. Its permanent home is the opera house on the Unter den Linden boulevard in the Mitte district of Berlin, which also hosts the Staatskapelle Berlin orchestra.-Early years:...

, Deutsche Oper

Deutsche Oper Berlin

The Deutsche Oper Berlin is an opera company located in the Charlottenburg district of Berlin, Germany. The resident building is also home to the Berlin State Ballet.-History:...

, and Komische Oper

Komische Oper Berlin

The Komische Oper Berlin is an opera company in Berlin, Germany, which specializes in German language productions of opera, operetta and musicals....

 in Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

. In 1988 he had a major triumph singing Alexandr Petrovič Gorjančikov with the Opéra National de Paris. In 1985 Zítek was made a People's Artist of the USSR

People's Artist of the USSR

People's Artist of the USSR, also sometimes translated as National Artist of the USSR, was an honorary title granted to citizens of the Soviet Union.- Nomenclature and significance :...

. In 2007 he was honored with a Thalia Award.