Concert commemorating the founding of České Budějovice and celebrating the first written mention of the town of Třeboň.
Michal Marhold – baritone
Patrik Červák – piano
Evelyna Anežka Semrádová – flute, 4th year student at the České Budějovice Conservatory
Mgr. Milena Zahradilová – piano, teacher
Program:
European Dialogues
Alfredo Casella
Sicilienne et burlesque, Op. 23
Francis Poulenc
Le bestiaire ou Le cortège d'Orphée / The Bestiary or Orpheus' Procession (selection)
Miloslav Kabeláč
Eight Preludes, Op. 30 (selection)
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Zabyť tak skoro / To Forget So Soon
Vítězslav Novák
Slovak Songs
Francis Poulenc
Chansons gaillardes/ Merry Songs (selection)
Darius Milhaud
Saudades do Brasil / Longing for Brazil, Op. 67
Vítězslav Novák
Gypsy Melodies, Op. 14
Dmitri Shostakovich
24 Preludes for Piano, Op. 34 (selection)
Dmitri Shostakovich
The Love of Captain Lebyadkin
from the cycle Four Poems of Captain Lebyadkin, Op. 146
Eugen Suchoň
Bačovské piesne
Francis Poulenc
Priez pour paix / Prayer for Peace
Michal Marhold
studied singing and conducting at the Brno Conservatory and continued his vocal studies at the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts. He is better known to audiences at foreign opera houses. Since 2018, he has been engaged by the opera in Bern and has made guest appearances at the Theater an der Wien, the Teatro Massimo in Palermo, the Opéra de Lyon, the Nouvel Opéra Fribourg, the Teatro Arriaga in Bilbao, the Operafest in Lisbon, in Winterthur, Warsaw, Graz, and elsewhere. In the Czech Republic, he has made guest appearances at the South Bohemian Theater in České Budějovice, the Moravian-Silesian National Theater in Ostrava, the F. X. Šalda Theater in Liberec, the J. K. Tyl Theater in Plzeň, and the Silesian Theater in Opava. In June 2022, he made his debut at the National Theater on the stage of the State Opera in a production of Erwin Schulhoff's opera Flames.
He has collaborated with leading contemporary directors and conductors. His repertoire includes roles in operas by W. A. Mozart (Don Giovanni, Figaro, Guglielmo in Così fan tutte, Papageno and Publio in La clemenza di Tito), Figaro in Rossini's The Barber of Seville, Schaunard in Puccini's La bohème), Holofernes (A. Vivaldi: Juditha Triumphans), The Black Minister (György Ligeti: Le Grand Macabre), Achilles (G. F. Handel: Julius Caesar in Egypt), Donald (Benjamin Britten: Billy Budd), Der Graf (Philippe Boesmans: Reigen), Jean (Boesmans: Julie), Juri (Leonard Evers: Humanoid), The King (Carl Orff: The Cunning Little Vixen), Raphael/Adam (J. Haydn: The Creation), Impresario (D. Cimarosa: L'impresario nelle difficoltà) and many other baritone and bass roles.
Patrik Červák
studied piano and clarinet at the conservatory in České Budějovice. He graduated with a master's degree in musicology from the Faculty of Arts at Masaryk University and with a master's degree in orchestral conducting from the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts. He is currently a doctoral student in musicology at the Faculty of Arts of Masaryk University, where he also lectures. He has also participated in conducting courses and masterclasses led by Tomáš Netopil, Mark Stringer, Denis Russell Davies, and Tomáš Hanus.
As a pianist with the Francisextet ensemble, he has performed at domestic festivals and has also given concerts in Austria, Germany, and France. He has collaborated with the Husa na provázku theater as a pianist and has been an external pianist with the Brno Philharmonic since 2016.
From 2015 to spring 2018, he also worked as a music critic. As a conductor, he appears at educational and subscription concerts with the South Bohemian Philharmonic, and has performed with the Moravian Philharmonic Olomouc, the Český Krumlov String Orchestra, the Janáček Academic Orchestra, and the Ensemble Opera Diversa. He has also worked as an assistant conductor at the National Theater Brno and at the Janáček Brno International Music Festival, where, among other things, he rehearsed and conducted the Brno premiere of Francis Poulenc's opera Dialogues of the Carmelites. At the South Bohemian Theater, he rehearsed Mozart's opera Così fan tutte and participated in the rehearsal of Arrigo Boito's Mefistofele.
His performances and theoretical work focus primarily on French music from the first half of the 20th century, especially the works of Francis Poulenc and other members of the Paris Six. As a researcher and performer, he also specializes in the works of Claude Debussy, Erik Satie, Igor Stravinsky, Bohuslav Martinů, Aaron Copland, and Dmitri Shostakovich.
