Josef Průdek

After graduating from the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague in 1969, Josef Průdek was offered an engagement as a soloist (baritone) in the opera ensemble of the South Bohemian Theatre in České Budějovice. In 1990 he became artistic director of this opera ensemble. The first performance he directed in this engagement was Smetana’s Devil’s Wall (1974). Until 1996, when he was appointed director of the opera ensemble of the Prague National Theatre, he staged a large number of operas and operettas. Apart from his enagagement as a director in České Budějovice, he kept appearing as a soloist (a wide range of roles from Mozart’s, Verdi’s and Puccini’s operas, he sang Gounod’s Méphistophélès and Wagner’s Flying Dutchman. In 1990 he presented himself in his principal role of Tevye the Milkman in J. Bock and L. Stein’s musical Fiddler on the Roof. He made his director debut at the National Theatre in Prague as early as 1993 by staging Dvořák’s The Jakobin, and his other productions include the verismo “twins” Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci, Janáček’s Jenůfa, the world premiere of P. Eben’s opera Jeremias, which was played in St. Vitus’ Cathedral in Prague as part of the Prague Spring international festival, Smetana’s The Bartered Bride, Fibich’s scenic melodrama Hippodamia’s Death and Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro. He also worked as a guest director, for instance in the opera houses in Ústí nad Labem, Banská Bystrica, Liberec, Meiningen and Lisbon. In the Open-Air Theatre with the Revolving Auditorium he directed Dvořák’s Rusalka (2005) and Verdi’s La forza del destino (2008).