Photo: Lukas Kimlicka
The gala concert “Tenor Petr Nekoranec in Recital” is the opening event of the Year of Czech Music abroad. It will feature songs by Bedrich Smetana, Antonin Dvorak, Leos Janacek and Bohuslav Martinu. The program offers a special performance of Janáček's extraordinary cycle “The Diary of One Who Disappeared.”
Introductory remarks by Michael Beckerman, Carroll and Milton Petrie Professor of Music at New York University.
Tenor Petr Nekoranec (Czech National Theater, Prague) is one of the most outstanding vocal talents of the young Czech generation. From the prestigious Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Program to leading roles with major opera companies around the world, Nekoranec dazzles with his performances of opera and song. The evening will also feature pianist Valeria Polunina.
The Year of Czech Music celebrates Czech composers and their masterworks as well as gifted performers once every decade. This year it honors Bedrich Smetana (200th anniversary), Leos Janacek (170th anniversary), Antonin Dvorak (120th anniversary of his death), and many others, marking important dates in the rich and diverse history of Czech music.
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About
PETR NEKORANEC is one of the most outstanding talents of the young Czech singing generation. In the 2023/24 season, he assumes the roles of Nemorino in the new production of L’elisir d’amore, and Vít in the new production of Smetana’s The Secret, both at the National Theatre in Prague. In December 2023, he will create Ramiro in the concert version of Rossini’s La cenerentola in Prague’s Smetana Hall. Abroad he will guest as Arbace (Idomeneo) at the Opéra nationale du Capitol in Toulouse, and David (David et Jonathas) at the Théâtre de Caen, in Nancy, at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg and Teatro Real Madrid.
Nekoranec’s recent opera engagements have included the roles of Asprando (N.A. Porpora: Carlo Il Calvo) at the Margrave Theatre in Bayreuth, Yuródivïy (Boris Godunov) at the Stuttgart State Opera, Almaviva at the Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse, Oronte (Händel: Alcina) in Florence alongside Cecilia Bartoli in the title role, and Pylades (Gluck: Iphigenie na Tauride) at the Opéra national de Lorraine in Nancy. He regularly cooperates with front orchestras (Czech Philharmonic, PKF – Prague Philharmonia, Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra, Prague Symphony Orchestra, Symphony Orchestra São Paulo, Warsaw Philharmonic), and conductors (†Jiří Bělohlávek, †James Levine, Keath Lockhart, Alexander Liebreich, Petr Popelka, Gianluca Cappuano, Robert Jindra, Giacomo Sagripanti, Petr Altrichter, Tomáš Netopil, Oxana Lyniv, Emanuel Villaume, etc.). He passionately devotes himself to contemporary music, he collaborates with the British composer Iain Bell.
In 2016, Petr Nekoranec was selected for the Lindemann Program at the Metropolitan Opera for 2 years as the first Czech to be accepted into this important project. In 2014–2016 he was a member of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich and its opera studio, where he created a number of roles including the title roles in the operas Le Comte Ory and Albert Herring. For Albert Herring, he was awarded the Bavarian Arts Prize in Munich (2016). In January 2018, he received another prestigious award: the Classic Prague Awards for the 2017 Talent of the Year. In fall 2019, his profile album French Arias (Supraphon; Czech Philharmonic, conductor Christopher Franklin) was released.
Nekoranec is a laureate of a number of prestigious European competitions. In October 2021, he won the 2nd prize in the Vincerò World Singing Competition in Naples, in January 2017 he became the absolute winner of the Francesco Viñas International Competition, held at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, where he also received the Plácido Domingo Award. Petr Nekoranec studied singing at the Pardubice Conservatoire with Jarmila Chaloupková and collaborates with the Italian operatic tenor and tutor Antonio Carangelo.
This event is presented by the Dvorak American Heritage Association in partnership with the Czech Center New York, with the support of the Consulate General of the Czech Republic in New York and the Bohemian Benevolent and Literary Association.