Vojtěch Pelka is a countertenor of the current young opera generation and a pioneer of the countertenor field in the Czech Republic. He graduated from the Jan Deyl Conservatory in Prague in the singing class of prof. Barbora Klozová Velehradská, with whom she continues her singing education. He successfully participated in a number of international singing competitions. Among his most outstanding competition achievements are the Audience award, which he won at the Cesti Competition 2024 in Innsbruck (AT) and 2nd place with an extraordinary prize for the interpretation of a Mozart aria, from the 2019 Conservatory Competition of the Czech Republic.
His first major operatic role came in the 2019/20 season at the Silesian Theater Opava, where he made his debut as the Cherub in the opera The Marriage of Figaro by W. A. Mozart. With this role, he successfully presented himself to the Prague audience at the Stavovský Divadl, as part of the Opera 2022 festival. Shortly after that, he played the title role of Emperor Nero in Monteverdi’s opera The Coronation of Poppa at the Josef Kajetán Tyl Theater in Pilsen. With this production he was a guest at the Margräfliches Opernhaus at the Musica Bayreuth festival (2023).
He is also dedicated to the interpretation of contemporary music. In 2021, he played the role of Dafnis in the world premiere of the queer opera Poklad Arcádie at the Opera Schrattenbach festival. For his extraordinary stage performance, he was selected by the Actors’ Association for a wider nomination for the 2022 Thalia Award in the field of opera. Among his other interpretations of contemporary music, it is necessary to mention the collaboration with Michael Kocáb, whose works such as Odysseus, Jan Hus and others, he performed with the Symphony Orchestra of m. Prague FOK or at the Metronom Festival Prague 2024.
In the 2022/2023 season, he took on several demanding singing roles and parts. These include the title role of Sexto in Mozart’s opera La clemenza di Tito, in which he continues to perform at the Moravian Theater Olomouc, and the main role of Morasta in Vivaldi’s opera La fida ninfa, in which he performed at the Innsbrucker Festwochen der Alten Musik.
In the 2024/2025 season, the South Bohemian Theater in České Budějovice is preparing the world premiere of the contemporary opera Pinocchio by T. Hanzlík and V. Zouhar, in which he will play the title role of Pinocchio. Other upcoming roles include Alessandro Severo in the opera of the same name by G. F. Handel, in which he will perform in collaboration with Collegio Mariano, and the role of Prenesto in Bononcini’s Il trionfo di Camilla, which he will perform again with Musica Florea.
He presented his concert and opera repertoire to audiences abroad. He performed in Germany, Austria, China, Poland and Slovakia. He collaborates with the Guiyang Symphony Orchestra, the Pilsen Philharmonic, Barocco semper giovanne, Musica Florea, Collegium Marianum, Ensemble Damian, the MDO Orchestra, the RUN OPERUN association, and the Viaggio musicale ensemble. He regularly organizes solo recitals, where he deals with the music of the Baroque, Classicism and early Romanticism.
In 2019, in cooperation with the CPO recording company, Ensemble 18+ and the Kurpfälzisches Kammerorchester Mannheim, he recorded a CD of selected arias from the operas of I. Holzbauer and J. A. Koželuh to the libretto of the same name by Alessandro nell’ India. In 2023, he recorded the aforementioned operas La fida ninfa and Treasure of Arcadia.
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