Ivan Kusnjer

Baritone Ivan Kusnjer completed studies at the College of Mechanical Engineering in Plzeň before taking up voice schooling in the class of Prof. Teodor Šrubař at the Prague Academy of Music. He embarked on his professional career in the opera houses of Ostrava and Brno. Since 1982 he has been engaged by the National Theatre in Prague. Having furthered his training in graduate courses at the Accademia Sigiana in Siena, and as a visiting student at Milan’s La Scala, he has to his credit laureateships from several international competitions (Geneva, Sofia, Vercelli), as well as being the winner of the Thalia Award (three times), and of the European Gustav Mahler Award.

His broad repertoire spans over forty opera roles, plus major parts in thirty cantatas and oratorios, and twenty song cycles. His opera creations include the parts of, among others, Verdi’s Count Luna (Il trovatore), Falstaff, Simon Boccanegra, Iago (Otello), Anckarström (Un ballo in maschera), Rigoletto, Macbeth, Giorgio Germont (La traviata), and Amonasro (Aida); Scarpia in Puccini’s Tosca, or Figaro in Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia. His Czech repertoire includes leading roles in Smetana’s operas (Vok, Tausendmark, Vladislav, Tomeš, Krušina), or Bohuš in Dvořák’s The Jacobin.

Ivan Kusnjer has guest appeared on many opera stages and concert platforms of Europe, America, and Asia. To name but a few venues, he has sung for instance at Milan’s La Scala, New York’s Carnegie Hall, Paris’ Opéra Comique, Opéra Nancy, the State Operas of Vienna and Berlin, Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels, Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, the Reykjavik Opera in Iceland, as well as opera houses in Hong Kong, Tel Aviv, Frankfurt and Gothenburg, or the Cagliari Festival. Mr Kusnjer’s discography is correspondingly extensive. His titles released on the Panton label include baritone arias from Czech operas; and elsewhere, he is featured on a Supraphon complete set of Janáček’s opera Šárka, with the Czech Philharmonic under the baton of Sir Charles Mackerras, apart from having made for the same label a profile CD with music of J. B. Foerster. He is the founder of Fatum, an endowment for the benefit of families of tragically deceased musicians.