Biography
“She’s great, she’s an element, she’s a real artist, you can be proud of her.”
Plácido Domingo for Czech TV
Soprano Lada Bočková is one of the most outstanding talents of the young Czech singing generation. Her season 2023/2024 includes role debut of Pamina (Die Zauberflöte) in The Estates Theatre and Gretel (Hänsel und Gretel) in State opera of Prague, title role of The Cunning little Vixen (Janáček) and Carolina (Two Widows) at Antonín Dvořák Theatre, Laudine (Iwein Löwenritter) in Theater Bonn and Clorinda in a concert version of La Cenerentola in Municipal House in Prague.
In the 2020-2023 she has been a member of the opera ensemble of Theater Bonn in Germany, where she successfully performed in several highlight roles of her repertoar, such as Oscar (Un ballo in maschera), Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro), Gretel (Hänsel und Gretel), Clorinda (La Cenerentola), Nerone (Agrippina) and La Calisto (Cavalli). In 2022 she made her debut as Tebaldo in Aalto Theater Essen in the new production of Don Carlo directed by Robert Carsen.
As a part of upcoming season’s concert activities she will start right away with two big open air gala concerts with Bohuslav Martinů Philharmonic. Then you can see her performing with Malta Philharmonic Orchestra alongside Joseph Calleja and Andrea Bocelli in a big Christmas concert in Malta. She will also sing at the second Advent concert of Czech TV from Prague’s Vyšehrad. In the spring, she will perform the soprano solo from Mahler’s 4th Symphony in two evenings with The Prague Symphony Orchestra. Later on, she will give a recital dedicated to Czech composers in the Suk Hall of the Rudolfinum within the chamber series of the Czech Philharmonic.
Lada also started a film career. She played the role of an opera singer in two feature films. The first is the American superhero film The Crow and the second is the Danish film Ehrengard.
Early career
Lada Bočková was born in Brno, Czech Republic. She studied singing at the Brno Conservatory and during the last year of the Conservatory she won the Bohuslav Martinů Song Contest in Prague and together with 1st place she also won the Beno Blachut Prize and the Czech Radio Prague Prize.
She studied at the Janacek Academy of Music in Brno in 2011-2016 under the direction of Natalia Romanova-Achaldze. While studying at the academy her first theatrical performance in the Chamber Opera of the Orli Theatre were roles of Esmeralda in Smetana’s The Bartered Bride, Zerlina in Mozart’s Don Giovanni or The Vixen in Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen. She has participated in a number of competitions, festivals and master classes during the studies and began to collect prizes.
In 2014 she won 1st place at the Olomouc Song Contest, a laureate title and a concert with the Olomouc Theater Orchestra. A year later, she became the absolute winner and won 1st place in the Prague Singer competition, along with the Voice Center Award and Jiřina Marková-Krystlíková Prize. In 2015 she finished second in the Dušek’s musical youth international singing competition.
The year 2016 brought the Honorable Mention, the Gustav Mahler Festival Prize and the Brno National Theater Prize at the 51st International Competition of Antonín Dvořák, Karlovy Vary. International success came with 1st place in the 34th Concorso Internazionale di canto lirico “Premio Boni” in the Italian city of Brescia. In 2016 she also performed at iSING International music festival in China at numerous chinese stages.
The exciting year of 2017 culminated in two extraordinary November weeks in Vienna at Otto Edelmann singing competition. She was among the seven best of 130 competitors and in the finals she won a special Seefestspiele Mörbisch award. Then she won The Competition of Bohuslav Martinů Foundation in Prague, and in the evening she appeared at the HAMU Hall at a Winners concert recorded by the Czech Radio. In the spring 2019 performed with The Czech Philharmonic after winning The Czech Philharmonic Competition in Rudolfinum, Prague.
In 2017 she also won The Concorso “Comunità Europea“ per Giovani Cantanti Lirici and became a member of the opera studio at the Teatro Lirico Spoleto, where she made her debut as Frasquita (Carmen), Violetta (La Traviata) and Clorinda (La Cenerentola) at the prestigious Due Mondi Festival. In 2018, she performed in Die lustige Witwe production at the famous Teatro La Fenice in Venice and Despina (Così fan tutte) at the Slovak National Theater in Bratislava.
In 2019, she was the first Czech female singer in history to successfully participate in two world singing competitions: the Plácido Domingo’s Operalia and the Queen Sonja Competition in Oslo. She is also a laureate of the Interpretation Competition of the Czech Philharmonic in Prague, the Hilde Zadek Competition and the Otto Edelmann Competition in Austria and the “SWR Junge Opernstars’’ at the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie in Germany.
Awards
2023 Honorary title ”Dame de la jurade” of Jurade de Saint-Emilion
2019 Operalia ”The World Opera Competition” (Prague/CZ): semifinal
2019 11. Internationaler Hilde Zadek Gesangswettbewerb (Vienna/A): Sonderpreis der mdw und MUK
2018 37. International Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition (Jurmala/Latvia): semifinal
2018 2nd The Czech Philharmonic Competition (Prague/CZ): 1st prize
2017 5th International Otto Edelmann Singing Competition (Vienna/A): Prize of Seefestspiele Mörbisch
2017 22. The Competition of Bohuslav Martinů Foundation (Prague/CZ): 1st prize, Harmonia Award
2017 71st Concorso “Comunità Europea“ per Giovani Cantanti Lirici (Spoleto/IT): 2nd prize, “Cesare Valletti” Special Prize, Courses and Debut in opera season 2017/2018
2017 34th Concorso Internazionale di canto lirico “Premio Boni” (Brescia/IT): 1st prize
2016 50th International Antonín Dvořák Singing Competition (Karlovy Vary/CZ): Honorary Mention, Award of Gustav Mahler Festival, Award of National Theatre in Brno
Contact
NACHTIGALL ARTISTS MANAGEMENT
Alena Kunertová | managing director
www.nachtigallartists.cz
tel. +420 602 219 611
adress: Čerchovská 6, Praha 2, PSČ 120 00, CZ