Martina Janková
Biography
Swiss soprano Martina Janková, born in Czech Republic, has been a member of the Zurich Opera House since 1998 and is one of the leading Mozart performers of today. She has appeared in Zurich, at the Salzburg Festival, the Wiener Festwochen, and with the Cleveland Orchestra in the roles of Despina (Così fan tutte), Celia (Lucio Silla), Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), Zerlina (Don Giovanni), Susanna and Cherubino (Le nozze di Figaro), and Aminta (Il re pastore). Her performance of Aminta (2012) and Despina (2013) at the Salzburg Festival were highly praised by the audience and the press.
Other roles with the Zurich Company include Angelica (Orlando), Vixen/Young Vixen (The Cunning little Vixen), Nanetta (Falstaff), Marzelline (Fidelio), Gretel (Hänsel und Gretel) and Ighino (Palestrina). Additional engagements have taken her to the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, the Prague National Theater and State Opera, and the Grand Thèâtre de Genève where she performed works by Beethoven, Mozart, Janáček, Rossini, and Monteverdi. Her performances in scenic productions of all Mozart/Da Ponte operas with Franz Welser-Möst and the Cleveland Orchestra were highly praised. In May 2014 Martina Janková had a great success in a new production of The Cunning little Vixen again with the Cleveland Orchestra and Franz Welser-Möst.
Janková has worked with many of the world’s leading conductors and orchestras on the concert stage, including Berlin and Munich Philharmonic Orchestras, Radio Symphony Orchestras in Frankfurt and Berlin, Deutsches Symphonieorchester Berlin, Israel Philharmonic, Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra, Concentus Musicus Vienna, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestra La Scintilla of the Zurich Opera House, the Budapest Festival Orchestra, the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra, and the Orchestre des Champs-Elysées under conductors such as Jiří Bělohlávek, Ivor Bolton, Bertrand de Billy, Riccardo Chailly, Iván Fisher, Adam Fischer, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Daniele Gatti, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Philippe Herreweghe, Marek Janowski, Sir Charles Mackerras, Andrea Marcon, Sir Neville Marriner, Ingo Metzmacher, Sir Simon Rattle and Franz Welser-Möst.
She gave recitals at the London Wigmore Hall, the Prague Spring Festival, the Rheingau Music Festival, the Festival Musiques en Été in Geneva, the styriarte Festival in Graz as well as at the Salzburg Festival and the Zurich Opera House.
Recent highlights include a tour with Rossini´s La Cenerentola/Clorinda with the Musiciens du Prince and Gianluca Capuano in Switzerland, Spain and Italy, Haendel´s Messiah in Barcelona and Vic with the Zurich Chamber Orchestra and Daniel Hope, King Arthur by Henry Purcell at the Theater an der Wien with Concentus Musicus Wien and Stefan Gottfried, Schubert´s Mass in E-flat major in Cleveland with Franz Welser-Möst, Mendelssohns Lobgesang at Milan´s Scala with Cornelius Meister as well as Rossini´s La Cenerentola/Clorinda with Cecilia Bartoli and the Orchestra La Scintilla under the baton of Gianluca Capuano at the Zurich Opera House, Rejchas Leonore in Brno and Mendelssohn´s Lobgesang with The Clevleand Orchestra and Franz Welser-Möst. In the fall of 2020 Martina Janková is touring with the Ensemble Florea and Marek Sryncl, presenting a baroque programme called “Luce eterno” (a baroque voyage to Rome).
Her CD releases include several solo recitals, the most recent ones being a solo-album with Songs by Bohuslav Martinů (rewarded with a Diapason d’Ort) and the album Prague-Vienna: A journey in songs with songs by Tomášek, Koželuh, Mozart, Haydn and others. Further records of the label Supraphon include the album Recollection featuring songs by Joseph Haydn, a solo CD with songs from Mussorgsky, Dvorák, Richard Strauss and Schoeck as well as Moravian Folk Songs by Janácek and Bach Cantatas with Collegium 1704 under Václav Luks. Martina Janková can be seen on DVD as Tilly (Simplicius) by Johann Strauss, Zerlina (Don Giovanni), Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro), Despina (Così fan tutte), and Angelica (Orlando) by Handel, as well as Angelo in Händel’s Oratorio La Resurrezione. In summer 2016, the DVD of the Salzburg Festival´s production of Le nozze di Figaro has been released, with a brilliant Martina Janková in the role of Susanna.
Photo Credit: Markus Senn