Anniversary gala: 25 years of Nachtigall Artists

It is a great honor and pleasure for us that we have been able, for the last 25 years, to bring the most famous opera stars to you – the Czech audience. We value the support of all of you, whether you have been our fans since our beginnings or you started coming our concerts recently. Whether we like it or not, a quarter-century makes us to look back, reflect on what we have accomplished, but above all, we are now obliged to throw a really big party.

We have managed to make Prague a destination that opera stars count on. Due to this, you, dear audience, no longer have to travel to New York’s Metropolitan Opera, Milan’s La Scala, or festivals in Salzburg, Bayreuth or Verona. Amazing singers as well as conductors and orchestras come to see you! And often not just for a single concert. Many of them return because they favour the Czech audience and – we must proudly admit – our agency, too. Cecilia Bartoli, Joyce DiDonato, Elina Garanča, Nadine Sierra, Rolando Villazón, Erwin Schrott, Joseph Calleja, Juan Diego Flórez, Bryn Terfel, Jonathan Tetelman, Mariusz Kwiecień, Pretty Yende, Pene Patti, Jonas Kaufmann, Diana Damrau, Benjamin Bernheim, to name a few; they all find time in their busy schedules for Prague and gladly accept our invitations to other concerts. Let’s not forget our local opera stars whom you’re also used to at our concerts, too: Zuzana Marková, Simona Šaturová and Petr Nekoranec and many other. But enough balancing for now! Let’s talk about the celebration:

We promise you a night to remember with artists that the agency had the privilege and honour to introduce in Prague.

The South African soprano Pretty Yende made her Prague debut almost one year after her famous debut (17^th January 2013) at the New York Metropolitan Opera in the role of Adèle alongside Juan Diego Flórez in Rossini’s Le comte Ory. She revisited Prague in 2017, 2019 and most recently in March 2023, when she sang with the no less famous American soprano Nadine Sierra. She fell in love with Prague, hence she is joining our celebration with her voice. In the 2024/25 season, some powerful roles awaited the charismatic soprano: Antonia (Les contes d’Hoffmann) at the Metropolitan Opera, Norina (Don Pasquale) at the Vienna State Opera, Lucia di Lammermoor at the Semper Opera in Dresden and Marie (La fille du régiment) at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples.

Canadian mezzo-soprano Emily D’Angelo opened the Metropolitan Opera’s 2024-25 season in the leading role of Jess in the premiere of Jeanine Tesori’s opera Grounded and she returned to the house in May as Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro. During the season, she performs on main European opera stages: at State Opera Berlin as Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier and Idamante in Idomeneo alongside Rolando Villazón; at Vienna State Opera as Octavian in and Donna Elvira and Dorabella in Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Così fan tutte; and at Bavarian State Opera as Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro. Her second solo album, titled Freezing (Deutsche Grammophon), received the prestigious 2025 Juno Award for Album of the Year. At Nachtigall Artists invite, she made her Prague debut in 2021 and returned to the golden city in 2022.

Baritone Artur Ruciński is, alongside tenor Piotr Beczała, baritone Mariusz Kwiecień, bass-baritone Tomasz Konieczny, and soprano Aleksandra Kurzak, one of the leading Polish opera singers of his generation who has achieved international renown. In 2010, he made his debut as Eugene Onegin at the State Opera Berlin under the baton of Daniel Barenboim (with Rolando Villazón singing Lensky) and quickly launched his global career. He regularly appears at prestigious venues such as London’s Covent Garden, San Francisco Opera, the Salzburg Festival, the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, Milan’s La Scala, and others. In February 2016, he debuted at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, to which he frequently returns. In May 2022, he was featured in the live broadcasts from the Met as Enrico in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor. He performed in Prague alongside Joseph Calleja in November 2019.

The charismatic Italian singer Adolfo Corrado will be our fourth birthday guest. He marked the history in 2023 when he became the absolute winner of the famous BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition – as the first bass in the history. He performed on many prestigious stages (La Scala in Milan, Teatro Regio in Turin, Palau de Les Arts in Valencia, Teatro La Fenice in Venice, the Whitsun Festival in Salzburg, etc.). In April 2024, he made his debut in Prague, where he enchanted everyone with his sonorous voice and flawless Czech in the aria of Vodník in Rusalka. In this coming season, he performs, among others, as Ramfis (Aida) in Rouen, Ferrando (Il trovatore) in Amsterdam, Sir Giorgio (I puritani) at Tirol Festival Erl, and with the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and Myung-Whun Chung he participated in Rossini’s Stabat mater in Rome.

Tenor Petr Nekoranec, whom our agency Nachtigall Artists has supported from the very beginning of his career, is, of course, an indispensable presence! He stands as the best example of the successful work of our Association of Friends of Musical Talents. Today, Petr performs on prominent opera and concert stages. This season, he made his debut at the State Opera Berlin as Romeo (Romeo and Juliet) and appeared for the very first time at Teatro Real Madrid, in Lille, and in Lyon, performing as David in Charpentier’s David et Jonathas. In March 2025, he debuted as Don Ramiro in Rossini’s La Cenerentola at Opera Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, and took part in a performance of Handel’s oratorio Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno at the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He also enjoys performing at his home stage, the National Theatre in Prague, and often returns to his native region; this year, on 19^th July, he will sing for the third time at the castle in Polná in the Vysočina region.

It will all happen under the baton of the great Italian conductor Giacomo Sagripanti, while the artists will be accompanied by the Prague Philharmonia, with whom we have developed a wonderful relationship over the years.

The most esteemed audience!

We will be honored should you come to celebrate this small jubilee with us and receive pure joy from the concert!