Roman Janál

After graduation from the Pilsen Conservatory in violin playing he was accepted by the singing department of the Sophia Music Academy in 1985. He graduated in 1990. In the course of his studies he was guest singer at the State Opera House of Sophia (Don Giovanni, Eugen Onegin, Prince Tarquinius in Britten's The Rape of Lucretia) and appeared at local chamber music festivals.

After graduation he was first engaged in Banská Bystrica, where he left after six months for the Prague Chamber Opera (later Mozart Opera). In 1994 he became guest singer of the Pilsen Opera House (Lady of Spades - Tomskij, Faust and Marguerite, - Valentin, Don Giovanni - Don Giovanni, Fidelio - Don Pizarro). After a successful debut in the State Opera of Prague as Guglielmo in Cosi fan tutte and Figaro in Barber of Seville he was engaged as soloist of the State Opera of Prague in 1995. In 1997 he became soloist of the National Theatre of Prague, where he performed a number of national and world repertoire parts, such as Grégorio in Romeo and Juliet, Figaro in Barber of Seville, Escamillio in Carmen, Pollux in the Baroque lyric tragedy Castor et Pollux, Alexander in Martinů's one-act comic opera Twice Alexander, the title part in Mozart's Don Giovanni. The list of his repertoire also includes the parts of Silvio in Cavalleria Rusticana, Conte Almaviva in Figaro's Wedding, Germont in La Traviata, Vladislav in Dalibor, etc. He took part in a number of foreign tours of the Prague National Theatre, such as in Japan, Hong Kong, France, Germany.

Roman Janál has successfully appeared in local and international music festivals, including the Prague Autumn, the Prague Spring, the Smetala Litomyšl, the International Music Festival of Český Krumlov, The Pontes Festival, The Days of Bohuslav Martinů in London with Jiří Bělohlávek and the BBC Orchestra, the Europalia Brussels, The B. Martinů Festival in Amsterdam. He has co-operated with local and international orchestras, including the Prague Chamber Philharmonia, the Prague Symphony, the Czech Philharmonic, the Symphony Orchestra of the Czech Radio, etc.

He has cooperated with the Czech Radio since 1984, where he has made several CD recordings of operatic arias and song cycles by contemporary Czech composers (W. A. Mozart - Highlights from Don Giovanni and Die Zauberflöte, orch. Virtuosi di Praga / Lupulus, A. Dvořák - Te Deum, SOCR, conductor V. Válek / Clarton and A. Dvořák - Gypsy Melodies / Clarton etc.). The radio recordings have resulted in the issue of a profile operatic album including arias fro operas by W. A. Mozart, L. van Beethoven, G. Verdi, B. Smetana and others.

The singer has been guest singer at a number of stages outside Prague (such as Opava, Plzeň), and has performed concert arias and songs at numerous local concert stages (Zlín, Plzeň, Hradec Králové, Ostrava, Tumov). In November 1995 he became absolute winner of the Antonín Dvořák International Singers' Competition in Karlovy Vary. Since 1995 he has been teacher in voice technique at the Prague Cnservatory.

Roman Janál is holder of the prestigious Thalia Prize for 1999, for the part of Pollux in Rameau's "Castor and Pollux" in the National Theatre of Prague.