Jana Kurucová

The mezzo soprano Jana Kurucová, who was born in 1982 in Tvarožná, Slovakia, began studying music at the age of 14 at the Conservatory J.L. Bellu in Banská Bystrica, where her subjects included church music, composition, organ, conducting, and voice. She later specialized in voice and continued her training at the Music Academy in Graz. As a member of the Opera Studio of the Bavarian Staats-
oper, she acquired important stage experience in the 2005-06 season. Kurucová’s first permanent engagement was with the Theater Heidelberg, where she stayed for three years and learned the major roles of her repertoire, including Cherubino in Mozart’s Figaro, Sesto in La clemenza di Tito, Idamante in Idomeneo, and Rosina in Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia. Since 2009 she has belonged to the Deutsche Oper Berlin ensemble. There she has performed such roles as Humperdinck’s Hänsel, Debussy’s Mélisande, Fenena in Verdi’s Nabucco, Suzuki in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, Maffio Orsini in Donizetti’s Lucrezia Borgia, and the Fox in Janácek’s The Cunning Little Vixen. In June 2015 she made her role debut as Siébel in Gounod’s Faust in Berlin; she also sang Bizet’s Carmen for the first time during the past season at the National Theater in Prague. Additional credits have taken Kurucová to the Sächsische Staatsoper Dresden, the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe, the Teatro de la Maestranza in Sevilla, and the National Opera in Oslo, as well as to Bratislava and Ostrava. In the coming year she will undertake the role of Dorabella in Così fan tutte in Berlin; she additionally plans to expand her repertoire to include German roles and is now studying Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier and the Composer in Ariadne auf Naxos.

August 2015