Pavol Breslik
Pavol Breslik became famous as a Mozart tenor, was Idamante (Idomeneo) at the reopening of the Munich Cuvilliès Theatre, Ferrando (Così fan tutte) at the Met in London and Belmonte (Entführung) several times in Munich. He has already sung Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni) at his professional debut at the age of 21 in Prague, but also in Salzburg and Munich. The latter is still in his repertoire today, as is Tamino in the Magic Flute. Breslik has sung the role again and again in diverse productions between Munich, where he made his debut with this role in 2006, Barcelona, Baden-Baden and the Met New York.
For some years now, the lyrical tenor from Slovakia, who was a member of the Berliner Lindenoper ensemble from 2003 to 2006 and has since worked freelance, has increasingly conquered the bel canto repertoire: In addition to the central, charming role of Nemorino in L’elisir d’amore, the young Gennaro with Edita Gruberova as his mother Lucrezia Borgia as well as Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor with Diana Damrau in the title role are among them. In two of Donizetti’s operas, Breslik was either the lover of Elizabeth I (as Roberto Devereux in Donizetti’s opera of the same name, also alongside Edita Gruberova) or, as Leicester, her confidante and at the same time the lover of the title heroine (Maria Stuarda), both in Zurich.
With Verdi, the tenor has expanded his repertoire from Macduff (Macbeth) and Cassio (Otello) to Alfredo in La Traviata and the rapturous Fenton in Falstaff, to which he is still able to lend boyish charm. Therefore he will play the same role in Otto Nicolai’s romantic opera Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor as he will make his debut at the Lindenoper in Berlin next season. In addition to Italian music, Breslik also devotes himself to French music, such as Gounod’s Faust (in Zurich) or Romeo, Nadir in Georges Bizet’s Les pêcheurs de perles, for example in Zurich or Sydney.
The Slovakian, who speaks Czech and Russian, has an excellent timbre and temperament in his Slavic repertoire: starting with Lenski (Eugene Onegin) at the Vienna State Opera, in London and at the side of Anna Netrebko in Munich, Stewa (Jenufa), Hans (The Bartered Bride) in Dresden and Munich, and soon also as Prince in Antonín Dvořáks Rusalka – first of all concert version in the Berlin Philharmonie.
Breslik is very versed to the music of the 20th century, starting with Richard Strauss – Narraboth in Salome he sang at the Salzburg Easter Festival and will impersonate him in the new production of the Bavarian State Opera – via the singer in Rosenkavalier and the young Henry Morosus in Barrie Kosky’s brightly coloured Die schweigsame Frau at the Bavarian State Opera. The abysmal Peter Quint in Benjamin Britten’s Turn oft the Screw (Zurich) or the double role of Maler/Neger in the Salzburg Festival production of Alban Berg’s Lulu were also brilliant. At the opening of the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie on 11 January 2017, Breslik sang the premiere of Wolfgang Rihm’s Reminiszenz after texts by Hans Henny Jahnn with bravura.
This concert has been released on DVD as well as Idamante from Munich and Tamino from Baden Baden, Gennaro (Munich) and Lenski (London). Songs, the Stabat Mater and Die Geisterbraut by Antonín Dvořák, Slovak folk songs, concert and opera arias by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis and Franz Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin, which he sang in concerts throughout Europe, including at the Munich Opera Festival, have been released on CD. After song recitals between Berlin and the Schubertiade in Hohenems alongside his permanent pianist Amir Katz, a recording of the Winterreise will be released soon.
Last but not least, the operetta has found a charismatic representative in Pavol Breslik, as Alfred in the Fledermaus, at the New Year’s Eve Concert with excerpts from Die Csardasfürstin next to Anna Netrebko or soon as Edwin in the same operetta by Emmerich Kálmán, newly staged at the Zurich Opera House.