Palecek О.O., (1842-1915), singer

Categories / Art/Music, Theatre/Personalia
PALECEK Osip Osipovich (Josef) (1842-1915, Petrograd), opera singer (basso cantante), chamber signer, director, and teacher. A native of the Czech Republic, he studied music in Prague as an organist and as singer, studying under professor F. Tivodi. He was one of the leading soloists at the Provisional Theatre in Prague in 1864-69, with 55 parts in his repertoire. He was the first to sing the part of Susanin in M. I. Glinka's Life for the Tsar on the Czech stage. He worked at Moscow's Italian Opera in 1869. He then was a soloist at Mariinsky Theatre in 1870-82, making his debut as Mephistopheles in C. Gounod's Faust. He toured Odessa and Prague annually. Artistic and expressive, he was renowned for performing character parts. He worked as a teacher, vocal coach, and choir leader from 1882 and as the director of Mariinsky Theatre in 1900-15. He was the first to stage a number of operas in Russia, such as P. I. Tchaikovsky's Iolanta, N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov's Mlada, Christmas Night, and Servilia, S. I. Taneev's Oresteia, R. Leoncavallo's Pagliacci, P. Mascagni's Rustic Chivalry, J. Offenbach's Tales of Hoffman, G. Puccini's Bohemia, R. Wagner's Rhinegold, etc. He was one of the first directors to determine stage layout and blocking. He also paid a lot of attention to the choir and worked with soloists individually. He was a teacher in charge of the opera class at the Conservatory from 1888 and a professor from 1912.

Reference: Шкафер В. П. Сорок лет на сцене русской оперы: Воспоминания, 1890-1930 гг. Л., 1936; Направник В. Э. Эдуард Францевич Направник и его современники. Л., 1991. Е. V. Tretyakova. Glinka Mikhail Ivanovich
Gounod Charles
Leoncavallo Ruggero
Mascagni Pietro
Offenbach Jacques (real name Eberst Jakob)
Palecek Josef (Osip Osipovich)
Puccini Giacomo
Rimsky-Korsakov Nikolay Andreevich
Tanasiychuk N.P.
Tchaikovsky Peter Ilyich
Tivodi F.
Wagner Richard
Шкафер В. П. Сорок лет на сцене русской оперы: Воспоминания, 1890-1930 гг. Л., 1936
Направник В. Э. Эдуард Францевич Направник и его современники. Л., 1991 Mariinsky Theatre
Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory