Being appointed as new Music Director of the National Theatre Prague, 33-years old conductor Tomas Netopil added another highlight to his highly successful career. In his first season 2008/09 he will conduct the Mozart-productions Idomeneo and La finta giardiniera as well as R. Strauss’ Salome (concertante) and a new production of Katia Kabanova. Other new productions he will conduct at the Palau de les Arts de Valencia (Cosi fan tutte) and the De Vlaamse Opera Antwerp (Samson et Dalila). At the Bayerische Staatsoper he will do the revival of Busoni’s Doktor Faust, with which he had opened the Münchner Opernfestspiele in June 2008. The Bayerische Staats-oper and the Semper Oper Dresden have contracted him for several series of Nozze di Figaro, and he will give his concert debuts with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the West Australian Symphony Orchestra and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.

 

In the previous seasons Tomas Netopil debuted with the Staatskapelle Dresden, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Oslo Philharmonic, Royal Flemish Philharmonic, London Philharmonic Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra Tokyo, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande Genève, Orchestre National du Capitole Toulouse, Orchestre National de Lille, Orchestre National de Montpellier, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Frankfurter Museumsorchester, Staatsorchester Stuttgart, at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Teatro Sao Carlos Lisbon and the Salzburger Festspiele with the Lucio Silla production of the Teatro La Fenice Venezia.

 

In Italy Tomas Netopil conducted numerous concerts and opera productions with the Filarmonica della Scala, Accademia Santa Cecilia Roma, RAI Torino, Teatro Carlo Felice Genova, Teatro San Carlo di Napoli, Teatro Regio Torino, Teatro Regio Parma, Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Teatro Comunale Bologna, Teatro Lirico Cagliari and at the Teatro La Fenice Venezia.

 

He worked several times with the MDR Symphony Orchestra Leipzig, Staatskapelle Weimar, Prague Symphony Orchestra, Brno Philharmonic and upon invitation of David Zinman with the Tonhalle Orchester Zurich. After his debut at the Prague Spring Festival, he conducted Dvorak’s Stabat Mater at the Festspielhaus Salzburg, Janacek’s Cunning Little Vixen at the Teatro de la Maestranza Sevilla, and he collaborated with the Prague Philharmonia, the Janacek Philharmonic and the Talich Chamber Orchestra.

 

Tomas Netopil studied violin and conducting in his native Czech republic as well as at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm with the famous Prof. Jorma Panula, who has taught many prominent conductors. In 2002 he won the 1^st Sir Georg Solti Conductors Competition at the Alte Oper Frankfurt, where the jury included Michael Gielen, Gary Bertini, Sylvain Cambreling and Paolo Carignani.

 

2008/09