Béla Mavrák
Encyclopedia
Early life and studies
Béla Mavrák was born in Baden bei WienBaden bei Wien
-Points of interest:The town offers several parks and a picturesque surrounding, of which the most frequented is the Helenental valley. Not far from Baden, the valley is crossed by a widespread aqueduct of the Vienna waterworks...
(Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
) of Hungarian parents and grew up in the city of Zrenjanin
Zrenjanin
Zrenjanin is a city and municipality located in the eastern part of Serbian province of Vojvodina. It is the administrative centre of the Central Banat District of Serbia...
in former Yugoslavia (now the Vojvodina
Vojvodina
Vojvodina, officially called Autonomous Province of Vojvodina is an autonomous province of Serbia. Its capital and largest city is Novi Sad...
region of Serbia).
From an early age he followed piano lessons in the local music school. He finished the high school medicine education and was preparing for a medical university study, but during his compulsory year in the army he got more involved with music and started trying to write his own songs. After his military duty was fulfilled he asked a friend of the family who was a music professor to help him develop his composition abilities. It was this professor Bursać who first noticed Mavrák's vocal talent and who encouraged him to enroll in the Belgrade
Belgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
Musical Academy in 1989, where he was taught by Yugoslavian tenor Zvonimir Krnetić.
At the invitation of his uncle, a saxophonist who lived in Germany, Mavrák moved to Cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
in 1991 to continue his studies there.
Alongside his education under Wilfried Jochims at the prestigious Cologne University of Music he received private lessons by Franco Corelli
Franco Corelli
Franco Corelli was a famous Italian tenor who had a major international opera career between 1951 and 1976. Associated in particular with the spinto and dramatic tenor roles of the Italian repertory, he was celebrated universally for his powerhouse voice, electrifying top notes, clear timbre, a...
in Milano and Gianni Raimondi
Gianni Raimondi
Gianni Raimondi was an Italian lyric tenor, particularly associated with the Italian repertory.Born in Bologna, Raimondi studied at the Music Conservatory of his native city with Antonio Melandri, and Gennaro Barra-Caracciolo and in Mantua with Ettore Campogalliani...
in Bologna. He also followed master classes with Gianni Raimondi as well as with Nicolai Gedda
Nicolai Gedda
Nicolai Gedda is a Swedish operatic tenor. Having made some two hundred recordings, Gedda is said to be the most widely recorded tenor in history...
.
In 1994 he completed his studies and received his arts diploma.
He lives in Cologne up till this day.
Career
In 1993 Mavrák won the gold medal and first prize in the international singing competition in Santa Margherita Ligure (Italy) with Rodolfo's aria from Puccini's opera La bohèmeLa bohème
La bohème is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions quadro, a tableau or "image", rather than atto . by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on Scènes de la vie de bohème by Henri Murger...
. He also sang in a CD production of Rossini's Petite messe solennelle
Petite Messe Solennelle
Gioachino Rossini's Petite Messe Solennelle was written in 1863, "the last", the composer called it, "of my péchés de vieillesse" .....
.
Following his success in Santa Margherita Ligure the Belgrade State Opera hired him for his first operatic role, Rodolfo in the 1994 production of La bohème.
He sang in a cd production of Vivaldi's Magnificat as well as appearing in the Beethoven Hall (Bonn
Bonn
Bonn is the 19th largest city in Germany. Located in the Cologne/Bonn Region, about 25 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, it was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990 and the official seat of government of united Germany from 1990 to 1999....
, Germany) together with the Philharmonica Hungarica in a production of Verdi's Requiem
Requiem
A Requiem or Requiem Mass, also known as Mass for the dead or Mass of the dead , is a Mass celebrated for the repose of the soul or souls of one or more deceased persons, using a particular form of the Roman Missal...
.
In the Cologne Philharmony he sang in the world premier of Marianna Martinez' In Exitu Israel and Dixit Dominus.
He reprised his role in the Requiem a year later in the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
and the Teatro Municipal in São Paolo (Brazil).
Also in 1995 he sang the main role of Faust in Berlioz' Damnation of Faust in the Salzburg Festspielhaus (Austria).
He continued this role in a new setting when the German National Theater in Weimar
Weimar
Weimar is a city in Germany famous for its cultural heritage. It is located in the federal state of Thuringia , north of the Thüringer Wald, east of Erfurt, and southwest of Halle and Leipzig. Its current population is approximately 65,000. The oldest record of the city dates from the year 899...
contracted him for two years in 1998 as part of the Weimar European Capital of Culture
European Capital of Culture
The European Capital of Culture is a city designated by theEuropean Union for a period of one calendar year during which it organises a series of cultural events with a strong European dimension....
festivities. Over the course of these two years he starred in ten different opera productions.
Amongst his roles were those of Faust in Gounod's Faust, Don Ottavio in Mozart's Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and with an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It was premiered by the Prague Italian opera at the Teatro di Praga on October 29, 1787...
, Pinkerton in Puccini's Madame Butterfly and the Italian singer in Richard Strauss
Richard Strauss
Richard Georg Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which include Der Rosenkavalier and Salome; his Lieder, especially his Four Last Songs; and his tone poems and orchestral works, such as Death and Transfiguration, Till...
' Der Rosenkavalier
Der Rosenkavalier
Der Rosenkavalier is a comic opera in three acts by Richard Strauss to an original German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. It is loosely adapted from the novel Les amours du chevalier de Faublas by Louvet de Couvrai and Molière’s comedy Monsieur de Pourceaugnac...
. In 1999, still as a part of the Cultural Capital program, he sang in the European premier of Giya Kancheli
Giya Kancheli
Giya Kancheli , born 10 August 1935, in Tbilisi, is a Georgian composer resident in Belgium.Since 1991, Kancheli has lived in Western Europe: first in Berlin, and since 1995 in Antwerp, where he is composer-in-residence for the Royal Flemish Philharmonic....
's Music for the living.
1999 also saw what Mavrák considers one of the high points of his career: he sang in a concert in aid of the Menuhin Fund, conducted by Yehudi Menuhin himself.
In 2000 Mavrák, together with Gary Bennett and Thomas Greuel, became one of the three Platin Tenors
Platin Tenors
The Platin Tenors are a trio of singers who regularly accompany André Rieu on his tours.* was born in Tasmania and studied mathematics and physics before taking private singing lessons at the National Opera Studio....
.
From 2000 till 2003 Mavrák was hired as a guest singer by several German theatres. Roles from this period are amongst others: Prince Sou Chong in Lehar's The Land of Smiles
The Land of Smiles
The Land of Smiles is a romantic operetta in three acts by Franz Lehár. The German language libretto was by Ludwig Herzer and Fritz Löhner. The performance time is about 100 minutes....
, Sandor Barinkay in Johann Strauss
Johann Strauss II
Johann Strauss II , also known as Johann Baptist Strauss or Johann Strauss, Jr., the Younger, or the Son , was an Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music and operettas. He composed over 500 waltzes, polkas, quadrilles, and other types of dance music, as well as several operettas...
's Der Zigeunerbaron and Edwin in Emmerich Kálmán
Emmerich Kalman
Emmerich Kálmán was a Hungarian-born composer of operettas.- Biography :Kálmán was born Imre Koppstein in Siófok, on the southern shore of Lake Balaton, Hungary in a Jewish family.Kálmán initially intended to become a concert pianist, but because of early-onset arthritis, he focused on composition...
's Die Csárdásfürstin
Die Csárdásfürstin
Die Csárdásfürstin or A Csárdáskirálynő is an operetta in 3 acts by Hungarian composer Emmerich Kalman, libretto by Leo Stein and B. Jenbach. It premiered in Vienna at the Johann Strauss Theater, 17 November 1915. Numerous film versions and recordings have been made...
.
He sang in the first Berlin performance of Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...
's Liverpool Oratorio, in the Konzerthaus Gendarmenmarkt in 2003.
In 2004 he sang in Mendelssohn
Mendelssohn
Mendelson is a Polish/German Jewish family name, meaning "son of Mendel", Mendel being a Yiddish diminutive of the Hebrew given name Menahem, meaning "consoling" or "one who consoles".Mendelssohn is the surname of a number of people:...
's Lobgesang in the Berlin Philharmonic Hall.
In that year he appeared more than 20 times as Tamino in The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute is an opera in two acts composed in 1791 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a Singspiel, a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue....
by Mozart.
In 2005 he sang the role of Alfredo in Verdi's La traviata
La traviata
La traviata is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi set to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. It is based on La dame aux Camélias , a play adapted from the novel by Alexandre Dumas, fils. The title La traviata means literally The Fallen Woman, or perhaps more figuratively, The Woman...
in the Budapest State Opera.
Starting 2005 Mavrák started working with André Rieu
André Rieu
André Léon Marie Nicolas Rieu is a Dutch violinist, conductor, and composer best known for creating the waltz-playing Johann Strauss Orchestra.- Early life and studies :...
in his role as one of the Platin Tenors. Up till now they have performed more than 600 times in locations all over the world such as Semperoper
Semperoper
The Semperoper is the opera house of the Sächsische Staatsoper Dresden and the concert hall of the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden . It is located near the Elbe River in the historic center of Dresden, Germany.The opera house was originally built by the architect Gottfried Semper in 1841...
in Dresden, Schönbrunn Palace
Schönbrunn Palace
Schönbrunn Palace is a former imperial 1,441-room Rococo summer residence in Vienna, Austria. One of the most important cultural monuments in the country, since the 1960s it has been one of the major tourist attractions in Vienna...
in Vienna and Radio City Music Hall
Radio City Music Hall
Radio City Music Hall is an entertainment venue located in New York City's Rockefeller Center. Its nickname is the Showplace of the Nation, and it was for a time the leading tourist destination in the city...
in New York. They also appeared in several CD and DVD productions.
A new direction
In 2010 Mavrák recorded his solo CD in Cuba, Un soplo en el aire (a breeze in the wind).During the recording of the CD in the Abdala Studio and Radio Progreso in Havana, he worked together with the Stars of Buena Vista. Amongst them are such prominent Cuban musicians as Guillermo Rubalcaba and José "Maracaibo Oriental" Castañeda.
The cd was first released in Mexico in November 2010, and since then it keeps appearing in more and more countries and attracted the attention of the Universal Music Group.
Mavrák has chosen for a combination of traditional Cuban songs mixed with classic Hollywood songs and more traditional songs from his childhood.
Trivia
- In 2008 the city of MaastrichtMaastrichtMaastricht is situated on both sides of the Meuse river in the south-eastern part of the Netherlands, on the Belgian border and near the German border...
(the Netherlands) awarded Mavrák the gold honorary medal of merit, in recognition of his contributions to the city as part of André Rieu and the Strauss Orchestra. - In his free time Mavrák has traveled to remote parts of the world extensively and in 2008 he made contact with a tribe in West Papua who had not been in touch with modern civilization before.
- Besides singing and traveling Mavrák likes to collect shoes and antiquities.