Karel Bláha (20 September 1947 – 2 May 2025) was a Czech

operetta Operetta is a form of theatre and a genre of light opera. It includes spoken dialogue, songs and including dances. It is lighter than opera in terms of its music, orchestral size, and length of the work. Apart from its shorter length, the oper ...

and musical singer and actor. His vocal field was a

lyric tenor A tenor is a type of male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. Composers typically write music for this voice in the range from the second B below mi ...

Early life and career

After graduating from the

Ostrava Ostrava (; ; ) is a city in the north-east of the Czech Republic and the capital of the Moravian-Silesian Region. It has about 283,000 inhabitants. It lies from the border with Poland, at the confluences of four rivers: Oder, Opava (river), Opa ...

and

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

conservatories, despite the ban on active artistic activity of conservatory students, Bláha performed as a singer with the Zdeněk Barták Orchestra during his studies. He began his professional career after winning a singing talent competition in 1967 with a short engagement at the Rokoko Theatre. For the next three decades, Bláha worked as a leading soloist of the Karlín Musical Theatre. His roles included the most famous characters from operettas and musicals: the title role of Jim in ''Rose Marie'', the main character in the operetta '' Paganini'', the main character Su Chong in ''

The Land of Smiles ''The Land of Smiles'' (German: ') is a 1929 romantic operetta in three acts by Franz Lehár. The German language libretto was by Ludwig Herzer and Fritz Löhner-Beda. The performance duration is about 100 minutes. This was one of Lehár's late ...

'', the main character Bolo in '' Polish Blood'', Eisenstein in ''

Die Fledermaus ' (, ''The Bat'', sometimes called ''The Revenge of the Bat'') is an operetta composed by Johann Strauss II to a German libretto by Karl Haffner and Richard Genée, which premiered in 1874. Background The original literary source for ' was ...

'', Tony in ''

West Side Story ''West Side Story'' is a Musical theatre, musical conceived by Jerome Robbins with music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and a Book (musical theatre), book by Arthur Laurents. Inspired by William Shakespeare's play ''Romeo an ...

'', among other characters in the musicals ''

My Fair Lady ''My Fair Lady'' is a musical theatre, musical with a book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe. The story, based on George Bernard Shaw's 1913 play ''Pygmalion (play), Pygmalion'' and on the Pygmalion (1938 film), 1938 film ...

'', ''

Oklahoma! ''Oklahoma!'' is the first musical theater, musical written by the duo of Rodgers and Hammerstein. The musical is based on Lynn Riggs's 1931 play, ''Green Grow the Lilacs (play), Green Grow the Lilacs''. Set in farm country outside the town of ...

'', ''Rock Musical'', ''

Orpheus In Greek mythology, Orpheus (; , classical pronunciation: ) was a Thracians, Thracian bard, legendary musician and prophet. He was also a renowned Ancient Greek poetry, poet and, according to legend, travelled with Jason and the Argonauts in se ...

and

Eurydice Eurydice (; Ancient Greek: Εὐρυδίκη 'wide justice', classical pronunciation: ) was a character in Greek mythology and the wife of Orpheus, whom Orpheus tried to bring back from the dead with his enchanting music. Etymology Several ...

''. Bláha completed his education at the

Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia The Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia () is one of the oldest musical institutions in the world, founded by the papal bull ''Ratione congruit'', issued by Sixtus V in 1585, which invoked two saints prominent in Western musical history: Gre ...

in Italy. He also toured Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Japan, Germany, Israel, the USA, Canada, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Spain. During his career, he collaborated with top conductors, including Karel Vlach,

Milivoj Uzelac Milivoj Uzelac (1897–1977) was a painter influential in the Zagreb modern art scene of the 1920s and 30s. During the Zagreb Spring Salon of the 1920s, he participated with Vilko Gecan, Marijan Trepše and Vladimir Varlaj as the Group of Four ...

, and Gustav Brom. In the 1960s and 1970s, Bláha made a name for himself with several recordings in the field of popular music (''I Buy You a Ribbon'', ''Mozart's Spinet'', ''I Want the Sun'', ''The End of Dancing'', ''Halali'', ''I Like That Corner'', ''I'll Send You a Few Greetings''). He also participated in music festivals such as

Bratislavská lýra Bratislavská lýra was a Czechoslovak festival of popular songs that took place every year from 1966 until 1990 and was held in Bratislava. It was renewed in 1997 but cancelled again in 1998. The festival involved national and international co ...

, Děčínská kotva.

Death

On 2 May 2025, Bláha died at a retirement home in

Prague 4 Prague 4, formally the Prague 4 Municipal District (''Městská čast Praha 4''), is a second-tier municipality in Prague. The administrative district (''správní obvod'') of the same name consists of municipal districts Prague 4 and Kunratice. ...

after prolonged health complications. He was 77.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Blaha, Karel 1947 births 2025 deaths 20th-century Czech singers 20th-century Czech actors Czech opera singers Singers from Prague Male actors from Prague Prague Conservatory alumni