Karel Hruška (14 June 1891 – 17 October 1966) was a Czechoslovak

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 m ...

, radio personality, and actor of the stage and film. He was an unusual singer for his day in that he recorded and performed both classical and popular music. Possessing a great comic talent, he specialized in creating character parts on the

opera Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...

stage. He was a much loved Principál komediantů in Bedřich Smetana's '' The Bartered Bride'', notably portraying the role a total of 855 times during his career.

Biography

Born in

Plzeň Plzeň (), also known in English and German as Pilsen (), is a city in the Czech Republic. It is the Statutory city (Czech Republic), fourth most populous city in the Czech Republic with about 188,000 inhabitants. It is located about west of P ...

, Hruška studied singing with Josef Branzovský before making his professional opera debut as Beppe in Ruggero Leoncavallo's ''

Pagliacci ''Pagliacci'' (; literal translation, 'Clowns') is an Italian opera in a prologue and two acts, with music and libretto by Ruggero Leoncavallo. The opera tells the tale of Canio, actor and leader of a commedia dell'arte theatrical company, who mu ...

'' at the J. K. Tyl Theatre in

in 1911. He was committed to that opera house for the next eight years. In 1919 he joined the roster of singers at the National Theatre in

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 ...

where he portrayed mainly comprimario roles for many years. He notably created the role of the Executioner in the world premiere of Jaromír Weinberger's ''

Schwanda the Bagpiper ''Schwanda the Bagpiper'' (), written in 1926, is an opera in two acts and five scenes, with music by Jaromír Weinberger to a Czech libretto by Miloš Kareš, based on the drama ''Strakonický dudák aneb Hody divých žen'' (''The Bagpiper of S ...

'' on 27 April 1927. Between 1928 and 1943 Hruška made several

gramophone record A phonograph record (also known as a gramophone record, especially in British English) or a vinyl record (for later varieties only) is an analog sound storage medium in the form of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove. The g ...

recordings of popular music, including a number of recordings with Vlasta Burian. He also had his own program on

Czech Radio Czech Radio (, ČRo) is the public radio broadcaster of the Czech Republic operating continuously since 1923. It is the oldest national radio broadcaster in continental Europe and the second-oldest in Europe after the BBC. Czech Radio was esta ...

and sang on a number of complete opera recordings made on the Supraphon label. Hruška made his first movie appearance in the 1913 Czech

feature film A feature film or feature-length film (often abbreviated to feature), also called a theatrical film, is a film (Film, motion picture, "movie" or simply “picture”) with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole present ...

'' Prodaná nevěsta''. He appeared in seven more Czech feature films during his career: '' Červená karkulka'' (1922), '' Josef Kajetán Tyl'' (1926), '' Podskalák'' (1929), '' Třetí zvonění'' (1938), '' Zvony z rákosu'' (1951), '' Anna proletářka'' (1953), and '' Dobrodružství na Zlaté zátoce'' (1955).

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hruska, Karel 1891 births 1966 deaths Musicians from Plzeň People from the Kingdom of Bohemia Czechoslovak male actors Czechoslovak radio personalities Czechoslovak male opera singers Male actors from Plzeň