Pavel Vondruška (15 November 1925 – 5 February 2011) was a

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus *Czech (surnam ...

actor and musician, and from 1969 was a member of the ''Jára Cimrman Theatre'' (named after

Jára Cimrman Jára Cimrman or Jára da Cimrman (officially Jaroslav Cimrman) (), also known as "the Master", is a fictional Czech polymath, created by Ladislav Smoljak, and Zdeněk Svěrák. The fictional personality is presented as a universal genius, and o ...

, the spurious character) in

Žižkov Žižkov ( or ''Zizkow'', between 1939 and 1945 ''Veitsberg'') is a cadastral district of Prague, Czech Republic. Most of Žižkov lies in the municipal and administrative district of Prague 3, except for very small parts which are in Pra ...

, Prague. His main profession was as a conductor. He also appeared in several films.

Biography

He was born in

České Budějovice České Budějovice (; ) is a city in the South Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 97,000 inhabitants. The city is located in the valley of the Vltava River, at its confluence with the Malše. České Budějovice is the largest ...

, and mastered a number of foreign languages (French, Italian, Spanish, English, Russian, German, Croatian,

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

and

Esperanto Esperanto (, ) is the world's most widely spoken Constructed language, constructed international auxiliary language. Created by L. L. Zamenhof in 1887 to be 'the International Language' (), it is intended to be a universal second language for ...

). He studied at the conservatorium and consequently went on to study conducting, opera direction and

dramaturgy Dramaturgy is the study of dramatic composition and the representation of the main elements of drama on the stage. The role of a dramaturg in the field of modern dramaturgy is to help realize the multifaceted world of the play for a production u ...

at the music academy AMU, where he was taught by

Karel Ančerl Karel Ančerl (11 April 1908 – 3 July 1973) was a Czechoslovak conductor and composer, renowned especially for his performances of contemporary music and for his interpretations of music by Czech composers. Ančerl was born into a pros ...

and Václav Talich. While studying, he was

accompanist Accompaniment is the part (music), musical part which provides the rhythmic and/or harmony (music), harmonic support for the melody or main themes of a song or instrumental piece. There are many different styles and types of accompaniment in di ...

at the National Theatre Prague and conductor of the Prague Opera. In the years 1951 to 1977 he was conductor at: * AUSu Symphony Orchestra * Moravian Philharmonic Olomouc * State Theatre Opera Ostrava * Opera of the Musical Theatre in Karlin (in the last year simultaneously accompanist at the National Theatre) Between the years 1977 and 2009 he worked in the National Theatre, where he conducted the orchestra for the drama programme. From 1977 to 1998 he was also head of the theatre orchestra. He is known as an author and adapted music for some stagings (for example, Paličova dcera by

Josef Kajetán Tyl Josef Kajetán Tyl (4 February 180811 July 1856; ) was a significant Czech dramatist, writer, and actor. He was a notable figure in the Czech National Revival movement and is best known as the author of the current national anthem of the Czech R ...

). Sometimes he performed for the National Theatre as an actor in occasional roles. His activities at the National Theatre ended on 31 July 2009. In the years 1969–2010 he was a member of the company at the ''

Theatre'' – named after a non-existent playwright. He departed from this theatre due to his deteriorating memory. He was also involved with Divadlo Na Jezerce. On 28 December 2010 he suffered a serious fall from the podium of the Estates Theatre while guiding tourists. He was hospitalised in the Motol Hospital and placed on life support. On the evening of 5 February 2011 he died in hospital 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 ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vondruska, Pavel 1925 births 2011 deaths Czech male stage actors Czech conductors (music) Czech male conductors (music) Accidental deaths from falls Actors from České Budějovice Academy of Performing Arts in Prague alumni Czech male television actors Czech male film actors Musicians from České Budějovice