Zdeněk Chalabala

Zdeněk Chalabala

Zdeněk Chalabala (born April 18, 1899 in Uherské Hradiště , † March 4, 1962 in Prague ) was a Czech conductor.

Chalabala had his first music lessons from his mother, an amateur pianist, and began studying philosophy before studying with Vítězslav Novák at the Prague Conservatory . He continued his education at the Brno Conservatory with František Neumann and attended the master class of Leoš Janáček there .

From 1925 to 1936 he taught at the Brno Conservatory and occasionally appeared as a conductor at the city's State Theater. His most important student was the composer Vítězslava Kaprálová . In 1936 Václav Talich brought him to the Prague National Theater , where he worked until the house was closed by the German occupiers in 1944.

After 1945 Chalabala had engagements in Ostrava, Brno and Bratislava before he became chief conductor of the National Theater in 1953. Between 1957 and 1959 he also directed opera performances as a guest conductor at the Moscow Bolshoi Theater . Chalabala's recordings of all of Bedřich Smetana's important operas and Antonín Dvořák's Rusalka as well as several of his symphonic poems have been preserved on record .

He was buried in the Vyšehrad cemetery in Prague.

Web links

• Zdeněk Chalabala at Allmusic (English)
• Zdeněk Chalabala at Discogs (English)