Karel Čech

Memorial plaque of Adolf and Karel Čech on their birthplace in Prčice, No. 115 Karel Čech (real name Karel Antonín Tausík; 9 May 1844 – 28 February 1913) was a Czech bass singer of concert and operatic music. As a singer, he participated in the premieres of several operas by Bedřich Smetana at the Provisional and later at the National Theatre in Prague. His older brother was Adolf Čech, the long-time conductor of the National Theatre orchestra.

Life

He was born Karel Antonín Tausík in Prčice in Bohemia, Austrian Empire, on 9 May 1844 into a musically inclined family. Like his brother Adolf, he received musical education from his father. He went to Prague to study medicine at the Charles Ferdinand University, but soon abandoned his studies and joined the Švestkova Theatre as a student, and in the following years he sang other vocal forms.

In 1868, through the intervention of Bedřich Smetana, he was engaged in the opera company of the Prague Provisional Theatre under the direction of the theatre director Jan Nepomuk Mayr, where he made his debut in the role of the inquisitor Almamen in Karel Bendl's opera Lejla. He was buried at the Vinohrady Cemetery.

Work During his career, he performed dozens of varied operatic singing roles. Among others, he performed in several premieres of operas by Bedřich Smetana: in 1874 at the Provisional Theatre as the gamekeeper Mumlal in The Two Widows, in 1878 at the Provisional Theatre as Father Paloucký in The Kiss and in the same year as Bonifác in The Secret, and in 1881 at the National Theatre as Chrudoš from Otava in Libuše. He also performed in premieres of operas by other Czech composers, including Antonín Dvořák, Karel Bendl, and Karel Kovařovic.