The Czech mezzo-soprano Štěpánka Pučálková is in demand internationally both as an opera and concert singer and impresses “with a genuinely velvety mezzo timbre” (Concerti, 4/24).

In the 2025/26 season, she will return to the Semperoper in Dresden as Flora Bervoix (La traviata) and as the Second Lady (The Magic Flute), and to the Prague National Opera as Adalgisa (Norma) and Carmen. She will also sing the Second Lady at the Mozart Weeks in Salzburg in a new production by Rolando Villazón under Roberto González-Monjas. At the MusikTheater an der Wien, she will make her house debut as Dorothea in Verdi’s Stiffelio under the baton of Jérémie Rhorer and in a staging by Vasily Barkhatov. Concerts will take her to Vienna, Prague, and Messina in Sicily, among other places.

In 2024/25, she appeared in Dresden as Ascanio (Benvenuto Cellini), Cherubino (Le nozze di Figaro), and Flora Bervoix (La traviata), and in Prague as Charlotte (Werther). She made her house debuts at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf as Agnese del Maino (Beatrice di Tenda), at the Latvian National Opera in Riga as Nicklausse/Muse (Les contes d’Hofmann), at the Slovak National Theatre in Bratislava as Carmen and at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples as the Page (Salome). She also sang Carmen in Prague and Flora (La traviata) at the Salzburg Whitsun Festival. On the concert stage, she has performed Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with the Mozarteum Orchestra under Roberto González-Monjas at the Großes Festspielhaus Salzburg, Mendelssohn’s Lobgesang with the Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra at the St. Wenceslas Music Festival in Ostrava, Verdi’s Messa da Requiem with the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra under Alessandro Bonato and Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde in Prague, as well as with Risto Joost and the Würtemberg Chamber Orchestra in Heilbronn. She also sang Dvorak’s Requiem with the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra under Michael Sanderling and, as last year, she was heard in Mahler’s 8th Symphony, this time with the Tonkünstler Orchestra of Lower Austria in St. Pölten and at the Musikverein in Vienna.

In 2023/24, she gave her role debut as Octavian (Der Rosenkavalier) at Leipzig Opera, which was “not far from the ideal of this role” according to the Leipziger Volkszeitung (31 March 2024) and was celebrated by audiences and press alike. At the Semperoper Dresden, where she was a member of the ensemble from 2018 to 2024, she could be heard in roles such as Nicklausse/Muse (Les contes d’Hofmann), Prince Orlofsky (Die Fledermaus), Hänsel (Hänsel und Gretel), Varvara (Káťa Kabanová), Ascanio (Benvenuto Cellini) and Mulier Samaritana (Mahler’s 8th Symphony) under Christian Thielemann. Further concert engagements are taking her to Madrid, Prague, Košice and the Smetana Festival in Litomyšl.

Her repertoire also includes roles such as Lola (Cavaleria Rusticana), Sesto Pompeo (Giulio Caesare), Rosina (Il barbiere di Siviglia), Olga (Eugen Onegin), Wellgunde and Waltraute (Der Ring des Niebelungen), Messagera (L’Orfeo), Urbain (Les Hugenots) and Adalgisa (Norma).

In concert, Štěpánka Pučálková has sung works such as Schönberg’s Gurre-Lieder, Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder, Mozart’s Coronation Mass and Davide penitente, Bruckner’s Te Deum and Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

She has appeared as a guest artist at the Salzburg Festival, the Beijing Music Festival, the Dvořák Festival Prague, the Smetana Festival Litomyšl, the Vienna Volksoper, the Teatro Monumental Madrid, the Munich Isarphilharmonie and the Frauenkirche Dresden, among others.

She regularly works with renowned conductors such as Christian Thielemann, Danielle Gatti, Wladimir Jurowski, Lorenzo Viotti, Semyon Bychkov, Christiina Poska, Plácido Domingo, Alan Gilbert, Antonio Fogliani, Friedrich Haider, Marco Guidarini, Leo Hussein, Roland Böer and Martin Leginus, and with directors such as Peter Konwitschny, Vera Nemirova, Stefan Herheim, J. Köpplinger, Mariusz Trélinski, Jiří Heřman, Eike Gramss, Immo Karaman and Keith Warner.

Her work has been recognized with numerous prizes and awards, including the Lilli Lehmann Medal of the Mozarteum Foundation Salzburg, the Prize of the Director of the National Theatre Prague for young artists up to the age of 35, the Czech music theater prize “Thalia” and the special prize for the best female voice at the Concours International de Belcanto Vincenzo Bellini in Marseille. She was a finalist at the International Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition in 2015. Many recordings and broadcasts, including on German and Czech national television, document her artistic activities.

Štěpánka Pučálková was born in Berlin. She studied voice at the Mozarteum Salzburg with Prof. Elisabeth Wilke and completed her master’s degree in opera and music theater with Josef Wallnig and Eike Gramss.