Berlin-born Czech mezzo-soprano Štěpánka Pučálková has been a member of the ensemble at the Semperoper Dresden since the 2018/19 season. During that time she has sung roles like Lola in Cavaleria Rusticana, Sesto Pompeo in Giulio Caesare, Mercédes in Carmen, the 2nd solo-voice in Schönberg‘s Moses und Aron, Muse/Nicklausse in Les contes d’Hofmann, Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia and Olga in Yevgeny Onegin.

In the 2022/23 season, she gave multiple debuts in Dreden, including Flora in La Traviata, Prince Orlovsky in Die Fledermaus, Wellgunde in Das Rheingold and Göttedämmerung, Waltraute in Die Walküre under the baton of Christian Thielemann and the Messagera in L´Orfeo. She also returned as Page Urbain in Les Hugenotes, Adalgisa in Norma and Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro. At the International Music Festival Dvořákova Praha Štěpánka Pučálková appeared as the kitchen boy in Rusalka with the Czech Phillharmonic under Semyon Bychkov. She also performed Mozart’s Great Mass in C minor at the Isaarphillharmonie in Munich and appeared at the music festival Smetanova Litomyšl performing for the first time the mezzosoprano solo in Schönberg´s Gurre Lieder.

In October 2023 she will be heard in Mozart’s Coronation Mass with the Radio y Televisión Española Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in Madrid. In addition to several revivals in the upcoming season at the Semperoper, she will also perform Hänsel in Hänsel und Gretel, Varvara in Katya Kabanova, Ascanio in Benvenuto Cellini and Mulier Samaritana in Mahler’s 8th Symphony under Christian Thielemann. At Oper Leipzig, she will make her debut as Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier.

In January 2020, she debuted the title role in Carmen at the Volksoper Wien.

In 2019, Štěpánka Pučálková appeared as a soloist alongside Plácido Domingo at the Mozart’s Birthday Gala Concert at the Prague Estates Theatre and was a guest at the Mozart Week as the Second Soprano in Mozart’s Mass Davide penitente conducted by Hans-Jörg Albrecht.

In 2018, she made her debut as Charlotte in Werther at the National Theatre in Prague, for which she was awarded the Director’s Prize of the National Theatre for young artists up to 35 years of age. For this role she was also nominated for the Czech Musical Theater Award “Thalia”. In the same year, she performed with the Staatskapelle Dresden under the baton of Vladimir Jurowski and together with Isabel Karajan in Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and was a soloist at the ZDF Advent Concert in the Frauenkirche Dresden alongside Hanna-Elisabeth Müller and Daniel Hope under the baton of Lorenzo Viotti.

At the 50th Salzburg Easter Festival, she made her role debut as Siegrune in Die Walküre, with the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden and conducted by Christian Thielemann. As a co-production with the Beijing Music Festival, the production could also be experienced in Beijing in the fall of 2017. In 2013, under the musical direction of Daniele Gatti, she appeared as Lehrbube in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg in a production by S. Herheim at the Salzburg Festival.

She regularly works with renowned conductors such as Christian Thielemann, Danielle Gatti, Vladimir 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.

Štěpánka Pučálková was a finalist in the 2015 Hans Gabor Belvedere International Singing Competition, and in December 2016 she received the special prize for the best female voice at the Concours International de Belcanto Vincenzo Bellini in Marseille.

She completed her vocal studies at the Mozarteum Salzburg with Univ. Prof. KS Elisabeth Wilke. In 2012 she completed her master’s degree in opera and music theater with Josef Wallnig and Eike Gramss. At the same time she received the Lilli Lehmann Medal from the Mozarteum Foundation Salzburg.