Photo: Lenka Hatašová.

In a successful international career spanning twenty-five years, Pavel Černoch has sung a wide range of roles including Lensky in Eugene Onegin, Don Carlos in the opera of the same name, Faust in The Damnation of Faust, Don José in Carmen and many others, including a new role as Sergei in Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District.

Paul has recently become the father of a baby girl and is keen to spend more time at home in his native Czech Republic, where he is also involved in professional negotiations.

However, directors and opera houses in the Czech Republic have a more reserved attitude towards world-class talent.

Our meeting with Czech opera tenor Pavel Černoch was in a cosy and spacious café in Barcelona, where Pavel has his next performances in autumn 2024.

Pavel, has your childhood dream come true?

As a child I sang and always dreamed of performing on the world stage. With the children's ensemble ''Kantilena'' we travelled all over Europe before 1989 and we were in England. I grew up as a cosmopolitan child. But the road to my dream was long and thorny! I was expelled from the Janáček Music Academy in the Czech Republic: they said I didn't have the talent to sing.

But I continued to believe in myself and to work on myself. I didn't give up. I continued to study, I changed two more academies, I changed five more music teachers before I found my mentor. At first I had to do completely different things: I worked in marketing, in management, I learnt German... But I never gave up!

My father only supported me financially at the beginning of my studies, then I had to earn everything myself. My family are all engineers, and I was the only one who was attracted to art.

Do you remember your first performance?

It was in Italy in 1999. I can't forget that first performance because it was also my first collaboration with colleagues at the highest professional level, the legendary Russian conductor Gennady Rozhdestvensky was at the conductor's desk and Yuri Alexandrov was the director. We performed Pyotr Tchaikovsky's opera Cherevichki. In this opera I had a small part, I had to go on stage in a beautiful costume with a handkerchief in my hand and inform everyone about the arrival of an important person.

Before the premiere I was so emotional that when I went on stage I could not control myself and could not sing a word. I remember that Rozhdestvensky signalled for me to leave the stage. So I didn't do well in my first performance. The next day everything went well and I sang.

Photo: Pavel Černoch with Kristine Opolais, opera La Traviata, Riga, personal archive of Pavel Černoch.

The opera Eugene Onegin is currently being performed in London. Is it known that you performed the role of Lensky in this opera?

First of all, let me say that Tchaikovsky is one of my favourite composers. I have sung in Eugene Onegin almost everywhere, including the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. I still remember the magnificent production of Eugene Onegin in Paris, where I sang on the same stage as the legendary Anna Netrebko. I have sung the role of Lensky in many different productions. For example, in the Munich Opera production, Onegin was a homosexual and he shot my hero, Lensky, in bed because Lensky didn't want to have anything to do with him.

The image of Lensky was very close to me personally, his stubbornness and obsession fascinated me. Today I choose stronger and more characteristic roles, such as today's performance of Sergei in the opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District.

Pavel, 2024 is the 90th anniversary of the premiere of this opera in St Petersburg. Tell us about your character.

The opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District by the Soviet composer Dmitri Shostakovich is now being performed in many countries. I am playing the role of Sergei at the Barcelona Opera House under the direction of the amazing Alex Olle. In the coming years I will be performing this role on the main opera stages of Paris, London and Leipzig.

My character in this opera is very complex, goal-oriented, heartless and quite nasty. My character, Sergei, dreams of entering high society, he tries at all costs to find the means for a prosperous life, and I understand him very well.

My character is very charming and he pursues his goal by meeting rich ladies and offering them what their husbands cannot: he makes them happy. My role is very difficult in terms of singing, but at the same time it is beautiful - I simply enjoy doing it. I am grateful to Mr Shostakovich for this wonderful opera and I am very happy that this year is the anniversary of its premiere.

The year 2024 celebrates a significant date, the 200th anniversary of the birth of the great composer Bedřich Smetana.

I am very happy to be Czech and to be able to perform operas by Leoš Janáček, Antonín Dvořák and Bedřich Smetana. Unfortunately, Smetana's operas are rarely performed outside the Czech Republic. For my voice and performance style, Smetana's music is immeasurably close. I am sure that in the near future we will be able to promote him a little more in the world. In 2025 the opera The Bartered Bride will be performed in Madrid, and I will be singing in it.

I recently completed my own project with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, and we recorded a new album of the best tenor compositions by Bedřich Smetana.

I regret that on this glorious anniversary I did not receive any offers from any opera house in the Czech Republic to perform Smetana's opera.

Photo: Lenka Hatašová.

Pavel, a difficult subject, but let's talk about your home country, the Czech Republic, in relation to your career.

The Czech Republic is a wonderful country, a beautiful country, living in the Czech Republic is fantastic, but the Czech Republic is a very small country. And you can come back to the Czech Republic when you have achieved something abroad and then you can expect a little bit of recognition here. I think it's historically given, I think in the Czech Republic in every field there are these small communities that protect themselves. And if you are not part of that small community, which is not always led by the best brains, you have no chance of fulfilling yourself in your home country. And you have to leave here, and only after you have gained recognition in the world can you expect a little recognition in your beloved Czech Republic.

Can you tell us about your career aspirations?

I would love to get the role of Herman in Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades. In the near future I would also like to surprise my audience and perform in a completely new role, in a musical at the New Spiral Theatre in Prague.

Photo: Corinne Winters (Rusalka) and Pavel Cernoch (Prince), opera Rusalka, Vienna State Opera, Wiener Staatsoper / Michael Pöhn, personal archive of Pavel Černoch.

Can you single out one of the young Czech opera singers?

I have noticed the Czech performer Bella Adamova and the young tenor Daniel Matoušek. I follow their performances on social media and I see talent and a successful future in them.

What do you wish for young aspiring artists?

I think the most important thing is to find your teacher. You have to have perseverance and you can't give up at the first failure, but at the first success you can't relax and stop working hard on yourself. You have to work on yourself every day, learning new things, no matter how rainy or sunny it is. And never give up.

Interview by: Boris Kogut.