Charismatic bassist Martin Gurbaľ comes from eastern Slovakia. From 1991 to 1997 he studied at the Košice Conservatory with Ľudmila Šomorjaiová and later solo singing at the University of Ostrava, where he has also been teaching since 2015. While still at the conservatory, he became the absolute winner of the Antonín Dvořák International Singing Competition in Karlovy Vary (1996) and later won second prize in the Mikuláš Schneider-Trnavský Competition and the Lucia Popp Competition in Bratislava. He was first a soloist at the Košice Opera (1995–2001), from where he moved on to work at the National Moravian-Silesian Theatre in Ostrava. He became a regular guest at the National Theatre in Prague and Brno, the Slovak National Theatre and other major Czech, Slovak and Polish opera houses. He specializes in the works of Giuseppe Verdi, Antonín Dvořák and Leoš Janáček.
He has performed the essential bass roles of the traditional world opera repertoire – Gremin (Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin), Henry VIII and Don Pasquale (Donizetti: Anna Bolena and Don Pasquale), Méphistophél and Brother Laurent (Gounod: Faust and Romeo and Juliet), Mozart’s Bartolo and Count Almaviva (The Marriage of Figaro), Don Giovanni, as well as Guglielmo and Don Alfonso (Così fan tutte), Publius (La clemenza di Tito) and Sarastro (The Magic Flute); Geronto di Ravoire, Collino and Timur (Puccini: Manon Lescaut, La bohèmeand Turandot), Basilio and Mustafa (Rossini: The Barber of Seville and The Italian Girl in Algiers), Claudio (Thomas: Hamlet) and Hermann (Wagner: Tannhäuser). In Giuseppe Verdi’s operas, he excelled in the roles of Zacharias (Nabucco) and Ramfis (Aida), but he also performed the roles of Don Ruy Gomez de Silva (Ernani), Banco (Macbeth), Ferrando (Il Trovatore), Procida (The Sicilian Vespers), Padre Guardiano (La Forza di Destino), the Grand Inquisitor (Don Carlos) and Lodovico (Otello).
In groundbreaking operatic works of the 20th century, he embodied Bluebeard (Bartók: Bluebeard’s Castle), Collatinus and Theseus (Britten: The Rape of Lucretia and A Midsummer Night’s Dream), the Gold Merchant (Hindemith: Cardillac), the Inquisitor (Prokofiev: The Fiery Angel) and Truffaldino (Richard Strauss: Ariadne auf Naxos).
Within the Czech opera repertoire, he most often plays the Waterman (Dvořák: Rusalka) and Kecal (Smetana: The Bartered Bride). He has also performed the roles of Hydraote (Dvořák: Armida), Janáček’s The Mayor (Jenufa), Sacristan at St. Vitus / Lunobor / Domšík od Zvonu (The Excursions of Mr. Brouček), Dikoy (Katya Kabanova), Forester (The Cunning Little Vixen), Advocate Dr. Kolenáty (The Makropulos Case), Grigoris and Marquis di Forlimpopoli (Martinů: The Greek Passion and Mirandolina) or Smetana’s Peasant and Malina (Brandenburgers in Bohemia and The Secret).
In addition to opera, he is also engaged in concert activities; he has performed under the batons of prestigious Czech conductors Jiří Bělohlávek, Tomáš Hanus, Tomáš Netopil and Jakub Hrůša. In several opera houses and concert halls in Europe, he has performed in Haydn’s Creation, Berlioz’s The Curse of Faust and The Childhood of Jesus, Dvořák’s Stabat Mater, Te Deum, Requiem and Biblical Songs, Verdi’s Requiem, Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass (also in the Florence Opera) and song cycles by composers of the Romantic period. He has collaborated with the Czech Philharmonic and Slovak Philharmonic, the Giuseppe Verdi Orchestra in Milan (Verdi’s Requiem) and with the symphony orchestras of Budapest, Hungary, Odense, Denmark and Gothenburg, Sweden, as well as with the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra and the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra.
He is a frequent guest at the international theatre and music festival Janáček Brno (2010 and 2014: The Excursions of Mr. Brouček, 2012: Katya Kabanova), he has also performed at the international opera festival in Miškovec (Bartók + Verdi, 2001) and OPA Pisa – Anima Mundi (Dvořák’s Saint Ludmila, September 2016). For the BBC, he recorded the role of the Forester for the Czech version of Leoš Janáček’s animated The Cunning Little Vixen.
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