Biography

Andrea Danková

Andrea Danková was born in Lučenec, Slovakia. She studied at the Academy of Music in Bratislava. She won the “Toti Dal Monte” competition in Treviso and subsequently made her debut as Micaela in Carmen with Peter Maag.

Her earlier career’s most remarkable performances included Micaela in Carmen at Teatro La Fenice, Mimì in La Bohème at Opéra de Lyon, Micaela in Carmen with Kent Nagano and Orchestre de L’Opera National de Lyon in Tokyo, Liù in Turandot and Amelia Grimaldi in Simon Boccanegra with Daniele Gatti in Teatro Comunale di Bologna; her successful US debut as Micaela and Liù at the Opera of San Francisco with Marco Armiliato, her debut in the UK as Micaela and Desdemona in Carmen and Otello with José Cura and Sir Colin Davis and the London Symphony Orchestra. Her further most remarkable engagements include Micaela in Carmen at Teatro Real Madrid, Violetta in La Traviata in the production of Franco Zeffirelli at Teatro Verdi in Busseto, and Teatro Comunale Ravenna, Julia in Dvořák’s, Jacobin with WDR Symphony Orchester Köln with Gerd Albrecht (recorded and released also on CD), as well as engagements in the productions by Graham Wick of Woglinde in Das Rheingold and Ortlinde in Die Walküre at Teatro National de São Carlos in Lisbon. She also appeared as Mimi and Elvira in the Prague National Theatre.

Later, she made her debut at Teatro alla Scala as Jenufa with great success. Her further successful debuts include Katia in the famous production of Robert Carsen of Janáček’s Katia Kabanova in Teatro Real Madrid with Jiří Bělohlávek, and Jenufa in Teatro Real Madrid with Ivor Bolton, Katia Kabanova in Teatro Colon, Buenos Aires, and in Strasbourg Opera National du Rhin, again in the production of Robert Carsen, and in Oper Stuttgart. She made her debut as Jenufa in La Monnaie, Brussels in the production by Alvis Hermanis.

Andrea made her debut as Floria Tosca with great success in a new production of Puccini's Tosca in Oper Graz. In 2015, she appeared again in Teatro Comunale di Bologna as Jenufa in Alvis Hermanis’ production. She appeared as Jenufa in Teatro Massimo di Palermo in 2016 and as Kata Kabanova in Teatro Regio di Torino in 2017, in the productions of Robert Carsen. She further appeared as Amelia in Opera National Bucharest in the production of Grischa Asagaroff. In 2020, she sang Jenufa in Deutsche Oper Berlin under the baton of Sir Donald Runnicles.

During her carrier she also appeared in numerous new productions of Slovak National Theatre including, among others, Mimì in La Bohème, Elena in Mefistofele, Mařenka in The Bartered Bride, Desdemona in Otello, Elvira in Don Giovanni, Luisa in Luisa Miller, Micaela in Carmen, Violetta in La Traviata, Liu in Turandot, Amelia in Un ballo in Maschera, Elisabetta in Don Carlo, Floria Tosca in Tosca, and as Aida.

Her broad concert repertoire includes Janáček’s Glacolitic Mass (with Sir Colin Davis and the London Symphony Orchestra in Barbican Hall, London and Avery Fischer Hall, Lincoln Center, New York; with Myung-Whun Chung and Bayerische Rundfunk in Munich; with Jiří Kout and Orchestra of Deutsche Oper Berlin, with Zdeněk Mácal at Ravenna Festival, with Tomáš Netopil in Teatro Maggio Fiorentino Firenze, and lately with Tomáš Netopil and London Philharmonic Orchestra in London and with Philharmonie Essen; further with Lisbon Radio Symphony Orchestra and with Berner Symphonieorchester), Janáček’s Eternal Gospel (with London Philharmonic Orchestra and Vladimir Jurowski in London), Dvořák’s Te Deum (with Sir Colin Davis and the London Symphony Orchestra in London and New York), Mahler’s 2nd Symphony (with Myung-Whun Chung and London Symphony Orchestra in London), Dvořak’s Stabat Mater (in Musikverein Wien), The Bells of Rachmaninov (in Teatro Maggio Fiorentino Firenze), Vier Letzte Lieder of Strauss and Mahler's Symphony No. 4 (with Zdeněk Mácal in Smetana's Hall, Pague), Bruckner's Te Deum (in Teatro Massimo di Palermo with Gabriele Ferro); she also appeared in the Carnegie Hall in New York. In June 2021, she sung Zemlinsky’s Lyrische Symphonie with Wiener Symphoniker under the baton of Tomáš Netopil in Musikverein Wien.