Přemysl Kočí

Přemysl Kočí (1 June 1917 – 15 January 2003) was a Czech operatic baritone, actor, music educator, stage director, theatre manager and official of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia.

In 1939 he made his professional opera debut as Escamillo in Georges Bizet's Carmen at the Antonín Dvořák Theatre in Ostrava.

[1] At the behest of the then Minister of Culture Czechoslovakia Zdeněk Nejedlý he returned to the National Theater in 1949, where he now had a long and successful career.

Among the many roles he created at the theatre included, Don Manuel in Zdeněk Fibich's The Bride of Messina, Jan Tausendmark in Bedřich Smetana's The Brandenburgers in Bohemia, Marbuel in Antonín Dvořák's The Devil and Kate, Mojmír in Eugen Suchoň's Svätopluk, Scarpia in Giacomo Puccini's Tosca, and the title heroes in Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin and Modest Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov.

[1] During the 1950s and 1960s, Kočí was also active as a guest artist in opera houses in Germany, Poland, Yugoslavia, Romania, Russia and Albania.