Svoboda Karel

His success on the music scene had a major influence on his choice of profession. He left the study of dentistry at Charles University. In the 1950s and 1960s he was a member of the popular rock band Mefisto. He devoted himself to playing the piano and composed his first compositions. In 1963 he was a member of Laterna Magika and the Rokoko Theatre. His songs are among Karel Gott's most successful hits and his compositions have appeared in the repertoire of all the leading Czech singers. Lady Carneval, Kdepak ty ptáčku hnízdo máš, Shadow of the Cathedrals, Hey, hey baby, You are my master and other famous hits have been and still are played all over the world. His compositions have won prizes at the most famous music festivals - in Tokyo, Rio de Janeiro and Cannes. Karel Svoboda's name is also tied to highly successful television productions and feature film scores, both domestic and foreign productions. Television series with his music are popular not only in the Czech lands. He has been offered by foreign producers to compose music, for example for the TV series Big Man (with Claudia Cardinal) or the Oscar-nominated film And Nobody Cries a Tear (a project by German director Joseph Vilsmaier). Among his successful films are the fairy tales How the Princesses Wake Up, Three Nuts for Cinderella, From Hell to Happiness, etc. In the early 1970s, he composed the music for the first major musical project, Night at Karlštejn, whose film and theatre version is still successful today. Proof of his artistic achievements is a number of gold or platinum records and awards from both the German Polydor and Prague Supraphon (including a diamond record for 10 million audio copies sold). He is the recipient of four annual awards from the Academy of Czech Popular Music. In 1995, the musical Dracula with his music premiered at the KCP in Prague - the enormous success at home and abroad (Bratislava, Prešov, Seoul, Moscow) is evidenced by the fact that it was seen by a total of 2.5 million spectators. The interest in staging this musical continues - it was staged in 2004 in Gdynia, Poland, and Basel, Switzerland. His musical Monte Cristo (2000), which was seen by more than half a million people during its two-year run at the KCP Prague, is also a musical. In 2004 he adapted and composed the music for the theatre version of the film musical Night at Karlštejn for HD Karlín.