Associate Professor, PhDr. Tomáš Surý, ArtD. is a graduate from the Faculty of Humanities of the Trnava University in Trnava (art history) and The Faculty of Music and Dance of the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava (opera direction, music theory).
Professionally he is interested mainly in the 18th century opera issues. His most significant projects in opera direction are the following opera shows: Johann Joseph Fux: Constanza et Forteza – renewed world première (conductor Marek Štrncl, Musica Florea ensemble, choreography Helena Kazárová, Světce u Tachova 2015; re-run in 2016 at the international festival Barokowe Ekspoloracie in Szczawnica, Poland), Joseph Haydn: La canterina (Bratislava 2012, 2015), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro (Bratislava 2014), Mozart: La sposo deluso (Slovak première, Bratislava 2013), Christoph Willibald Gluck: Orfee ed Euridice (Bratislava 2003, 2016). As one of the few directors in Slovakia he is also devoted to the authentic baroque gesture, cting of an opera singer and baroque scenic aspects.
As an assistant director he came across the so-called early music in several projects, e.g. : Mozart: Così fan tutte (2013, Astra Theatru, Victoria, Gozo, Malta, direction Maria Luisa Bigai, conductor Mechelangelo Galeati), Mozart: Don Giovanni (Bratislava 2011, P. O. Hviezdoslav City Theatre, Bratislava, direction Pavol Smolík, conductor Marián Lejava), Mozart: Così fan tutte (2002, The Small Hall of the Slovak Philharmonic in Bratislava, direction Andrea Hlinková, conductor Ondrej Lenárd, Miroslav Oswald), Antonio Draghi: Il marito ama più (Days of Early Music, international festival, 2002, Bratislava Castle, direction Roman Bajzík, Solamente naturali ensemble, music work up by Stephen Stubbs).
On several occasions he has participated in projects of authentic revival of rarely performed 18th century melodramas such as: Anton Zimmermann: Andromeda and Perseus (direction, translation and text work up, Bratislava 2009), Jiří Antonín Benda: Ariadne on Naxos (assistant director, Bratislava 2007), Jiří Antonín Benda: Ariadne on Naxos + Medea (assistant director, Musica Aeterna, Bratislava Music Festival, an international festival, The Small Hall of the Slovak Philharmonic in Bratislava, 2002).
However, Tomáš Surý is also devoted to the staging of operas from even newer periods. Together with the conductor Ondrej Lenárd and the soprano Adriana Kučerová he co-directed the staging of the following operas: Gaetano Donizetti: L´elisir d´amore (Bratislava 2005) and Ch. W. Gluck: Orfeo ed Euridice (Bratislava 2003). Among the 20th century operas, his profile composers are chiefly Bohuslav Martinu (Tears of the Knife, Bratislava, 2015; The Voice of the Forest, Ostrava 2010; Comedy on the Bridge, Ostrava 2010), Leoš Janáček (The Cunning Little Vixen, Ostrava 2015, Bratislava 2017) and Gian-Carlo Menotti (Amelia al ballo, Slovak première, Bratislava 2013, The Telephone, Bratislava 2003, music work up by the American vocal tutor Sarah Meredith, Lucy, Adriana Kučerová). Again, some of the mentioned operas were performed for the first time in Slovakia.
Tomáš Surý has co-operated with others many times during the preparation of the stage and elaboration of the costumes for music theatre shows.
He is the author of scenarios and director of several evenings of author comedy opera collages, e.g. „The Enchantment Of Change“ or „The Birth of Comedy from the Spirit of Music“ (Bratislava 2015), „Hair or Young Love, What a Paradise“ (Bratislava 2014), „The Knitting Venus or Sentimental Scenes with Emotional Concentration“ (Bratislava 2012), „Fluskáčik or the Last Christmas Prior to the Nearest End of the World“ (Bratislava 2011), „The Bartered Rusalka“ – a surrealistic fairytale in the environment of a simple-minded, self-help circus“ (Bratislava 2010, Ostrava 2012), „Figaro frammentato“ (Bratislava 2010), „Everything is O.K. – compulsory happiness in six genuine tableaux“ (Bratislava, 2001), „The Waiting Room“ (Bratislava, 2002).
With his stagings he participated in several international festivals, e.g., Festival Barokowe Eksploracje, Szczawnica 2016; Operowe Forum Mladych, Bydgoszcz 2011; Dni Muzyky Wokalnej Katowice 2011, (Martinu: The Voice of the Forest + Comedy on the Bridge) Ostrava Museum Night 2011 (Martinu: Comedy on the Bridge), The Night of Churches, Trnava 2011 (O Francisce Christi forme), Dilong’s Trstená 2010 (In honorem S. Francisci), Remembering Gagarin, Bratislava 2001 („I Am Leaving the Earth and Going to Heaven“).
He is the author of several theatre plays which he also directed: „I Am Leaving the Earth and Going to Heaven“ (Bratislava 2001), „Margita and Besná“ (Trnava 1995).
He had his literary debut with the novella „The Necessity of a Man’s Weeping: proportionately small poems in prose” (Bratislava 2014).
As a theoretician he studies predominantly the history and aesthetics of music and drama genres, mainly the 17th to 19th centuries operas, the history of visual art, especially the Italian art of the 13th to 18th centuries, the medieval iconography, the art of the Franciscans, classical and Christian symbolism.
He is active as a university teacher in Bratislava at the Academy of Performing Arts (The Opera Studio, The History of Opera, The History and Literature of Singing, The Opera Dramaturgy Seminar, The Visual Art History, The Analysis of a Drama Text), also at The Third Age University of Comenius University in Bratislava (The World of Opera, The Visual Art History) and runs specialised courses for the Theatrica civic group.
More information at www.sury.sk