May 4th and 5th, I will be singing the role of Colline in the Opera Grand Rapids production of La Bohème.  I love doing this show and look forward to developing a relationship with this company as well as working with another cast of talented singers and crafty Bohemians.

After I’m done in Michigan, I fly home one day and fly out again the next, heading back to Jacksonville, FL, where I also sang Bohème earlier this year.  It was all around a fantastic experience working with the Jacksonville Symphony.  They are a wonderful sounding ensemble and conductor Fabio Mechetti is simply fantastic to work with.  So it is a great pleasure to return to work with them again.

This time, I will be singing my first Beethoven’s 9th, May 10-12, which I am very excited about.  As bass soloist, I have the distinct honor of introducing the famous tune of the Ode to Joy.  Very cool.

It’s a truly amazing cast:

Lucia – Sharon Cheng

Edgardo – William Davenport

Enrico – Nicholas Pallesen

Raimondo – Matthew Curran

Normano – Peter Scott Drackley

Alisa – Heather Kniotek-DeSimone

Arturo – Tim Augustin

My good friend Brendan Cooke and his posse have done amazing things with the Baltimore Concert Opera since they started it 2009.  Actually, our second and final performance, Sunday, March 25, will be their three-year anniversary.  The performances are held in the breathtaking and historic Garrett-Jacobs Mansion.

Last night was the opening and it was nothing short of a major triumph.  Sold out house and a top shelf cast, we brought it to the people and they got what they came to see!  (Why do I like saying things like that so much?)  It is a beautiful thing what is going on here, because not only are emerging talents being discovered and cultivated, but so is an audience.  I’d say this post about last night on Facebook covers it pretty well, just how great a job this company is doing as presenters of good music and ambassadors for this great art form.

Brendan is not only a great guy, but truly a great leader and visionary for our art.  He has done amazing things on a shoe-string budget over the years and success has come with both hard work and refreshingly outside-the-box thinking.  One of their big hits is the open auditions held every year, where audience members hear the new talent just as the company does as it considers singers for future casting.  It’s a winning situation for everyone.  The company gets to see people in actual performance and how an audience reacts to them.  The audience gets that coveted “behind the scenes” glimpse into the process of how singers are heard and a little bit of what it’s like from both sides of the fence.  For the singers, it is a very welcome alternative to the typical and traditionally stuffy, uninspiring audition situation.  I know that I, for one, hate auditioning and rarely show my best in those situations.  How can you?  Half the time, they’re not even looking at you as they are writing or doing god knows what else.  I remember one guy ripping up papers while I was singing.  The stories go on and on.  But in this case, it’s a real performance, so in a sense, that audition pressure is off and it’s just fun.  Taking it a step further, Brendan makes great videos for promotional efforts on the web.

In what was I think their first auditions, I sang Als Büblein klein, from Die Lustigen Weiber von Windsor.  In an effort to appeal to the beer and football types out there, the video of my audition was turned into this great promo titled, “Overcoming Objections.”

The company is at a critical point in its development from a dream out of someone’s home office, to a sustainable organization.  They have just received an amazingly generous donation in the form of a $20,000 matching gift.  So all funds raised will be matched up to the first $20,00.  Think of it as a Groupon deal for $40,000 for the price of $20,000.  Now we just need people to show the love and help make sure that the “deal is on!”

Show the love, people!

By the way, did I mention the second performance is also sold out?  This company needs the resources to do bigger and better things, bringing it to more people.

…and after this weekend, March 15-18, so will El Paso.

As you can see from this billboard next to I-10 East just before the exit labeled as the “Gateway to Juarez,” El Paso Opera is doing Le Nozze di Figaro with a very talented cast.  Artistic and General Director, David Grabarkewitz, is remounting the production from Opera New Jersey in which I also sang Bartolo in 2005.

The picture below is from that 2005 production and is one I have had on the Photos page of my website for quite some time.  I labeled it, “Angry Bartolo.”  People who know me well will find it amusing to know that, according to the web stats on my site, one of the search terms that most often brings people to my website is “Angry.” 

It was a wonderfully talented cast of singers led by the young conductor on the rise, Ward Stare, the current resident conductor who seems to be taking the fast track to the big leagues.  It was a real treat to work with a young conductor who was so full of energy and confidence with his musical intention and ability to communicate it with the stick, but at the same time easy-going and making for a relaxed and fun working atmosphere.  The orchestra was simply fantastic.  I’ve done a lot of Magic Flutes in full production and various abridged versions and I’d say this was luxury accompaniment, without a doubt.  Best of all, the orchestra’s home, Powell Hall, is not only beautiful, but has an acoustic that any orchestra would want for.  I’m not exaggerating when I say that the hall practically sings itself.  It seems strange to think a space would make us sing with more or less ease, but I can honestly say that a place like that does make it easy to sing.  Again…we like that.

Here are some pics I took of the hall.  I was told it was originally built as a movie theater.  Grander days for the movie going experience, apparently.

Powell Hall

Below is the orchestra warming up for their concert the evening before our performance.  They were doing Dvorak’s 7th Symphony, A Haunted Landscape by George Crumb (very cool piece), and Strauss’s Four Last Songs sung by Christine Brewer.  A very enjoyable concert, for sure.  Sorry the picture isn’t quite in focus, but it was taken with my iPhone and the usher lady scolded me with lightning speed for taking a picture .

St. Louis Symphony

As one last little offering, I will share something I found amusing.  Downstairs in Powell Hall there are dressing rooms for the musicians where each has their own closet of sorts.  One of the musicians had the door covered with various cartoons and commentaries.  I liked this one so much I had to take a picture.

Using this unusual space to the fullest, I make my descent from the heavens, the roof of the adjacent four-story building, via my chariot, the fire escape.  The initial mission is to help heal and save the world. But then I see a cute hunter girl with silly notions of virginal aspiration and, surprisingly enough, that changes my focus.  The expected convoluted operatic mayhem ensues. You can be sure I get the girl in the end, but there’s that whole snafu of my wife turning her into a bear. DOH!

The cast a fantastic group of singers the spanning range of voice types including two very fine countertenors.  We also have top notch band of musicians playing period instruments including harpsichord, theorbo, viola da gamba and two violins.

Click on the image above for the company website or here for ticket purchasing.  Tickets are $30.  Note that there is a rain date for each performance on the following day.

(By the way, I am usually annoyed and puzzled by websites with landing pages that use flash or whatever else to delay you from getting to the info you’re actually looking for.  Billy, however, has by far the best and most affective use of this landing page thing that I have ever seen.  Check it out.)

So now I am in rehearsals for this weekend’s VOX Opera Lab, concert performances of new operas in development with orchestra, presented by New York City Opera.

I will be singing in two very different and interesting pieces.  This Saturday afternoon at 2:30 at NYU’s Skirball Center, I will bring to you the role of The Monster in a beautiful and poignant section from the opera Mary Shelley by composer Allan Jaffe and Librettist Deborah Atherton.  Believe it or not, I get to sing quite lyrical and enjoyable lines with a picturesque and thought provoking text.  No silly growling and grunting and such.

Then, on Sunday the 15th at 7:30PM, I am in De Deo by composer Paola Prestini and librettist Donna di Novelli.  I will be unleashing a dramatic tour-de-force, singing three roles in one as the Thug/Shephard/Jailer.  This will be taking place at the super hip and cozy club, Le Poisson Rouge.  This is a spot for the coolest of cats, so make sure your face is in the place!

So there it is.  I was inspired for the opening theme of this post by my schedule the other day when I recorded the cow voice for the PBS thing and then went to City Opera for VOX rehearsal to give voice to the Monster and then the Thug/Shephard/Jailer.  Very interesting work, indeed.  (That’s what I tell myself, at least, when I look at my bank account! )

We had three performances of the Brahms Requiem with the Silicon Valley Symphony for very engaged and appreciative audiences at the beautiful California Theater in San Jose.  Gregory Vajda led the big ensemble with soul, conviction and nuance.  Lisa Vroman sang simply beautifully in the soprano solo.  The chorus and orchestra came together powerfully to provide that broad and earthy wall of sound so crucial to this piece.  Your truly, bringing up the low end, did my best to sing with both passion and subtlety in the powerful baritone solo.  Thankfully, this reviewer enjoyed my contribution.  The review on whole is a bit confusing and, for my taste, a bit unfair and perhaps undereducated in some of the comments about the orchestra and chorus.  Nevertheless, I’ll gladly take the high praise he dished on me:

“Yet the performance improved when Curran started
singing in the third section (“Lord, make me to know
mine end”). Whether feeling inspired or challenged
by his bold delivery, the choir suddenly found a
strength that had been lacking. Unfortunately, it
lasted only through the end of Curran’s solo.
Elegantly and powerfully, the bass stole the
spotlight. When he sang “Lord, what do I wait for?
My hope is in thee,” the audience surely felt the
helplessness in that cry….

Curran’s return in the penultimate movement (“For
we have no permanent city, but we seek one to
come”) once again underscored his power to draw
more musicality from the whole ensemble.”