Opera returns to historic Philly opera house with André Courville

Ezio Pinza and André Courville (photo: Dario Acosta)

 

Opera will return to the Metropolitan Opera House in Philadelphia for what is believed to be the first time since 1934 when the Academy of Vocal Arts presents the BrAVA Philadelphia! concert on March 28, 2020.

The partial list of singers includes bass-barihunk André Courville along with sopranos Angela Meade, Latonia Moore, and Vanessa Vasquez; tenors Michael Fabiano, Bryan Hymel, and Taylor Stayton; and mezzo-soprano Hannah Ludwig.

The recently restored 3,100 seat theater opened in 1908 with a production of Carmen and was the site for the U.S. premiere of Alban Berg’s Wozzeck in 1931with Leopold Stokowski conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra.

New York's Metropolitan Opera used to perform regularly in Philadelphia and many of the most famous baritones and basses of the early 20th century performed there, including Fyodor Chaliapin, Edouard de Reszke, Antonio Scotti, Pasquale Amato, Giuseppe De Luca, Lawrence Tibbett, George Cehanovsky and Ezio Pinza.

The building has been used as a movie house, ballroom, sports venue, and church. After decades of neglect and deferred maintenance, it reopened in December 2018 with a special appearance by Bob Dylan following a reported $56 million renovation. Now called Met Philadelphia, it hosts more than a dozen shows a month as a Live Nation venue.

Tickets to the concert are available online.

Barihunk duo in Spontini's rarely perfomed "Fernand Cortez"

Gianluca Margheri as Moralez in Fernand Cortez

Spontini's rarely performed opera Fernand Cortez is being performed at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino with barihunks Gianluca Margheri as Moralez and André Courville as the Mexican High Priest.

Following on from the triumph of Gaspare Spontini's opera Vestale, he was asked to compose a new opera for the Paris Opèra. The request came from Napoleon, whose favorite composer was Spontini.

André Courville as the Mexican High Priest in Fernand Cortez

The choice was for the story of Fernand Cortez, a legendary 16th-century Spanish captain involved in the conquering of Mexico. Well aware of the power of art as a vehicle for propaganda, Napoleon aimed to obtain public support for his military campaign in Spain. The protagonist of the opera, a wise and magnanimous man, whose only desire was to free the Mexican people from the slavery imposed by the superstitious indigenous religion, in fact represented the perfect match for Napoleon, who - like Cortez - wanted to appear as a representative of civil and liberal values.

Fernand Cortez made its debut at the Opèra on November 28, 1809. The sumptuous staging, grandiloquent orchestra, spectacular special effects - such as the charging of real horses on the stage - war-like choirs, barbarous dances and even a sentimental touch provided by the love between Cortez and the young indigenous Amazingly, guaranteed the opera its hoped-for success.

Gianluca Margheri rehearsing Moralez in Fernand Cortez

The glory of Napoleon was greatly exalted, and Fernand Cortez became the symbolic opera of his empire. The popularity of the piece declined with the waning of the French army's fortunes in Spain and Portugal.

The opera was last performed at the Theater Erfurt in 2006. It had its premiere in the United States during the 1887-88 season at the Metropolitan opera with the Wagnerian tenor Albert Niemann and Swedish bass Johannes Elmblad. Remaining performances at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino are on October 16, 20 and 23. Tickets are available online.

A new production of the opera will be performed at the Theater Dortmund from May 21 through June 12, 2020.

Craig Verm makes unexpected and stunning role debut as Don Giovanni

Craig Verm as Don Giovanni at Dallas Opera (Photo: Karen Almond)

Craig Verm, who was slated to sing Masetto in the current run of Mozart's classic opera Don Giovanni at the Dallas Opera, stepped in for an ailing Mariusz Kwiecien to make his role debut as the title character. Verm was replaced by fellow barihunk Andre Courville as Masetto and fellow barihunk, Kyle Ketelsen, sang Leporello.

Kyle Ketelsen and Craig Verm (Photo: Karen Almond)

The all-star cast also included Morris Robinson as the Commendatore, David Portillo as Don Ottavio, Laura Claycomb as Donna Anna, Katie van Kooten as Donna Elvira and Virginie Verrez as Zerlina. Performances run through April 29th.

André Courville to perform at Fairleigh Dickinson University

André Courville (Photo: Opera News/Dario Acosta)

Bass-barihunk André Courville will perform as part of Opera at Florham's "A Cornucopia of Opera and Song" on November 6th at Lenfell Hall on the campus of the College at Florham of Fairleigh Dickinson University.

Courville will perform Gounod's “Vous, qui faites l'endormie” from Faust. He performed the role of Méphistophélès in Faust while at the cademy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia, where he is a resident artist. He'll be joined by soprano Mia Pafumi and tenor Piotr Buszewski.

Tickets can be ordered by calling (973) 443-8620 or on the website at www.operaatflorham.org.

André Courville

Last season Courville debuted at Carnegie Hall in the Opera Orchestra of New York's acclaimed production of Donizetti's Roberto Devereux and as Monterone in Verdi's Rigoletto with the Caramoor Summer Music Festival. Courville also recently won first prize at Opera at Florham’s 2016 Violetta DuPont Competition.

He'll also be performing at the Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation 42nd Anniversary Gala Concert on October 23 at Rose Hall at Lincoln Center and will reprise Monterone with the Academy of Vocal Arts from November 5-15.

Don't forget to order you 2017 Barihunks in Bed calendar. Our 10th anniversary edition is the HOTTEST ever. Click HERE to order your copy now and enjoy 12 months of the hottest men in opera.

Barihunks take top honors at Loren Zachary Vocal Competition

Jarrett Ott (Photo: Dario Acosta)

John Viscardi

Two barihunks took 2nd and 3rd Prize at the Loren L. Zachary Vocal Competition for Young Opera Singers in Los Angeles today. Soprano Vanessa Vasquez took top honors, followed by John Viscardi and Jarrett Ott. Last year, barihunk Andre Courville took 1st Prize and was awarded $12,500.

Other past winners include tenor Brian Jagde, soprano Sydney Mancasola, bass Scott Conner, soprano Joyce El-Khoury, tenor Brian Hymel, soprano Nadine Sierra and countertenor Brian Asawa, who recently passed away.

Jarrett Ott will be singing Masetto at the Santa Fe Opera from July2-22. The cast includes fellow barihunks Daniel Okulitch as Don Giovanni and Kyle Ketelsen as Leporello.

John Viscardi can next be heard in Carl Orff's Carmina Burana with Opera Philadelphia on June 11th.

Half of Met Audition Finalist are Low Male Voices!

Bass-Barihunks Christian Pursell (left) and André Courville (right)

Twenty-three young opera singers who have won regional auditions around the United States arrived at the Met this week to compete in the semi-final round of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. The closed semi-final competition, held on the Met stage before a panel of judges, will determine the select group of finalists who will advance to the final round of the competition. Eleven of the 23 semi-finalists are baritones, bass-baritones or basses!

Brian Vu sings Pierrot's Tanzlied:

This year’s regional winners were chosen from nearly 1,500 singers who participated in the auditions held in 42 districts and 13 regions throughout the United States and Canada. The singers arrived yesterday for music preparations for the semi-finals competition on Sunday, March 6.

The 2016 semi-finalists include 23 aspiring opera singers representing various regions around the United States and Canada. This year, there are eight sopranos, two mezzo-sopranos, one tenor, one countertenor, seven baritones, two bass baritones, and two basses semi-finalists competing on Sunday, March 6.

Barihunks Sean Michael Plumb (left), Brian Vu (center) and Theo Hoffman (right)

The baritones include Jeff Byrnes (Great Lakes Region: Baton Rouge, LA); Alex DeSocio (Midwest Region: Wichita, KS); Hunter Enoch (Mid-South Region: Paris, TN); Theo Hoffman (Eastern Region: New York, NY); Jin Sol (Eastern Region: South Korea, currently living in Fort Lee, NJ); Sean Michael Plumb, (Gulf Coast Region: Philadelphia, PA); and Brian Vu (Southeast Region: Los Angeles, CA).

 Theo Hoffman sings three songs by Jonathan Dove:

Bass-baritone semi-finalists are André Courville (Great Lakes Region: Cecilia, LA) and Christian Pursell (Central Region: Santa Cruz, CA).

Two basses round out the list: Daniel Mirosław (Eastern Region: Warsaw, Poland, currently living in New York, NY) and Anthony Robin Schneider (Middle Atlantic Region: Auckland, New Zealand, currently living in Philadelphia, PA).

The remaining semi-finalists include sopranos Tracy Cantin, Yelena Dyachek, Alison King, Lauren Feider, Felicia Moore, Kerriann Otaño, Christine Price and Ann Toomey; mezzo-sopranos Emily D’Angelo and Samantha Gossard; tenor Jonas Hacker and countertenor Jakub Józef Orliński

The BASS-barihunks Anthony Schneider (left) and Daniel Mirosław (right)

The winners of this event will go on to sing in the Grand Finals Concert on Sunday, March 13 at 3 p.m. hosted by past National Council Auditions winner Deborah Voigt. Each finalist will perform two arias with conductor Antony Walker and the Met Orchestra. Bass-baritone Eric Owens, a past National Council Auditions winner and National Advisor for the Metropolitan Opera National Council, will be the guest artist and perform during the judges’ deliberations once the auditions part of the program is over.

 Daniel Mirosław sings the Catalog Aria from Don Giovanni:

At the end of the concert, winners will be announced, each of whom will receive an individual cash prize of $15,000 and career-making exposure. The Met Auditions were crucial in introducing many of today’s best-known stars, such as Renée Fleming, Susan Graham, Patricia Racette, Deborah Voigt, Nathan Gunn, and Lawrence Brownlee.

Following the semi-finals, those contestants who advance will have a week of preparation with Met musical and dramatic coaches to prepare for the Grand Finals Concert on March 13th. Tickets for the Grand Finals Concert may be purchased at the Met Box Office, by phone at 212-362-6000, or online at www.metopera.org.

André Courville to get devilish at AVA

André Courville being a little devilish

Our post this morning about AVA graduate John Viscardi performing Valentin in Gounod's Faust with the Michigan Opera, prompted almost an immediate reply from a Philadelphia opera fanatic who informed us that current AVA student André Courville will be performing bass role of Méphistophélès. He'll be performing the role from April 25-May 9 at the Helen Corning Warden Theater in Philadelphia, Centennial Hall in Haverford and Central Bucks East H.S. in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. Additional information can be found online.

If you can't wait until April, you catch the Louisiana native as the bass soloist in Bach's Mass in B minor with

Vox Ama Deus a the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia form March 2-April 3.

Barihunk André Courville wins Giargiari Bel Canto Competition

Anush Avetisyan (far left) and André Courville

We're still mystified when we post about a singer and someone comments, "But can he sing?" Baritones (including a large percentage of barihunks) have been winning major singing competitions at a rate so high that this era has been dubbed the "Golden Age of Baritones." Composers like Ricky Ian Gordon have publicly marveled at the rich supply of amazing baritones and mezzos, while composer Jake Heggie is now writing most of his male leads for lower voices.

The latest barihunk to walk away with top honors is André Courville, who won the Giargiari Bel Canto Competition at the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia last night. He sang Sorge infausta una procelia from Handel's Orlando. Other barihunks in the competition were Jared Bybee, who performed O Carlo, ascolta from Verdi's Don Carlo, and Michael Adams, who performed Ô vin, dissipe la tristesse from Thomas' Hamlet.

The Oreste A. and Arturo Giargiari Bel Canto Competition was founded by Raymond F. Giargiari in memory of his father and brother, both opera fans and AVA devotees. Originally, vocal selections from the "bel canto" repertoire were performed exclusively, but over the years the competition has grown to include Italian, French, German, and English language arias from a variety of periods. Past winners include tenors James Valenti and Stephen Costello, and soprano October Opera News cover girl Angela Meade.  AVA Master Vocal Coach Danielle Orlando prepares and accompanies the singers.

The competition concert will be broadcast online today at 4pm EST/1pm PST You can listen and vote for your favorite singer online.

Reader Submission: Jared Bybee

Jared Bybee

Our latest readers submission is Jared Bybee, who was suggested by two of our readers. Bybee is a first-year Resident Artist at the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia. This season he has performed Germont in AVA's La traviata and Guglielmo in Mozart's Così fan tutte, both with fellow barihunks André Courville and Michael Adams, as well as Prince Yeletsky in Tchaikovsky's Pique Dame also with Michael Adams.

Bybee, who hails from Modesto, California was a Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions District Winner in Salt Lake City in 2013. He was also an Apprentice Artist at the Santa Fe Opera last summer.

Don't forget to join our campaign to send barihunk Xavier Edgardo to the Opera on the Avalon young artist program. Even a $5 or $20 contribution will go a long way in supporting this talented young artist. Click HERE to give today.  

NEWS FLASH: Andre Courville is runner up in Met Auditions

Andre Courville

Andre Courville, a 26-year-old bass-baritone, took second-place in today's Metropolitan Opera National Council’s Gulf Coast regional auditions. Courville is the Director of Music and organist at Our Lady of Fatima Roman Catholic Church in Lafayette, Louisiana and an aspiring opera singer.

He wowed judges by singing “Sorge infausta,” the magician Zoroastro’s aria from Handel’s “Orlando.” Then the church musician ironically turned himself into Mephistopheles with an aria from Gounod’s “Faust.”

The judges for the Gulf Coast regional finals were Gayletha Nichols, the executive director of the Metropolitan Opera National Council; Kim Witman, general director of the Wolf Trap Opera Company; Christopher McBeth, artistic director of the Utah Symphony and Opera; and Steven White, principal guest conductor of Opera Roanoke.

First place went to Korean soprano Hye Jung Le, who sang Amina’s aria from Bellini’s “La Sonnambula" and “I am the wife of Mao Tse-tung,” from John Adams' “Nixon in China.”

Andre Courville playing the organ in Lafayette

The budding star and former valedictorian of Cecilia High School has shown amazing musical talent since he was a kid, conducting his church choir in Henderson, Louisiana. 

Courville recently made his operatic debut in New York City as Hermann, Schlémil, and Crespel in The Tales of Hoffmann with the Martina Arroyo Foundation.  Other operatic roles include Bartolo in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Simone in Gianni Schicchi, and Marquis d’Obigny in La Traviata at Opera in the Ozarks.  He performed roles in Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Gondoliers and Delibe’s Lakmé with the Loyola Opera Theatre, and has performed with the New Orleans Opera Association.  In 2005, he had the honor of performing the bass solo in Dave Brubeck’s Pange Lingua Variations with members of the Buffalo Philharmonic and the composer at the piano.

Courville will be a member of the Santa Fe Opera Apprentice Program for Singers this year, where he'll be singing Marquis d’Obigny in Verdi's La Traviata.