Hadleigh Adams Takes on Three 20th Century Masters

Hadleigh Adams

Barihunk Hadleigh Adams is returning to Australia, where he was a Gertrude Johnson Scholar at The Opera Studio in 2009. He'll be singing Sam in Bernstein's Trouble in Tahiti alongside Sophie Yelland, another Opera Studio graduate. The musical, which follows the day in the life of a desperately unhappy married couple, will be performed in a chamber version for seven players. Tickets are available online.

He then returns to his home base in the San Francisco Bay area for two performances. On October 9th, he'll join conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Philharmonia Orchestra of London for their U.S. tour for Stravinsky's Oedipus rex with Michelle deYoung. Also on the program will be the composer's Symphony of Psalms. Performances will be at Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley. Tickets are available online.

He then heads down the road to join conductor Michael Morgan and the Oakland Symphony for their season opening performance of Gustav Mahler’s Rückert Lieder on October 14th. Also on the program will be the Delphi Trio performing Paul Juon’s Episodes Concertantes, Op. 45, Clark Suprynowicz’s Red States, Blue States and Edward Elgar’s In the South. Tickets are available online.

Stéphane Degout shows his bod for Claude

French barihunk Stéphane Degout, who we have seen nude before on the opera stage in Thomas' Hamlet, is now back in his birthday suit for Claude Debussy’s only complete opera Pelléas et Mélisande at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence. The opera is returning to the company after a 40-year absence and is available as video on demand for those in Europe.

Festival d’Aix-en-Provence's resident director Katie Mitchell provided a literal interpretation of the dreamlike piece. The opera starts with Mélisande in a wedding dress where she falls asleep and the story is her dream and a reflection of her reality.  Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts the Philharmonia Orchestra, with Barbara Hannigan and Mélisande and Laurent Naouri as Golaud completing the trio.

You can catch it live on July 13 and 17 and tickets are available online.

Degout will next be appearing as the Count in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro at the De Nationale Opera in Amsterdam and them as Olivier in Richard Strauss' Capriccio at La Monnaie in Brussels.