Marco Vassalli swashbuckling in Germany before making only U.S. appearance in 2019

Marco Vassalli and Vikrant Subramanian

German barihunk Marco Vassalli is performing Count Mondego (Graf von Mercerf) in Frank Wildhorn's The Count of Monte Cristo at the Stadtheater Bremerhaven with Vikrant Subramanian taking on the title role. Performances run from September 29 through June 10 and some shows are already sold out, so get your tickets online.

Lyricist and librettist Jack Murphy took his influences from the Alexandre Dumas père book of the same name, as well as the popular movie starring Jim Caviezel, Guy Pearce, Richard Harris and Henry Cavill.

The musical was first work-shopped in New York City in 2008 with many of the cast members of Broadway's A Tale of Two Cities. The American professional premiere was produced by the Pioneer Theatre Company in Salt Lake City in May 2016. The German language version (Der Graf von Monte Christo) premiered at the Theater St. Gallen in Switzerland on March 14, 2009.

Vassalli will take advantage of a break in the schedule between his October 13 and 26 performances to make his only U.S. appearance. He will be reprising Clint Borzoni's Stufen with the Festival String Quartet, which was written for him and has proved to be immensely popular with audiences and on YouTube. He will also perform works by Leonard Bernstein and Franz Schubert along with the Piano Quintet in Eb major by Robert Schumann. Tickets are available online.

Marco Vassalli to sing German premiere of Clint Borzoni songs

Marco Vassalli in Montreuil Bellay, France (Photo by Jack Michaels)

Barihunk Marco Vassalli will sing the German premiere of Clint Borzoni's Stufen and Magere Kost on September 9th in Überlingen. The two German language songs were written for the singer and debuted in San Francisco in 2016. The program will also include music by Robert Schumann, Samuel Barber and the Überlingen-based composer Justus Hermann Wetzel. He'll be accompanied by Florian Appel on the piano. The concert will be at the Stadtisches Museum Uberlingen and tickets are available online.

Marco Vassalli sings Clint Borzoni's "Stufen":

The first song is based on Hermann Hesse's Stufen and the second text Margere Kost is by the contemporary poet Hilde Domin. These are the first German language texts set by Borzoni. The singer hand selected the poems to be set by the American composer and performed at Vassalli's official U.S. debut.

The Borzoni songs were so popular when presented at Musica Marin that the chamber group is presenting the songs again at their upcoming festival, which runs from September 21-23. Tickets and additional information is available online.  

Marco Vassalli returns to U.S.to reprise acclaimed American debut program

Marco Vassalli's Barihunk photo shoot in France

German barihunk Marco Vassalli will be back in the United States to reprise his stunning U.S. debut with Musica Marin two years ago. In 2016, he premiered two works by composer-in-residence Clint Borzoni based on German poetry.

The first song is based on Hermann Hesse's Stufen and the second text Margere Kost is by the contemporary poet Hilde Domin. These are the first German language texts set by Borzoni. The premiere was so popular two years ago that a second performance had to be added. Demand has been so high that Vassalli has agreed to repeat the performance along with Samuel Barber's Dover Beach, which he also performed in his U.S. debut.

Marco Vassalli sings Clint Borzoni's "Stufen" with over 16k views on YouTube!

Marco Vassalli sings Clint Borzoni's "Magere Kost" with over 8k views on YouTube!

This year, Musica Marin is presenting their first festival setting and it will kick off on September 21st with Vassalli performing on a yacht on San Francisco Bay with food and wine prepared by “Best of the Bay” Chef Mark Furr. On the following day, Vassalli will repeat his performance of the Barber and Borzoni piece, all of which are set for string quartet and baritone, along with Johannes Brahms' String Sextet No. 2 in G Major Op. 36.

The Musica Marin International Chamber Music Festival performs masterpieces of the chamber music repertoire in various settings in the San Francisco Bay Area along with gourmet food and wines from Napa and Sonoma counties.

Tickets and additional information is available online. 

A birthday tribute to composer Clint Borzoni

Composer Clint Borzoni

There are a number of composers who have had an amazing gift for writing for the baritone voice. In an earlier era, Verdi, Wagner, Poulenc and Carl Loewe all wrote timeless music for baritones. In contemporary times, Jake Heggie, Ricky Ian Gordon and Clint Borzoni have kept the tradition alive, with all three writing baritone leads for almost every new opera.

Borzoni's latest opera, When Adonis Calls," which debuted on May 11, 2018 at the Asheville Lyric Opera is written for for bass-baritone and baritone, string quartet, percussion and two dancers. The opera already has second performance scheduled in Chicago with the Thompson Street Opera Company this Fall and discussions are underway for a West Coast premiere next year.

Marco Vassalli sings Clint Borzoni's "Stüfen" with Musica Marin:

Borzoni, who is the Composer-in-Residence at Musica Marin, has written highly acclaimed music low male voice. For those on the West Coast, you'll be able to enjoy his latest song cycle "The Hidden Singer," written for German bass Malte Roesner and string quartet. The cycle revolves around seven poems by Wendell Berry all associated with birds, which are normally correlated with high soprano voices. The piece will debut on June 3, 2018 with Musica Marin at the historic Ansel Adams home in San Francisco. Tickets are available online. The song cycle will be paired with Mendelssohn's String Quartet in A minor.

Randal Turner sings Clint Borzoni's "I Dream'd in a Dream"

Borzoni has written another song cycle for bass-baritone Tim Hill, several songs for bass-baritone Randal Turner (based on Walt Whitman's poetry) and penned two pieces for String Quartet and baritone for Marco Vassalli based on German settings. He also wrote the two-act opera “Antinous and Hadrian,” which features a baritone lead. His opera The Copper Queen,  won Arizona Opera's Sparks Competition for new works, and is based on a true story about the alleged ghost of a prostitute haunting a historic hotel in Bisbee, Arizona. 

Marco Vassalli's US debut featured on KDFC radio

A shot from Marco Vassalli's recent California photo shoot

KDFC, San Francisco's premiere classical music station, did a great feature on Marco Vassalli's US debut this weekend with Musica Marin in San Francisco, which you can listen to HERE. They attended a rehearsal of the world premiere of the new Clint Borzoni songs for String Quartet & Baritone that the German-Italian singer is performing in a salon-like in the former home of Ansel Adams near the Golden Gate Bridge. Vassalli chose Hermann Hesse's Stufen and Hilde Domin's Margere Kost, making these the first German language texts set by the composer.

Vassalli will also be performing lieder by Schubert and Richard Strauss, Italian songs by Tosti and Samuel Barber's Dover Beach, which is also scored for string quartet and baritone. He'll be joined in the lieder/song sets by Ronny Michael Goldberg, an accompanist and coach with the San Francisco Opera's Adler Fellow Program.

There are a limited number of tickets remaining on the Musica Marin website.

Marco Vassalli rehearsing Clint Borzoni's Stufen with Musica Marin

Borzoni, one of the most talented of many gifted American composers on the scene, recently completed his fourth opera, When Adonis Calls, based on the poetry of Gavin Dillard and arranged by John de los Santos. The opera was presented at Fort Worth Opera’s 2015 Frontiers Showcase. He is currently working on his fifth opera, The Copper Queen, also with librettist John de los Santos for Arizona Opera’s program, Arizona Spark.

Vassalli just wrapped up a performance of Leonard Bernstein's Candide at the Staatsoper Hannover. He grew up on Lake Constance and began his studies at the Hochschule fur Musik in Cologne, where he studied with the famed soprano Edda Moser.