Zachary James, Karim Sulayman, Anne-Carolyn Bird and Brennan Hall
Bass-barihunk Zachary James will be featured in R. B. Schlather performance installation of American composer David Lang’s Pulitzer Prize-winning the little match girl passion at Jack Shainman Gallery in Kinderhook, N.Y. He'll be joined by soprano Anne-Carolyn Bird, countertenor Brennan Hall, tenor Karim Sulayman, percussionist Michael Zell and music director Amanda Crider.
Composer David Lang earned the Pulitzer Prize in 2008 for the little match girl passion. The ground-breaking piece is scored for four solo voices and percussion, and tells Hans Christian Andersen’s tale of a poor young girl struggling with abuse and poverty, but retaining faith, hope, and ultimately redemption. The story is suffused with opposites; a beautiful past with a bitter present, the struggles of poverty and the redemption of hope.
The performance is a continuation of R.B. Schlather’s practice of installing opera and vocal chamber music as an exchange between visitor, musician, and architecture, investigating questions about presentation, duration, and access.
This August 20th performance is free and open to the public. It begins and noon and runs for five hours.
Two barihunks are featured in the Edmonton Opera's English language production of Franz Lehár's The Merry Widow at the Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium. The operetta opened last night and will be performed again on Tuesday, October 27 and Thursday, October 29.
Michael Nyby sings Danilo Danilowitsch, Hanna Glawari's ex-lover who is less excited about being her lover and sharing in her recently inherited wealth, than most men. Aaron Durand, who appeared with the company in their Barber of Seville last year, takes on Vicomte Cascada.
Preview of The Merry Widow at Edmonton Opera:
Nyby and lead soprano Sally Dibblee have been tasked with dancing duties as well as singing, as director Brent Krysa and choreographer Dave Ganert have found inspiration in Hollywood dance musicals. Dibblee even took ballroom dancing lessons for the part.
Nyby is a native of Hamilton, Ontario who created the roles of William Dale in Kevin Puts' Silent Night, Brent Colgate in Gregory Vajda's Georgia Bottoms and Demetrio in the US premiere of Kristin Hevner Wyatt's Il Sogno. This season he'll be creating the role of Seth in the Canadian opera Peter-Anthony Togni'sIsis and Osiris with Opera in Concert. He'll be joining hunkentenor Karim Sulayman for Händel's Messiah with the Windsor Symphony Orchestra in Ontario on December 7 and 8.
Aaron Durand talks about being an opera singer:
Durand hails from 100 Mile House, British Columbia After graduating from the University of British Columbia in 2012, he joined the Vancouver Opera's Yulanda M. Faris young artist program, performing roles in several mainstage productions including La bohème, The Pirates of Penzance, Albert Herring and Don Giovanni. He was Masetto in the innovative production of #UncleJohn with the Against the Grain Theatre.
You can follow Aaron Durand on Twitter @Gingervanni.
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