Gary Griffiths makes Oper Frankfurt debut in double bill of one-act operas

Gary Griffiths (photo from Oedipus Rex, Barbara Aumüller -left)

Welsh barihunk Gary Griffiths is making his Oper Frankfurt debut in a double bill of Tchaikovsky's Iolanta and Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex, both of which deal with suppressed fears. He is singing Creon in Oedipus Rex and Robert in Iolanta. Fellow barihunk Brandon Cedel will perform the Messenger in Oedipus Rex.

Iolanta was Tchaikovsky's last opera and was first performed in 1892, the same year his Nutcracker ballet exploded onto the scene, keeps Iolanta's process of realization very focused on a musical level – in a one act work with a vivid, brightly colored, shimmering musical language.

Stravinsky and Jean Cocteau, on the other hand, fully intended to reach monumental heights in two acts. They created a mixture of music stereotypes and patterns: fateful, pulsating rhythms combine with harmonies, influences drawn from the Middle Ages, Russian orthodox church music and folk music, classic and jazz.

Griffiths was the winner of the Welsh Singers Competition in 2012 and a finalist representing Wales in the 2013 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World. He studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where, in 2009, he won the Gold Medal Competition.

Performances run through November 25 and tickets are available online.

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.