Austrian barihunk Rafael Fingerlos will join the legendary pianist Imogen Cooper for Schubert's Die schöne Müllerin on July 20th. The performance will at the historic Burg Mauterndorf in Austria. The castle was built in approximately 1253 and enlarged to its current size in the 15th century. Since 1968 the building has been owned by the state of Salzburg and includes a museum and noted restaurant.
Franz Schubert’s Die Schöne Müllerin is a cycle of twenty songs
set to poems by the German poet Wilhelm Müller. It tells the tale of a
young boy whose journeys bring him to take an apprenticeship at a mill,
where he falls instantly in love with the miller's daughter. His love,
and advances are sadly unrequited, and when she turns her attention to a
hunter he bemoans losing her. Left with only the brook that guided him
along the way, he succumbs to a watery grave as the brook lulls him to
his final rest. Fingerlos can be seen this year at the Vienna State Opera as Belcore in Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore, Demetrius in Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream, Papageno in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte and Dr. Falke in Strauss' Die Fledermaus.
Rafael Fingerlos as Harlekin(photo by Marco Borggreve)
Austrian barihunk Rafael Fingerlos is touring as Harlekin with the Nederlandse Reisoper in their production of Richard Strauss’Ariadne auf Naxos. The production is directed by Laurence Dale with stunning costumes by Gary McCann and features Soojin Moon as Ariadne, Jennifer France as Zerbinetta, Martin Momrich as Bacchus and Karin Strobos as the Composer.
Performances are remaining on September 20 and 22 in Zwolle, 24th in Arnhem, 27th in Maastricht, 29th in Breda and October 1st in Den Haag, 6 and 8 in Amsterdam. Tickets are available online.
Trailer for Ariadne auf Naxos at the Nederlandse Reisoper:
Fingerlos will become a fest ensemble member at the Vienna State Opera beginning with their 2016/17 season. His first role will be Figaro in Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia on November 12 opposite the Rosina of Isabel Leonard and Almaviva of Pavel Kolgatin. Performances run through December 20.
On July 28th, barihunk David Adam Moore will be making his Salzburger Festpiele debut in the world premiere of Adès’ The Exterminating Angel. He will be creating the role of Colonel Alvaro and will be joined by fellow barihunk Rafael Fingerlos as Enrique and hunkentenor Ed Lyon as Eduardo. The remainder of the all-star cast includes Alice Coote, Frederic Antoun,
Amanda Echalaz and Audrey Luna, Charles Workman, Frédéric Antoun, Sir Thomas Allen, John Tomlinson and Anne Sofie von Otter.
The opera, which is a co-commission between
the Met, the Salzburg Festival and the Royal Opera, features a libretto by Tom Cairns who based the work on the 1962 Luis Buñuel film of the same name. The co-commission was originally announced in 2011, but was delayed for unspecified reasons. After Salzburg, it will be performed at London's Royal Opera from April 24-May 8, 2017, New York's
Metropolitan Opera in the Fall of 2017 and eventually at the Den Kongelige Opera in Copenhagen.
Rafael Fingerlos
Adès was inspired by Luis Buñuel’s surrealist film El ángel exterminador, which deals with the social rituals of an elite upper class, stating, “It’s territory that I like very much because it looks as though the
people are in a room, but it’s not really about the room, they’re
actually trapped in their own heads.“
Performances will run from July 28 through August 8th and tickets are available online.
An eagle-eyed reader introduced us to barihunk Rafael Fingerlos, who he noticed was singing the world premiere of Thomas Adès' The Exterminating Angel at the Salzburg Festival this summer with fellow barihunk David Adam Moore, hunkentenor deluxe Ed Lyon
and the legendary baritone Sir Thomas Allen. The all-star cast also
includes Anne Sofie von Otter, Sally Matthews, Charles Workman, Iestyn
Davies, Eric Halvarson and Audrey Luna with performances running from
July 28-August 8.
The
Exterminating Angel is inspired by the 1962 film El ángel exterminador
by the famed surrealist Luis Buñuel. The Salzburg performances will be
followed by productions at The Royal Opera in London and the Metropolitan Opera in New York City in
2017. Buñuel’s film, a parable on the ‘bourgeois condition’, sees a
collection of society’s grandees trapped in a room; in no time at all
their veneer of sophistication cracks.
Barihunk David Adam Moore and Hunkentenor Ed Lyon are both appearing in Salzburg
Fingerlos hails from Mariapfarr in the Salzburg region of Austria, so music is in his blood. In 2013, he graduated with honors from his master’s program in solo vocal
performance at the private Conservatory of Vienna and won the “Musica Juventutis” auditions at
the Wiener Konzerthaus in Vienna.
He also won the Brahms singing
competition and received first prize as well
as the public’s choice prize at the International Franz Schubert Lied
Competition held in Steyr. As a participant in the Young Singers Project at the
2015 Salzburg Festival, Rafael sang the part of Figaro in Der Barbier von Sevilla für Kinder.
Rafael Fingerlos sings Brahms' "Wie rafft' ich mich auf":
This Fall, he will alternate the title role in Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia
at the Vienna State Opera with fellow barihunk Alessio Arduini. His
Rosina will be Isabel Leonard and Almaviva will be sung by hunkentenor
Pavel Kolgatin.
He has released a solo CD of romantic
German Lieder and one of Bach’s cantatas.
