Showing posts with label The Marriage of Figaro. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Marriage of Figaro. Show all posts

Thursday, September 20, 2018

Evan Hughes to make San Diego Opera debut

Evan Hughes
American Bass-barihunk Evan Hughes whose photos as Somnus in the Komische Oper of Handel's Semele were quite popular with our readers, will be making his San Diego Opera debut on October 20. Hughes will be replacing Nicholas Brownlee as Figaro in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro.

The cast will include fellow barihunk John Moore as the Count, Caitlin Lynch as the Countess, Sarah Shafer as Susanna, Emily Fons as Cherubino and the legendary mezzo-soprano Sussanne Mentzer as Marcellina. Additional performances are on October 23, 26 and 28 and tickets are available online.

The Southern California native will also be making debuts this season with Opera Philadelphia as Theseus in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the Bolshoi Theater as Astolfo in Vivaldi’s Orlando Furioso and at the Aldeburgh Festival. 

Wednesday, April 5, 2017

Barihunk duo lead Opera Philadelphia's Marriage of Figaro

John Chest as Billy Budd in Berlin
Opera Philadelphia's season comes to a close with a new production of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro starring barihunks John Chest and Brandon Cedel from April 28-May 7. This is a new co-production, which premiered last year at Lyric Opera of Kansas City and next travels to San Diego Opera and Palm Beach Opera.

John Chest will be performing with his wife soprano Layla Claire, both of whom are making their company debuts. They will be singing the bickering Count and Countess Almaviva. Joining them as Figaro is bass-barihunk Brandon Cedel, whose last appearance on the Academy of Music stage was in the East Coast premiere of Kevin Puts's award-winning Silent Night.

Brandon Cedel
Chest and Cedel will be joined by Cecelia Hall as Cherubino, Patrick Carfizzi as Dr. Bartolo, Lucy Schaufer as Marcellina, Jason Ferrante as Don Basilio, Ashly Milanese as Barbarina, Ying Fang as Susanna and Thomas Shivone as Antonio. Tickets are available online.

Chest will represent the United States at the Cardiff Singer of the World Competition in June 2017.

Sunday, September 13, 2015

Barihunk trio in Royal Academy of Music's Marriage of Figaro

Bozidar Smiljanic and Richard Walshe
The Royal Academy of Music will present Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro under the baton of noted conductor Jane Glover on October 31 and November 1 and 2. Barihunks Bozidar Smiljanic and Richard Walshe will rotate the role of Figaro, while Henry Neill takes on the Count. Tickets and additional cast information is available online.

UPDATED POST: We have just learned that the Count is also double-cast with Haobin Wang performing on Saturday and Monday and Henry Neill on Friday and Sunday.

We introduced London born bass-barihunk Smiljanić back in March. He is currently studying opera at the Royal Academy of Music after gaining his degree in Law at the University of Nottingham.  In 2014, he made his debut at the Glyndebourne Festival Opera as A Captain in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin. At the Academy, Smiljanić has worked on a variety of operatic roles including Leporello and Masetto in Mozart's Don Giovanni, Figaro in La nozze di Figaro, Monterone in Verdi's Rigoletto, Bartolo in Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia, Le Roi  in Massenet's Cendrillon and Superintendent Budd in Britten's Albert Herring.

Walshe was educated at the King’s School in Gloucester and graduated from the Royal Academy of Music in 2014 with first class honours. He is currently studying on a post-graduate Master of Arts degree at the Royal Academy.  During his time at the Royal academy, Walshe has performed Schumann’s Dichterliebe, Finzi’s Let us Garlands bring and Vaughan Williams’ Songs of Travel, as well as Antonio in Le Nozze di Figaro and Amantio di Nicolai in Puccini's Gianni Schicchi.  He recently performed Bach’s Cantata BWV 203 at the Royal Academy of Music, Mozart’s Mass in C at Chichester Cathedral, Bach’s St.Johns Passion with the Waverley Singers and Mendelssohn’s Elijah with St Neots Choral Society.

Henry Neill
Neill currently studies on the Royal Academy of Music Opera and previously held a choral scholarship at St John’s College, Cambridge.  He was recently awarded the Sir Thomas Armstrong Prize for English Song at the Royal Academy of Music, the Audience prize at the Maureen Lehane Vocal Awards, the Sacred Aria Prize at the Mozart Singing Competition and is generously supported by the Carr-Gregory Scholarship. With Royal Academy Opera he has performed as Marco in Gianni Schicchi and most recently the role of Smirnov in Walton’s The Bear. Last year he played the role of Friquet in Garsington Opera’s production of Offenbach’s Vert Vert.