American barihunk Edward Nelson to make European debut

Edward Nelson and Ingeborg Gillebo

American barihunk Edward Nelson will make his European debut at the Norwegian National Opera on April 7th in the title role of Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande.

Pelléas et Mélisande was the composer’s only opera and is based on the Nobel Prize winner Maurice Maeterlinck’s play of the same name. The story is about lost love and forbidden relationships.

Remarkably, this will be the first time that the opera has ever been performed at the Norwegian National Opera & Ballet. The new production will be directed by Australian Simon Stone, who takes the audience into a closed, tightly-controlled world of dark family secrets, deep chasms, and light, young love.

There are six performances, which run until April. 30th. Ingeborg Gillebo will sing Mélisande every night except opening night, when the role will be sung by Susanna Hurrell. Paul Gay will sing Golaud. Tickets are available online.

Nelson, who just finished his two-year stint at the prestigious Adler Fellow Program under the auspices of the San Francisco Opera, will perform the title role of Hamlet with West Edge Opera in Ambroise Thomas' opera from August 5-19. Fellow barihunk Kenneth Kellogg will appear as the ghost.

Björn Bürger's really, really sexy Don Giovanni

Björn Bürger as Don Giovanni at Den Norske Opera (photos: Jörg Wiesner)

Björn Bürger, who has previously sung Masetto, is now making his debut in the title role of Mozart's Don Giovanni. His performance, with open shirt and sporting white boxers, has been turning a few heads with his macho and sexual portrayal of the lascivious seducer. The cast includes Marcell Bakonyi as Leporello, Ann-Helen Moen as Donna Anna, Magnus Staveland as Don Ottavio and Marita Sølberg as Donna Elvira. Performances run through September 16 and tickets are available online.

Björn Bürger as Don Giovanni and Marita Sølberg as Donna Elvira. (Foto: Jörg Wiesner)

Bürger, who is making his debut with Den Norske Opera, is a member of the Frankfurt Opera where he has sung Bengtson in Reimann's Die Gespenstersonate, Astolfo in Vivaldi's Orlando Furioso, Papageno in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte and Marcello in Puccini's La boheme. He returns to Frankfurt this season to sing Frank and Fritz in Korngold's Die tote Stadt, Don Bucefalo in Valentino Fioravanti's La cantatrici villane and Curio in Handel's Giulio Cesare. 

Fans in the U.K. will be interested to know that he will make debut as Figaro in Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia at the Glyndebourne Festival in 2016.

Reader Submission: Håvard Stensvold

 

Our latest reader submission is Norwegian barihunk Håvard Stensvold who made his debut at the Royal Theater in Copenhagen as Masetto in Don Giovanni in 1997. He has gone on to sing Masetto, Don Giovanni and the Commendatore in Mozart's Don Giovanni.  He's made his mark in other Mozart roles, as well, including Papageno in the Magic Flute, Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro and Guglielmo in Cosi fan tutte. He sings primarily in Scandinavia, although he's performed in Belgium, Austria and Spain.

He started performing  as a boy soprano with the Norwegian boys choir Sølvguttene. He went on to study at the Royal Opera Academy in Copenhagen at the Royal Danish Music Conservatory, where one of his instructors was the famed baritone Håkan Hagegård.

 

Håvard Stensvold  sings "Ho capito" from Don Giovanni:

 

He's also made his mark in contemporary opera, singing the lead role Bo Berg in Knut Vaage's  Khairos at Norske Opera, Kjell Habbestad's The Maid Of Norway in Bergen, Nielsen's The Little Mermaid, Cecilie Ore's Dead Beat Escapement at Norske Opera, The Soldier in the world premiere of Palmar Johansen's Madonna Furiosa, and one of the leading roles in the world premiere of Anitra Tumsevica’s opera Red.

He also appears as Zebul on the CD of Handel's Jephtha under Fabio Biondi, as well as three recording with with pianist Tor Espen Aspaas, Winter Holidays, Schubert's Winterreise and a Brahms lieder recital.

Ben Wager to perform in two very different, very spectacular spaces

(L-R) Oslo Opera House, Ben Wager, duPont Children's Hospital

In the coming year, American bass-barihunk Ben Wager will be singing in two spectacular buildings, which couldn't be more different.

On January 16th, he'll kick off a new collaboration between OperaDelaware and the duPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, Delaware for performances in the stunning atrium of their new health care facility. The series was designed to demonstrate the transformative healing power of music in health care. The performances begin at noon, and are open to patients, staff, friends, family, and to the public. Wager started his career in the chorus of OperaDelaware.

Calixto Bieto's racy Carmen

He then heads to Oslo, Norway to perform Bizet's Carmen in arguably the most stunning opera house in the world, which also has the most perfect acoustics of any theater. He'll be performing in Calixto Bieto's racy and somewhat controversial production of the popular opera, which is famous for a fellatio scene that takes place behind a car and poor Zuniga getting kicked to death, only to be pissed on as he lay dying. That thankless role will be sung by Musa Ngqungwana. Additional cast and ticket information is available online.

Wager returns to the U.S. in the Spring to sing Angelotti in Puccini's Tosca with Lyric Opera of Kansas City from April 18th – 26th.

Interview with Michael Nagy

Michael Nagy (photo: Sven Cichowicz)

We've featured Michael Nagy on this site since our second year running (2008) and have enjoyed watching his amazing development as an artist. Operafocus just ran an interview with the German barihunk that you can read HERE. '

Michael Nagy is currently performing the title role in Mozart's Don Giovanni at Den Norske Opera. He has additional performances running from March 29 through April 12. Tickets are available online.

He next heads to Munich to perform Stozius in Zimmermann's Die Soldaten at the Bayerische Staatsoper from May 25-June 6. He then performs in and AIDS fundraiser and gala concert in Bonn, Germany on June 15th featuring soprano Roberta Invernizzi, mezzo Nino Surguladze, tenor Massimiliano Pisapia, baritone Massimo Cavalletti and others.