Keith Phares in Tulsa Opera's promotional material for Elmer Gantry
Keith Phares in going to reprise his role as Elmer Gantry in Robert Aldridge's opera about the womanizing, hypocritical religious figure who attains
great heights before being exposed and disgraced. The opera will play for two nights at the Tulsa Opera on February 28 and March 2. Tickets are available online.
Also in the show is Casey Yeargin as the Revival Worker. We recently featured him for his dramatic BariChunk to BariHunk transformation, which has
been extremely popular and inspirational with readers.
Keith Phares sings, "When you hear the truth do you know it?"
Keith Phares sings,"Of course, I mean nothing to her"/"She is the sign to me"
Keith Phares in Elmer Gantry
Phares performed the role with the Nashville Opera in 2008 and in his
debut with the Florentine Opera in 2010. The latter performance was
recorded live and released on Naxos
records and named Opera
News' top opera recording of 2011.
Phares recently scored a huge critical success in Gregory Spears' chamber opera Paul's Case with the PROTOTYPE festival in New York City.
The recording of the Milwaukee-based Florentine Opera Company's production of Robert Aldridge's "Elmer Gantry" won two of the three Grammy Awards for which it was nominated.
Composer Robert
Aldridge won for "Best Contemporary Classical Composition" for the opera,
while the Naxos recording won for classical music's "Best Engineered Album." The recording also
was also nominated for "Classical Producer of the Year." The recording features barihunk Keith Phares, who has virtually owned the role. He has performed the work at Montclair State University, Nashville Opera and Florentine Opera.
Keith Phares & Jenny Rivera sing the love duet from Elmer Gantry:
Here is the complete list of classical music Grammy Award winners:
Choral Performance: “Light & Gold,” Eric Whitacre
Classical Contemporary Composition: “Elmer Gantry,” Robert Aldridge & Herschel Garfein
Producer of the Year, Classical: Judith Sherman
Orchestral Performance: “Brahms: Symphony No. 4,” Gustavo Dudamel
Opera Recording: “Adams: Doctor Atomic,” Alan Gilbert, conductor
Best Small Ensemble Performance: Mackey: Lonely Motel - Music From Slide
Best Classical Instrumental Solo: Schwantner: Concerto For Percussion & Orchestra Nashville Symphony.
Best Classical Vocal Solo: Diva Divo - Joyce DiDonato
[The wonderful Keith Phares with the talented Jennifer Rivera at Nashville Opera]
We're huge fans of Keith Phares at Barihunks and loved him in Jake Heggie's "Three Decembers." However, he seems to be part of the Nathan Gunn school of wearing his wedding ring in roles where the character isn't married. Here he is in Robert Aldridge's adaptation of Elmer Gantry at the Nashville Opera with a wedding ring in plain site. Now, we have to confess that we haven't read Elmer Gantry since college nor have we seen the opera, but we seem to remember that he was an unmarried, womanizing preacher.
In the age of video and YouTube, little details like this can become distractions. Luckily for Phares, he is such a commanding presence on stage that we doubt many viewers would notice. Nonetheless, we hope that directors and singers pay a little more attention to those little details.
