American barihunk David Pershall will make his belated San Francisco Opera debut on September 9th as Roucher in Giordano's Andrea Chénier. Pershall returns to San Francisco, where is was a 2008 participant in the Merola Opera program, which has had a long association with the company. While at Merola, Pershall sang Dr. Malatesta in Act 2 of Donizetti's Don Pasquale for the Schwabacher Summer Concert, Zurga in scenes from Bizet's Les Pêcheurs de Perles and Falke in scenes from Johann Strauss' Die Fledermaus for their Grand Finale Concert.
Pershall will be joined by a barihunk quintet, which is unusual for one of the verismo standards of the repertory. Joining him are Edward Nelson as Pietro Fléville, Brad Walker as Dumas, Anthony Reed as Schmidt and Anders Fröhlich as the Major-Domo. Performances run from September 9-30 and Maddelena will be sung by Anna Pirozzi, Chenier by Younghoon Lee and Gerard by George Gagnidze. Tickets are available online.
Edward Nelson, Anders Fröhlich, Anthony Reed and Brad Walker (l-r)
Pershall has recently appeared at the Vienna State Opera as Figaro in Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Belcore in Donizetti's L’Elisir d’Amore, Sharpless in Puccini's Madama Butterfly and Sebastian in Adès' The Tempest. He has performed Figaro in an abridged, English version of Rossini's The Barber of Seville at the Metropolitan Opera and also appeared there in the roles of Schaunard in La Bohème and Lord Cecil in Donizetti's Maria Stuarda.
Pershall also has a close partnership with the Beethoven Easter Festival and the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra with whom he participated in three live performance albums, featuring performances as Don Pedro in Donizetti's Maria Padilla, Manfredo in Montemezzi's L’Amore dei Tre Re, and Orestes in Gluck's Iphigénie en Tauride.
He has won many prestigious vocal competitions, most recently the top prize in the annual George London Competition.
David Pershall who recently performed Schaunard in Puccini's La bohème and Lord Cecil in Donizetti's Maria Stuarda at the Metropolitan Opera, has won one of the top prizes at the 2016 George London Foundation Competition. Also taking away top honors was fellow barihunk Steven LaBrie, who just wrapped up a performance of Ginastera's Estancia with the New York City Ballet. He will tour with the Ballet to Paris in July performing the same program.
Other top winners included soprano Antonina Chehovska, tenor A.J. Glueckert, soprano Kirsten MacKinnon and soprano Claudia Rosenthal. Winners receeived $10,000 each Other baritones and basses taking encouragement prizes included Colin Ramsey, Justin Austin, Jared Bybee, Michael Sumuel and John Viscardi. Encouragement Prize winners received $1,000 each.
Pershall performed Starbuck's aria from Jake Heggie's Moby-Dick.
Steven LaBrie sings Largo al factotum from the Barber of Seville:
Pershal has previously won 1st Prize in the Marcello Giordani Foundation International Vocal
Competition, 1st Prize in the New Jersey Verismo Competition, 1st Prize
in the Fritz and Lavinia Jensen Foundation Competition, 1st Prize in the
Gerda Lissner Foundation International Vocal Competition, 1st Prize in
the Connecticut Opera Guild Competition, 1st Prize in the Hugo Kauder
Competition for Voice, the Presser Music Foundation Award, and the
Thomas Stewart Award for Vocal Excellence.
LaBrie won the 2013 Encouragement Award at the George London Foundation Competition, second places in both the Gerda Lissner International Vocal Competition and the Gerda Lissner Lieder/Song Competition as well as the Judges Award with the Opera Index Competition. In 2010, he was an encouragement award winner in Washington, DC, for the Metropolitan Opera National Council.
David Pershall performs Starbuck's aria in 2012:
Pershall can next be seen in Puccini's Manon Lescaut at the Vienna State Opera. Roucher in Giordano's Andrea Chenier at the San Francisco Opera and Albert in Massenett's Werther at The Met.
LaBrie can next be seen singing the title role in Rossini's The Barber of Seville with Lyric Opera Baltimore on March 11 and 13.
Perhall is a graduate of the Merola Opera program at San Francisco Opera and the
Virginia Opera Resident Artist program. He holds a Bachelor of Music
from Baylor University, as well as a Master of Music and an Artist
Diploma from Yale School of Music.
Steven LaBrie is a recent graduate of The Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia.
Ed Parks to appear at the Budapest Congress Center
Operalia finalist Ed Parks will be making his Hungarian debut at the Budapest Congress Center on December 21st in Budapest. He'll be performing a Christmas concert with soprano Ingrid Kertesi, the Kodály Children's Choir and the Máv Symphony Orchestra conducted by Ádám Medveczky.
The benefit concert will make complementary tickets available for grandparents and their grandchildren. The goal of the concert is to strengthen the Christmas bond between generations.
Parks returns to the U.S. to cover David Pershall (who we recently posted about) as Schaunard in Puccini's La bohème at the Metropolitan Opera from January 6-23. On February 13th, he'll appear as part of the Cliburn Concerts in Fort Worth, Texas performing the music of Ben Moore with accompanist Brian Zeger. In May, he'll head to the Atlanta Opera to perform Mercutio in Gounod's Roméo et Juliette.
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David Pershall, who just wrapped up a successful run in the title role of Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia at the Florida Grand Opera, will now make his house debut in the role at the Metropolitan Opera. His Rosina will be Ginger Costa-Jackson and Almaviva will be sung by Taylor Stayton. He'll perform the role on December 29th and January 1st, alternating the role with fellow barihunk Elliot Madore, who will perform with Isabel Leonard and David Portillo.
He'll be staying at the Met for three months, where he will also perform Schaunard in Puccini's La bohème and one performance of Lord Cecil in Donizetti's Maria Stuarda on February llth. In La bohème, Mimi will be sung by Maria Agresta, Musetta by Susanna Phillips, Rodolfo by Bryan Hymel and Marcello by Quinn Kelsey. The cast of Maria Stuarda includes Sondra Radvanvovsky and Elza van den Heever.
Pershall coming to New York from his new home base at the Vienna State Opera, where he has performed Figaro in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Belcore in Donizetti's L’elisir d’amore, Sharpless in Puccini's Madama Butterfly and Sebastian in Adès' The Tempest. This summer he made his role debut as Rodrigo in Verdi's Don Carlo with Opera Burg Gars.
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Last month we posted about the Opéra national de Paris' barihunk quartet in Mozart's Don Giovanni, which featured Artur Ruciñski in the title role, Alessio Arduini as
Leporello, Fernando Radó as Masetto and Alexander Tsymbalyuk as
the Commendatore.
Pietro Di Bianco as Thoas at the Paris Opera (left)
It fairly common to see barihunk trios and, occasionally quartets, in Don Giovanni, but Rossini's Barber of a Seville
is a different matter. Leave it to the Opéra national de Paris to
assemble three of opera's hottest barihunks for their all-star Barber of a Seville
featuring Lawrence Brownlee as Almaviva and Pretty Yende as Rossini.
They have brought back Alessio Arduini as Figaro, Ildar Abdrazakov as
Basilio and Pietro Di Bianco as Fiorello to fill the low voice roles.
The production opens on February 2 and runs through March 4. Tickets are available online.
Ildar Abdrazakov sings La Calunnia from the Barber of Seville:
Alessio Arduini's current schedule included two roles in Puccini's La bohème, as he takes on Marcello in La bohème in Vienna
beginning November 7, 2015 and Schaunard at The Met beginning April 5,
2016. He will rotate Schaunard with two other barihunks, as Alexey
Lavrov opens the opera on November 23 and David Pershall takes over on
January 6.
Ildar Abdrazakov is currently at The Met singing Henry VIII in Donizetti's Anna Bolena. In December, he'll sing the title role in Verdi's Attila at the Marinsky Theater.
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A reader spotted David Pershall making his role debut as Rodrigo in Verdi's Don Carlo at Oper Burg Gars in Vienna and asked if we'd featured him before. Although we briefly mentioned him winning the Jensen Foundation Vocal Competition, we had actually never featured him before despite having seen him perform scenes from Don Pasquale, Les pêcheurs de perles, and Die Fledermaus in San Francisco.
He is a graduate of the Merola Opera program at San Francisco Opera and the
Virginia Opera Resident Artist program. He holds a Bachelor of Music
from Baylor University, as well as a Master of Music and an Artist
Diploma from Yale School of Music. In addition to winning the Jensen
Competition, he has won the the Marcello Giordani Foundation International Vocal
Competition, the New Jersey Verismo Competition, the
Gerda Lissner Foundation International Vocal Competition,
the Connecticut Opera Guild Competition, the Hugo Kauder
Competition for Voice, the Presser Music Foundation Award, and the
Thomas Stewart Award for Vocal Excellence.
Pershall joined the Vienna State Opera this season where his performances include Figaro in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Belcore in L’elisir d’amore, Sharpless in Madama Butterfly, and Sebastian in The Tempest. He has perviously appeared at Sarasota Opera as Count di Luna in ll Trovatore, Vero Beach Opera as Alfio in Cavalleria Rusticana, Virginia Opera as Papageno in The Magic Flute, Amarillo Opera as Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor which was broadcast on PBS, El Paso Opera as Figaro in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Virginia Opera as Zurga in Les pêcheurs de perles, and with the Norwegian National Opera as Schaunard in La Bohème.
He has partnered with the Beethoven Easter Festival and the Polish Radio Symphony
Orchestra to produce three live performance albums in
which he headlined as Don Pedro in Maria Padilla, Manfredo in L’Amore dei Tre Re, and Orestes in Iphigénie en Tauride.
Performances of Don Carlo run through August 8th and tickets and additional cast information is available online. Next season he will make his Metropolitan Opera debut in the title rôle of The Barber of Seville followed by performances of Schaunard in La Bohème and Lord Cecil in Maria Stuarda. He'll be rotating Figaro with fellow barihunk Elliot Madore. Peshall's castmates include Ginger Costa-Jackson as Rosina and Taylor Stayton as Count Almaviva. Visit the Metropolitan Opera's website for additional information.
Barihunk John Brancy took 1st Prize at the 16th Annual Jensen Foundation Vocal Competition this weekend. He will receive a $15,000 award, as well as an opportunity to perform in Opera America's 2016 Emerging Artist Recital Series. 2nd Prize went to tenor Rexford Tester along with a $10,000 award, while soprano Ariana Wehr took 3rd Prize and the $7,500 award. Mezzo-Soprano Allegra de Vita won the Munday Encouragement Award and the $3,000 award.
The Fritz and Lavinia Jensen Foundation was established by Lavinia Jensen in honor of her late husband, Fritz Jensen. The Foundation's purpose is to continue their philanthropic support of the musical arts by supporting young artists pursuing a career in opera.
A number of barihunks have taken 1st Prize at the competition, including Norman Garrett (2013), David Pershall (2012) and Edward Parks (2011).
Judges for the 2015 Finals were Ken Benson, Peter Russell, and Diana Soviero.
John Brancy sings "God be with our boys tonight":
You can catch John Brancy on Sunday, May 31 for a
recital of music including the works of Gershwin, Dvorak, Bernstein,
Chopin and the Beatles. The concert will be at Governors Island at Nolan
Park in New York on Sunday, May 31. The concert is free to the public. He will be accompanied by Peter Dugan.
This summer, he'll be making his company debut as Dandini in Rossini's Cenerentola with
Opera Saratoga at the Spa Little Theater in Spa State Park.
Performances run from July 2- 26. Additional information is available
online. He'll be joined by fellow barihunk Ryan Kuster as the mysterious
philosopher Alidoro. Additional information is available online.
