We've covered the story about former University of Colorado running back Keith Miller and his transition to singing on the major stages of the world. It's an amazing story for a guy who was inspired to sing opera in college after seeing the musical "Phantom of the Opera."
You can click HERE to watch Keith Miller on ESPN talking about his transition from sports to opera.
Elliot Madore: Trading pads for opera
Now we've learned that he isn't the only opera jock around. The St. Louis American has a feature on Canadian barihunk Elliot Madore, who once played hockey and dreamed of Ice Rinks, not Ice Princesses. You can read the entire article HERE.
Madore, who recently replaced fellow Canadian barihunk Daniel Okulitch as Don Giovanni in St. Louis, now heads off to the haloed Salzburg Festival. He will be performing as part of the Young Singers Project.
Avirath Dodabele as young Omar and Paul LaRosa as Rambo
Our inbox has been filled with an unusually large amount of correspondence about the Opera Theatre of St. Louis' production of John Adams' "The Death of Klinghoffer." With our commitment to promoting contemporary opera we're kicking ourselves for not covering this production until late in the run. There is one performance left on Saturday, June 25.
Many of the emails were about Christopher Mageira, who plays the Captain, and who has not appeared on this site before. However, the heavy panting came through in the emails about Paul LaRosa's performance as Rambo. Fortunately, the opera company posted this photo on their website. We've posted a number of pictures of LaRosa and his muscled physique since his days at the Merola Opera Program.
Christopher Magiera as the Captain
Christopher Magiera is currently a member of the Dresden Semperoper., where he is singing Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro, Taddeo in L’italiana in Algeri and Robert in Iolanta. This summer, Magiera will make his Santa Fe Opera debut as Valentin in Faust where he will alternate the role with fellow American barihunk Matt Worth.
Magiera has won many awards and competitions. Most recently he won the 2009 Sullivan Foundation Grand Prize, was a 2008 Grand National Finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, an International Finalist in Placido Domingo’s World Opera Competition Operalia, and won First Place in the 2008 Opera Birmingham Vocal Competition. He has also received awards from the Jensen Foundation, Gerda Lissner International Vocal Competition, Florida Grand Competition, Maguerite McCammon Competition (Fort Worth Opera), Liederkranz Foundation, Bel Canto Foundation, Licia Albanese Puccini Foundation, San Antonio Opera Vocal Competition and the Annie Wentz Prize (Vocal Performance, Peabody Conservatory).
Here is the Chorus of Exiled Palestinians from the opera:
David Adam Moore is reprising his performance of David T. Little's "Soldier Songs," which he performed in New York City in 2009. The performances will be at the International Festival of Art & Ideas in New Haven on June 23, 24 and 25.
David Adam Moore in the NYC production of Soldier Songs
This theatrically staged song cycle blends theater, opera, rock-infused-concert music, and projected animations, performed by the amplified octet Newspeak and Moore. With music and libretto written by David T. Little and conducted by Todd Reynolds, the piece adapts interviews with veterans of five wars. "Soldier Songs" reflects on war and the soldiers whose lives were changed by it.
Click HERE for additional cast and performance information.
Here is an interview from Connecticut Style with David Adam Moore and David T. Little:
We continue to receive reader submissions and are grateful for your continued enthusiasm in exposing us to new talent. We received two submissions from other singers in the last few weeks and here is the first, Canadian Jonathan Estabrooks. This submission came with the note, "I have a feeling that Jonathan would be flattered to be on the site." Well, we're more than happy to oblige.
Estabrooks is a Juilliard graduate and the winner of the prestigious 35th Oratorio Society of New York Vocal Competition. He appeared with the accompanist Steven Blier in his Festival of Song Spring Gala along with soprano Kelli O'Hara and tenor Joseph Kaiser. In late 2010, he was heard in the role of Belcore on a 20-city tour with the Jeunesses Musicale du Canada. He is also another in our long list of singers who have sung Tarquinius in Britten's "The Rape of Lucretia."
He has also performed for the Governor General, The Prime Minister of Canada, the US Ambassador to Canada, The Italian Ambassador to Canada and President Bill Clinton.
You can follow Estabrooks on YouTube with his feature "Jonathan Daily." Here is a sample episode:
Two of the greatest basses died on June 21st, the first day of summer, thirty years apart - the Austrian Emanuel List and the German Karl Ridderbusch. Although they might not necessarily be remembered as quintessential barihunks, they were two amazing singers who deserve to be remembered today.
Emanuel List
The noted Austrian-born American bass, Emanuel List (1886-1967) - real name, Flessing - was a boy chorister at the Theater-an-der-Wien. Following voice training with Steger in Vienna, he toured Europe as a member of a comic vocal quartet. He went to the USA and appeared in vaudeville, burlesque, and minstrel shows. After further vocal studies with Zuro in New York, he returned to Vienna in 1920.
In 1922 Emanuel List made his operatic debut as Charles Gounod's Méphistophélès at the Volksoper. He then sang at Berlin's Städtische Oper (1923-1925) and State Opera (1924-1933), London's Covent Garden (1925; 1934-1936), the Salzburg Festivals (1931-1935), and the Bayreuth Festival (1933). List made his Metropolitan Opera debut in New York in December 1933, as Hermann in Tannhäuser. While remaining on its roster until 1948 [16 seasons (1933-1948, 1949-1950), 449 performances, 17 roles, 16 works), he also appeared in San Francisco and Chicago (1935-1937) and gave lieder recitals. He was again on the Metropolitan Opera's roster in 1949-1950. In 1952 he returned to Vienna.
Emanuel List was especially admired for the rich vocal resources he brought to such roles as Osmin, the Commendatore, Sarastro, Rocco, King Marke, Hagen, Pogner, Hunding, and Baron Ochs.
The fine bass singer, Karl Ridderbusch (1932-1997) , first wanted to become a engineer. He was discovered at a singing competition by Rudolf Schock, who partly financed his musical education. From 1955, he studied at the Duisburg Conservatory, then from 1957 to 1961 at the Folkwangschule, Essen, with Clemens Kaiser-Brehme.
Karl Ridderbusch
Karl Ridderbusch had his debut at Münster in 1961 (Philipp II., Commendatore, Mathis der Maler). From 1963 to 1965, he was a member of the Essen ensemble. During this three-year engagement he began to add the great Wagner, Strauss and Verdi roles to his repertoire. In 1965 he joined the prestigious Deutsche Opera am Rhein Düsseldorf-Duisburg (Sparafucile, Boris Godunow, Hunding). In 1967, he debuted at Bayreuth, which was the beginning of an international career. Until 1975, when he departed in anger from Bayreuth, he had sung Heinrich der Vogeler, Fasolt, Fafner, Hagen, Pogner, Hans Sachs, Hunding, Daland, Titurel, Koenig Marke. Other roles included Ochs auf Lerchenau, Monteverdi's Seneca, Donizetti's Henry VIII., Verdi's and Nicolai's Falstaff, Flotow's Plumkett, Cornelius's Barbier von Bagdad, Cardinal Madruscht in Palestrina, and numerous oratorio parts (Bach, Bruckner). He was a regular guest at the great opera houses of the world: La Scala (debut 1966), Metropolitan Opera (1967), Vienna State Opera (1968, Kammersänger 1978), Royal Opera House Covent Garden (1971), Paris (1967), Munich, Berlin, Hamburg, Salzburg Osterfestspiele (1968).
Karl Ridderbusch possessed a voice of rich colour, which, allied with his rock solid technique spanning a full 2 octaves, made him a formidable singer. In the opera house, his voice easily sliced through the thickest orchestra, with a diamond like brilliance to the tone, yet he always maintained an almost bel-canto tone, even at extremes of volume. This made his success in parts like Hans Sachs, TheFlying Dutchman and Boris almost a foregone conclusion when he finally added them to his repertoire. He was a powerfully built man, and his impact on the stage in the great Wagner roles was almost as impressive as his voice. His other roles included Ochs in Der Rosenkavalier, Hunding in Die Walküre, and Hagen in Die Götterdämmerung.
Karl Ridderbusch died of severe heart condition and liver disorder at the age of 65 in June 1997, after his wife had taken him back to his home from an Austrian hospital the day before.
Ryan McKinny, the winner of the Birgit Nilsson Prize for 2010, sings "Die Frist ist um" at La Scala in 2010. The Dutchman has been condemned to sail the seas forever with his only respite coming every seven years. The seven years have at last passed again and the Dutchman is to go on land again. The only thing he truly wants, though, is death but he is not allowed to die.
McKinny is showing off his formidable vocal skills as Escamillo in Bizet's "Carmen" from June 25-30 at eh Dresden Semperoper. Click HERE for tickets and performance details.
Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari's seldom performed opera "Le donne curiose" (The Curious Women) is currently being performed at the Barn at Wolf Trap with two talented young barihunks, Ryan Kuster and Kenneth Kellogg. Wolf-Ferrari was a turn-of-the-20th-century composer whose heart remained with 19th-century romantics. “The Curious Women,” premiered in 1903 and has not been performed in the United States since its debut at the Metropolitan Opera in 1912.
The Curious Women at Wolf Trap
There is one performance remaining on June 25 at 7 PM. Click HERE for ticket and additional cast information.
Here is some rehearsal footage from this production:
Perhaps the best known piece from the opera is the overture, which is conducted by the great Arturo Toscanini in this performance:
