Anatoli Sivko beefs up before Bavarian Ballo

Anatoli Sivko beefing up for Bavarian Ballo

Anatoli Sivko, who is singing Naroemov in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin tonight at the Netherlands Opera, appears to have buffed up since we watched him win 1st Prize at last year's Neue Stimmen Vocal Competition and 1st Prize at International Stanisław Moniuszko Vocal Competition, Warsaw, Poland.

After he wraps up in Holland, he heads to the Bayerische Staatsoper to make his house debut as Samuel in Verdi's Un ballo in maschera in an all-star cast headed by Piotr Beczala as Riccardo and Anja Harteros as Amelia. He will return to the company to sing the Mandarin in Puccini's Turandot and Schmidt in Giordano's Andrea Chenier with Jonas Kaufmann in the title role.

Anatoli Sivko sings Borodin's "Ni sna, ni otdikha":

Other recent highlights for the Belarus native include his Royal Opera House Covent Garden debut in Un ballo in maschera, Chamberlain in Stravinsky's Le Rossignol at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Farfarello in Prokofiev's L’Amour Des Trois Oranges for Latvian National Opera, Sparafucile in Verdi's Rigoletto in Rennes, the title role in Verdi's Attila in Tallinn, Gaspar in Donizetti's Rita in Graz and Zuniga in Bizet's Carmen in Zürich.

Other upcoming engagements include the King in Verdi's Aida with Opéra de Montréal and Leporello in Mozart's Don Giovanni at the Gran Teatre del Liceu.

Andrew Garland: Wings for charity; Feathers for art

 

Andrew Garland shows of his wings and his "guns"

Barihunk and cycling enthusiast Andrew Garland is riding in the 2-day, 192 mile Pan -Mass challenge and proudly wearing his Valkyrie wings to show off his operatic pedigree. The ride raises money for life-saving cancer research and treatment at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute through its Jimmy Fund and crosses the Commonwelath of Massachusetts. Each cyclist commits to raising between $500 and $5,000. Readers of this site can help Andrew Garland reach his goal by clicking HERE.  

The ride should help up build up plenty of lung power for his upcoming performance in Boston when he trades in his Valkyrie wings for some bird feathers. On Wednesday, August 7th, he'll be performing some of Papageno's music in "A Little Magic Flute & Birthday Celebration for Verdi, Wagner and Britten," a free preview of the Boston Lyric Opera's upcoming season at the Hatch Shell. The concert begins at 7 PM and no tickets are required. He'll be performing Papageno in its entirety with the Boston Lyric Opera from October 4-13. Tickets are available online.