Edwin Crossley-Mercer to premiere song cycle in Ohio

Edwin Crossley-Mercer

French barihunk Edwin Crossley‐Mercer and American pianist Jason Paul Peterson will premiere a new work by composer Michael Linton as part of their recital at Baldwin Wallace University's Gamble Auditorium on Tuesday, May 24.

"Mute Love" ("Silentium Amoris") is the first of the seventeen‐movement Wilde Songs to be publicly presented. Earlier, the duo premiered Linton's Carmina Catulli at Carnegie Hall in New York, which are based on settings of poems by the Roman poet Catullus. . You can read our previous posts about Carmina Catulli HERE.

A resident of Paris and Berlin, Crossley‐Mercer's repertory ranges from the Baroque through contemporary music. He has performed opera, oratorio, and recitals in Vienna, Paris, Berlin, Glyndebourne, Munich, Amsterdam, Nashville, Los Angeles, Strasbourg, New York, Moscow, Dubai and, most recently, in Dallas as Lescaut in Manon by Jules Massenet.

The prize-­‐winning composer Michael Linton has served on the music faculty of Middle Tennessee State University for over two decades where he teaches music theory and history.

The recital is part of Baldwin Wallace's internationally acclaimed bi‐annual "Art Song Festival," a week-­‐long program of recitals and master classes begun in 1985. The festival is also presenting recitals and master classes by mezzo-­‐soprano Susan Graham, tenor Eduardo Valdes and pianist Bradley Moore. Additional information is available online. 

In January, Crossley-Mercer returns to the Opéra national de Paris to rotate the role of Guglielmo in Mozart's Così fan tutte with fellow barihunk Philippe Sly. 

Edwin Crossley-Mercer to make New York debut with NC-17 rating

Edwin Crossley-Mercer

French bass-barihunk Edwin Crossley-Mercer is making his long-awaited New York debut on March 3, 2014 at the Weill Concert Hall. It only seems appropriate that a singer as sexy as Crossley-Mercer would make his Big Apple debut with what amounts to an NC-17 rating. The Carnegie Hall website states, "Because the poems of Catullus deal with issues of sex in a frank manner, some members of the public might find them objectionable. "

The warning refers to Carmina Catulli, a 17-movement song cycle by Michael Linton based on the poems of Catullus, the Latin poet of the late Roman Republic. Catullus fell in love with the aristocratic Clodia Metelli who was alleged to have an insatiable sexual appetite. Although many people have found his poems about his relationship with Clodia Metelli shocking, he actually influenced many great poets including Ovid, Horace, and Virgil.

Edwin Crossley-Mercer and Camille Poul sing "La ci darem la mano" from Don Giovanni: 

Michael Linton’s music is notorious for its emotional ferocity and extraordinary technical difficulty. The rest of the program will include Linton's Seven Franchetti Songs, settings of poetry by the Italian-American polymath Cody Franchetti. They will be performed by tenor H. Stephen Smith. The accompanist for the concert is Jason Paul Peterson.

Tickets do not go on sale until January 7, so check back early next year at the Carnegie Hall website.

If you can't wait until March, you catch him in recital in Moscow, Russia on December 16 or as Jupiter in Rameau's Platée at the Theater an der Wien from February 17-28.

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