The male contingent of newly minted AVA alums also can be proud of its achievements.
Ryan Kuster, AVA’s Enrico VIII, Don Pasquale, Schaunard, Don Alfonso, Dikoj and Grenvil, is multitasking a varied repertory with San Francisco Opera. He has been a Merolino, but is currently an Adler Fellow, juggling a quintet of roles with SFO, racking up thirty or more performances. For a while this past summer, however, the bass-baritone left his heart in the Bay City to appear at Wolf Trap, singing Pantalone in a rarely performed opera, Wolf-Ferrari's Le donne curiose:
Ryan debuted at the War Memorial Opera House as the Mandarin on opening night of the 2011-2012 season in a lauded Turandot. Critics noted, "There were good contributions ... from Adler Fellow Ryan Kuster" and "Ryan Kuster [was] a fine Mandarin". The bass-baritone followed up with Astolfo (Lucrezia Borgia), supporting supertenor Michael Fabiano, AVA class of 2009, and earning a fine mention, "... the standouts ... Adler Fellow Ryan Kuster - a powerhouse as Astolfo ..." Ryan is rehearsing Masetto, while covering Leporello, and looks forward to performing Escamillo (Carmen for Families).
Alex Lawrence spent his first post-AVA months at the Glimmerglass Festival, singing Le Dancaïre in Carmen, covering Joe Harland in Musto’s Later the Same Evening ... and ... falling in love.
The baritone presently has a luxe yet exigent engagement for 2011-2012 with Theater Basel, last season's artistic home of the exquisitely refined baritone, Christopher Bolduc, AVA class of 2010, and, famously, the opera house where Montserrat Caballe made her professional debut. A member of the Opera Studio, OperAvenir, Alex's assignments - all role debuts, I believe - include the Second Apprentice (Wozzeck); a Huntsman, en travesti (Rusalka); Corporal Morales (Carmen), probably not en travesti, but who knows (?), Switzerland, after all, borders experimentally oriented Germany; and Count Almaviva, cover (Le nozze di Figaro). Moreover, if one tallies requisite recitals, concerts and special OperAvenir productions, Alex's total number of performances may surpass an astonishing fifty!
Of the dozen or so complete roles Alex sang at AVA - Guglielmo, Malatesta, Germont, Enrico Ashton, Ford, Roger Chillingworth, Marcello, Mandryka, Elijah, the Capriccio Count and Don Giovanni - perhaps the last mentioned in this populous gallery, which received such accolades as “dashing … with swagger and vocal assurance”, is his favorite.
Alex’s collegial "private" nickname may be Boris, but his middle name is surely Panache:
See what I mean?
Nicholas Masters, AVA's Rochefort (Anna Bolena), Pistola, Raimondo, Colline, La Roche (Capriccio), Waldner (Arabella), Leporello and Commendatore, spent the summer of 2011 at the Caramoor Festival, appearing in two productions. As Walter in Guillaume Tell, sharing the stage with AVA alum Daniel Mobbs, class of 1993, Nicholas's performance was critically appraised in glowing terms: "Nicholas Masters applied his magnificent, dark bass most vividly to Walter Furst." Nicholas's other role was Bill Bobstay in HMS Pinafore. While one reviewer simply observed that he "contributed ably" to the Gilbert and Sullivan show, another was a bit more expansive, asserting that "Nicholas Masters, a bass, stood out in a brief solo as a mate with an important message".
Nicholas is currently a member of the Houston Opera Studio. This season he is scheduled to perform Don Basilio in Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia and Doctor Grenville in Verdi’s La traviata with the parent company, Houston Grand Opera.
As you review the gallery below of some of Nicholas's AVA roles, you will fondly recall the attendant magisterial voice:
Did you hear it booming?
After bidding farewell to AVA, Taylor Stayton debuted with Des Moines Metro Opera, sharing the stage with soprano Zulimar López-Hernández, AVA class of 2009. The role Taylor performed in Indianola is one with which he has a long association, Ernesto (Don Pasquale). Remember the Don Pasquale at AVA in which the young tenor sang "Povero Ernesto" while taking a bubble bath? Taylor's Iowa performance elicited the following review in "Opera News": “The very gifted Taylor Stayton's laser-bright timbre boasts an exceptional fluidity above the staff and is probably ideally displayed in Rossini, but his Ernesto was no slouch”. Here is an excerpt from the show:
Prior to graduation, Taylor successfully auditioned for the Metropolitan Opera. On the Met roster this season, he is covering the roles of Riccardo Percy (Anna Bolena), which he had sung to acclaim at AVA, and Tonio (La fille du régiment). In Percy's aria, "Vivi tu", Taylor vaults up to high D: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOeedm3KGNM. Tonio's aria, "Ah! mes amis, quel jour de fête!", the first piece I ever heard Taylor sing - at a Giargiari Competition - contains nine high Cs. Note how effortlessly the young tenor catapults them out to the public: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUaJvlFzfOc&NR=1
In addition to the AVA characterizations listed above, Taylor was entrusted with Don Ottavio, Ferrando ( Così fan tutte), Fenton and Arturo (Lucia di Lammermoor).
In February the tenor will debut with New York City Opera as Andre le Toneur in Rufus Wainwright’s Prima Donna. Future engagements include Don Ramiro in La cenerentola with Glyndebourne Festival Opera, and Almaviva in Il barbiere di Siviglia with Opéra de Lille.
