Alumni

10/03/2011

AVA, Class of 2011 .2. "Un Trovator cantò ... La terra un ciel sembrò"

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.
 

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AVA, Class of 2011 .1. "Miti, gioconde, atroci ... si chiamano Fedeltà ..."

Previous blogs were dedicated to the achievements of returning and new resident artists. Let us focus now on accomplishments of the 2011 AVA graduating class. "Ecco le leonesse!"
 
Cynthia Cook, whose striking versatility shone at AVA as Meg Page, Smeton, Adalgisa, Kabanicha, Adelaide, Clairon and Zerlina, participated in Ghena Meirson's Russian Opera Workshop during June and July, singing - naturally -  a variety of contrasting roles in Eugene Onegin (Larina, Olga and Filipievna) and Iolanta (Marta and Laura). She magically found the appropriate vocal colors for a concerned mother, a flirty, flighty sister, a trusted elderly servant/confidante, a wise nursemaid/maternal surrogate and a cheery, floral-bearing friend. It was, however, Rubinstein's setting of Night and Gretchaninoff's Eastern Song, romances so rapturously sung by Cynthia, that will stand out as highlights of these summer sessions. Be that as it may, here is Cynthia rehearsing Olga's aria, a performance cheered by conductor Danail Rachev: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MsirUns1T0&feature=related  
 
Jan Cornelius has been performing in Iowa and traveling through Austria since graduation. Her Des Moines Metro Opera performance of Mimi, a role which AVA fans will forever cherish, won raves in the prestigious journal, "Opera News". La Boheme was "graced by the excellent Mimì of Jan Cornelius, who endowed the gentle seamstress with an ample lyric soprano of fine quality and prodigious skill in dynamic variation and expressive nuance." The eulogized "dynamic variation" and "expressive nuance" are evident even in DMMO's congenial Boheme trailer:
Jan was featured in a cast interview during the Indianola run. A bonus in the clip is the articulate Musetta, AVA alum Colleen Daly, class of 2010, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58QXd1MM7Qc&feature=related
AVA's beloved Manon Lescaut, Violetta, Anna Bolena, Silvana, Madeleine, Arabella and Donna Elvira will spend the 2011-2012 season as:
- Musetta with Opera Santa Barbara, http://www.operasb.com/
- Micaela with Birmingham Opera, http://www.operabirmingham.org/
- Countess Almaviva at Fort Worth Opera, http://www.fwopera.org/
- Tatyana in a return engagement with Des Moines Metro Opera, http://www.desmoinesmetroopera.org/
 
After Corinne Winters finished four performances of Countess Ceprano at the Metropolitan Opera, two of which were broadcasts, thus preserving her debut season, she reported to Saint Louis for Melisande, garnering critical plaudits:  “Soprano Corinne Winters was attractive and waiflike as Melisande; she has a dark-hued, lovely voice that she used to ideal advantage." Micaela in Crested Butte was next on the soprano's summer agenda. You'll want to hear Corinne's lusciously voiced "Je dis que rien ne m'épouvante" in this archived souvenir of what may turn out to be her signature role: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbMXbbuJGhk 
The 2011-2012 season will be a busy one for AVA's brilliant Oscar, Despina, Nannetta, Norina, Monica, Hester, Angelica and Arabella:
- The Licia Albanese Puccini Competition Winners Concert, http://www.liciaalbanesepuccinifnd.org/events.html
- The title role in Iolanta with Dicapo Opera Theatre
-  Lisette in La Rondine with  Florida Grand Opera
 

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07/14/2011

A Profile of Daniel Mobbs

562.x231.class.mobbs.prev Caramoor’s Guillaume Tell opened on July 8th. Singing the title role was AVA alum Daniel Mobbs, class of 1993, by now surely a permanent fixture of the Festival. The NY Times extolled that Dan, “set the bar high throughout the evening, his combination of potency and assurance unassailable.”

As an AVA resident artist, Daniel sang Papageno, Marcello and Harlekin – traditional lyric baritone roles. However, during the course of his professional career his rep has embraced Oroveso, Leporello, Don Alfonso and Ferrando – traditional basso cantante roles. Such a vocal range permits Dan to sail through a part such as Escamillo, which some baritones find too low and some basses too high.

It is not uncommon, furthermore, to find Daniel singing more than one role in a single opera, although not during the same evening. He sang Mercutio in a Baltimore Roméo et Juliette, and subsequently Capulet in the Gounod piece in Philly.

Once, he was contracted for Basilio in Barbiere di Siviglia, but when the “barbiere” of the title cancelled, Dan was promoted to Figaro himself! Such is the versatility of this artist. Further evidence of Dan’s wide range in music are his contrasting Met appearances – in Lehar’s Merry Widow and Puccini’s Madama Butterfly.

In addition to performing, Dan coaches young artists at the Caramoor Festival and also privately in NYC.

A highlight of Dan’s career for me was his Assur in the 2010 concert of Rossini's Semiramide, which happened to mark his colleague and fellow AVA alum Angela Meade’s Caramoor debut.  Listen to the audio clips below.

See Clip #1, See Clip #2

 

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07/05/2011

James Valenti and Pinkerton

Alum James Valenti, in London for Pinkerton at the Royal Opera House, is no stranger to Puccini and verismo, having sung the composer from Lucca's "Edgar" (2004) and Mascagni's "L'amico Fritz" (2005) in memorable concert versions with AVA.

In a 2008 interview, James spoke about Pinkerton: "I think that, getting back to Puccini, just singing it -- it comes, it just sort of happens when you're singing it.  What I find very challenging -- with this particular role, Pinkerton -- is he is sort of the bad guy, and whenever I sing this opera -- and I've done it many times -- I always, when I come out at the end, get booed.  He is sort of a tragic, hateful character, and of course they boo.  But I try, especially in the last act, to show that he really is remorseful.  He's not a horrible person, he's just a bit naive and he's flawed as we all are.  But that's always a challenge because in the first act, he's sort of making fun of everybody and sort of a jerk, but he really does care for Cio-Cio San, I think ...  But to play the bad guy every once in a while is fun."

Here's an excerpt of James in "Madama Butterfly":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lb1j1VA2yck
And listen to this exceptional document of that AVA "Fritz", in which James is partnered by the  remarkable soprano and fellow alum, Ailyn Perez:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yon2hXYce3E 

Posted at 01:24 PM in Alumni | | Comments (0)

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