Orpheus Chamber Orchestra: Sublime Serenades
Tenor Stanford Olsen to perform
Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings, Op. 31
New York, NY—On Tuesday, February 6, 2007 at 8 p.m., the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra will perform its third Carnegie Hall concert of the season, with tenor Stanford Olsen as guest soloist. Mr. Olsen has graciously agreed to fill in for English tenor Ian Bostridge, who has had to withdraw due to illness with regret. Mr. Olsen will perform Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings, Op. 31, with Orpheus member Stewart Rose as horn soloist. The program also includes Martinu’s rarely-heard Serenade for Chamber Orchestra and Mozart’s Serenade No. 9 in D Major, K. 320 Posthorn.
Stanford Olsen, who made his Metropolitan Opera début on an hour's notice as Arturo in I Puritani opposite the legendary soprano Dame Joan Sutherland, has fulfilled his initial promise as one of the world's outstanding artists. Highlights of the 2006–2007 season include performances of Britten’s Cantata Academica and Schubert’s Mass in G, and the Mozart Requiem in concerts with the Cincinnati Symphony; Handel’s Messiah with the San Diego Symphony and San Antonio Symphony; and Carmina Burana with the Seattle Symphony and Oslo Philharmonic.
Mr. Olsen’s European concert début took place in 1989, when he appeared with the Berlin Philharmonic in the Berlioz Requiem, conducted by James Levine. Subsequently, he has appeared with the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Boston Symphony, and many of the greatest orchestras of the world. Mr. Olsen has collaborated with leading conductors such as Carlos Kleiber, James Levine, Seiji Ozawa, Kurt Masur, Sir Neville Marriner, Donald Runnicles, James Conlon, Roger Norrington, Gabriele Ferro, Raymond Leppard, Christoph Eschenbach, Robert Shaw, John Eliot Gardiner, Christopher Hogwood, Charles Dutoit, Richard Bonynge, Pierre Boulez, Helmuth Rilling, Leopold Hager, Patrick Summers, Peter Maag, Daniel Oren, and Armin Jordan, among others.
Stanford Olsen's operatic experience is broad, and includes appearances as Nemorino in L'Elisir d'Amore, the title role of Le Comte Ory, Tonio in La Fille du Régiment, Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, Ferrando in Così fan tutte, Belmonte in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Count Almaviva in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Idreno in Semiramide, Fenton in Falstaff, Alfred in Die Fledermaus, Lindoro in L'Italiana in Algeri, and the Italian Singer in Der Rosenkavalier, among others.
In addition to regular performances with the Metropolitan Opera, Mr. Olsen has performed with La Scala, Landestheater Stuttgart, Netherlands Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Théâtre du Châtelet, Hamburger Staatsoper, Australian Opera, Brussels' La Monnaie, Madrid's Teatro la Zarzuela, San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Opera Company of Philadelphia, Ravinia Festival, Teatro Massimo Bellini di Catania, and Opera Theatre of Saint Louis.
Mr. Olsen has several commercial recordings and video releases to his credit, including Die Entführung aus dem Serail conducted by John Eliot Gardiner on Deutsche Grammophon, his 1992 Tully Hall recital of works by Ives, Vaughan Williams, Britten and Tippett (Musical Heritage Society), the role of Argirio in Rossini's Tancredi with Alberto Zedda for Naxos, Carmina Burana (London/Decca) with Charles Dutoit and the Montreal Symphony, Bach's St. Matthew Passion conducted by Seiji Ozawa, and Dvorak’s Stabat Mater with Robert Shaw and the Atlanta Symphony (Telarc), as well as the role of Pirelli in Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd in concert with the New York Philharmonic (which was recorded commercially and telecast live), and Idreno in Semiramide (with James Conlon and the Metropolitan Opera) which was telecast and subsequently released on video.
In addition to winning the 1989 Walter W. Naumburg Award, Stanford Olsen was the winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in 1986, and has received awards from the Richard Tucker Foundation and the Eleanor Steber Foundation.
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