« Les contes d’Hoffmann », Offenbach, from september 11th to december 13th, Sydney

Les contes d’Hoffmann – Jacques Offenbach
From : Sep 2007, Tue 11th – To : Dec 2007, Thu 13th

2003 saw his debut at the Ver­di Fes­ti­val at the Tea­tro Regio di Par­ma as Arvi­no in I Lom­bar­di — he also cove­red the role of Man­ri­co (Il Tro­va­tore) for Welsh Natio­nal Ope­ra and per­for­med Alfre­do (La Tra­via­ta) in Mode­na and Lui­gi (Il Tabar­ro) in Osa­ka, Japan.

Rosa­rio has wor­ked with many lea­ding conduc­tors inclu­ding Richard Hickox, Rena­to Palum­bo, Bru­no Bar­to­let­ti, Gary Ber­ti­ni and Daniele Cal­le­ga­ri and direc­tors such as Pier Lui­gi Piz­zi, Gra­ham Vick, Lam­ber­to Pugel­li, Hugo De Ana and Jona­than Miller.

In 2004, Rosa­rio sang The Duke in Rigo­let­to for New Zea­land Ope­ra, Cava­ra­dos­si (Tos­ca) under Richard Hickox at the Endel­lion Fes­ti­val, Canio (Pagliac­ci) with the Tai­pei Sym­pho­ny Orches­tra, Tai­wan and tou­red Spain in concert with the Par­ma Ensemble.

In 2005, he sang Cava­ra­dos­si, Rodol­fo and The Prince (Love for Three Oranges) for Ope­ra Aus­tra­lia, Alfre­do for West Aus­tra­lian Ope­ra, per­for­med the tenor solos in Bee­tho­ven’s Cho­ral Fan­ta­sy and Mass in C (Glo­ria and Bene­dic­tus) with the Syd­ney Sym­pho­ny and appea­red as tenor soloist with the Mel­bourne Sym­pho­ny Orches­tra in their Clas­si­cal Spec­ta­cu­lar series. In 2006, he por­trayed Pin­ker­ton (Mada­ma But­ter­fly) for Ope­ra Aus­tra­lia and West Aus­tra­lian Ope­ra, The Duke for Ope­ra Aus­tra­lia as well as appea­ring as soloist in the Clas­si­cal Spec­ta­cu­lar concerts with the Mel­bourne and Syd­ney Sym­pho­ny Orches­tras and The Queens­land Orches­tra. In 2007, Rosa­rio will sing Alfre­do, The Prince in Rusal­ka and the title role in The Tales of Hoff­mann for Ope­ra Aus­tra­lia and will make his debut at Seat­tle Ope­ra as Rodolfo.

In 2001, Emma has per­for­med as Ismene in Gra­ham Vick’s pro­duc­tion of Mitri­date, re di Pon­to for the Syd­ney Fes­ti­val and for Ope­ra Aus­tra­lia, Sta­si in Gyp­sy Prin­cess, Geno­vief­fa in Suor Ange­li­ca, Zwaan­tie in Richard Mil­ls” new ope­ra Bata­via and, cur­rent­ly, Olym­pia in Tales of Hoffmann.

Emma is high­ly regar­ded as a concert artist and per­forms regu­lar­ly with the Sym­pho­ny Aus­tra­lia Orches­tras and the Syd­ney Phil­har­mo­nia Choir. Recent concert high­lights include Mah­ler’s 4th Sym­pho­ny, Fau­re’s Requiem, Pou­lenc’s Glo­ria, Mozart’s Coro­na­tion Mass, Exul­tate Jubi­late and Requiem, Haydn’s Nel­son Mass, Han­del’s Mes­siah, Grieg’s Peer Gynt, Bach’s St John Pas­sion and St Mat­thew Pas­sion and Vil­la-Lobos” Bachi­na­ras No. 5.

Other signi­fi­cant per­for­mances include Dido and Aeneas with the Mark Mor­ris Dance Com­pa­ny, the Aus­tra­lia pre­miere of Mino­ru Miki’s Para­phrase of Ancient Japa­nese Music with the Pro Musi­ca Nip­po­nia Ensemble and the role of Anna in a concert per­for­mance of Andrew Schultz’s Black River with Music Theatre Syd­ney. Emma has also per­for­med at the Inter­na­tio­nal Fashion Awards in Paris and is a regu­lar soloist at the Syd­ney, Mel­bourne, Ade­laide and Hun­ting­ton Festivals.

Awards include the 1996 Remy Mar­tin Aus­tra­lian Ope­ra Award and the Green Room Award for best female sin­ger in a sup­por­ting role for her work in La Cle­men­za di Tito and Rinal­do in 1999 and The Mar­riage of Figa­ro in 2000.

John Wegner’s impres­sive Hel­den Bari­tone voice conti­nues to make an impact in the ope­ra houses of Europe with per­for­mances in major cities inclu­ding Prague, Milan, Dà¼s­sel­dorf, Stutt­gart, Ber­lin, Brus­sels, Oslo and across the globe in Australia.

John Wegner’s recor­dings include Wotan/Wanderer in the Wag­ner Ring Cycle on the Bel­la Musi­ca label. Vil­lains – Sinis­ter Songs and Arias by ABC Clas­sics Aus­tra­lia and Arbo­gast in the World Pre­miere per­for­mances of Sieg­fried Wag­ner’s “Die Hei­lige Linde”.

She atten­ded col­lege at Aber­deen, Scot­land, and then ear­ned her bache­lor’s degree in musi­cal per­for­mance in 1986 from the Royal Scot­tish Aca­de­my of Music and Dra­ma. She pur­sued post-gra­duate stu­dies, obtai­ning cer­ti­fi­cates in ope­ra and in the field of Lie­der and ora­to­rio singing.

She has sung lea­ding parts at ope­ra work­shop fes­ti­vals : Lucre­tia in The Rape of Lucre­tia by Ben­ja­min Brit­ten at the Aspen Ope­ra Theatre Cen­ter and the title role of Bizet’s Car­men at Clon­ter Farm.

Her debut at the Royal Ope­ra House, Covent Gar­den was as Mrs. Bubble in Vau­ghan Williams” The Pil­grim’s Pro­gress. There she has also sung the parts of Mop­pett and the Goose in Brit­ten’s Paul Bunyan. At the Bar­bi­can Centre in Lon­don she sang in Caval­le­ria Rus­ti­ca­na, Fati­ma in Obe­ron, and Mrs. Jenks in Copland’s The Ten­der Land. She has appea­red in the BBC Proms Concerts as Tes­sa in The Gon­do­liers, and as a Squire and a Flo­wer Mai­den in Wag­ner’s Parsifal.

Over­seas, Ste­phen appea­red at the Los Angeles Ope­ra as Hero­dias” Page in Strauss” Salome (1998), retur­ning as Mad­da­le­na in Ver­di’s Rigo­let­to (2000). She has appea­red in the Spo­le­to Fes­ti­val as the Male Fox in Janà¡cek’s Cun­ning Lit­tle Vixen (1998), in Ros­si­ni’s Sta­bat Mat­ter and as Sonya in Pro­ko­fiev’s War and Peace (1999), and in her own solo reci­tal (2000). She has recor­ded the part of Sonya in Chan­dos Records” recor­ding of the Pro­ko­fiev opera.