Eric Owens (singer)
Eric Owens (born July 11, 1970 in Philadelphia ) is an American opera and concert singer with a bass-baritone voice .
Life
Youth and education
Owens was born in Philadelphia and began studying piano at the Settlement Music School at the age of 6 . In middle school his interest shifted to the oboe and he began studying oboe with English horn player Louis Rosenblatt of the Philadelphia Orchestra . He later continued his oboe studies with Laura Ahlbeck, a second oboist in the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra , while attending Central High School in Philadelphia. During his senior year of Central High School, he entered the pre-college program of Boyer College of Music and Dance at Temple University , where he began taking singing lessons from George Massey. In 1989 he enrolled as a student at Temple University and in 1993 got his Bachelor of Music in "Vocal Performance". He then took part in the graduate program in singing at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where he became a student of singing teacher Armen Boyajian.
Career
After graduating from the Curtis Institute of Music with a Masters degree, Owens participated in the Houston Grand Opera's Young Artist Program , where he made his vocal debut as Ramfis in Aida by Giuseppe Verdi . Other roles at the Houston Grand Opera were Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , Mephistopheles in Faust and Frère Laurent in Roméo et Juliette by Charles Gounod , Angelotti in Tosca by Giacomo Puccini and Aristotle Onassis in the world premiere of the opera Jackie O by Michael Daugherty .
Since then his career has taken him to many of the world's most important opera houses, including the San Francisco Opera (debut as Lodovico in Otello by Giuseppe Verdi), the Royal Opera House in London (debut as Oroveso in Norma by Vincenzo Bellini ), the Los Angeles Opera (debut as Ferrando in Il Trovatore by Giuseppe Verdi), the Metropolitan Opera in New York City (debut as General Leslie Groves in Doctor Atomic by John Adams ), the Opèra Bastille in Paris (debut as Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte ) and the English National Opera (roles in Ariodante by Georg Friedrich Händel and L'Incoronazione di Poppea by Claudio Monteverdi ).
Owens has sung roles in several world premieres of contemporary operas, including the title role as General Leslie Groves in the world premiere of John Adams Doctor Atomic at the San Francisco Opera in 2005, the role of Grendel in Elliot Goldenthal's opera Grendel, Transcendence of the Great Big Bad premiered in 2006 at Los Angeles Opera and later that year as a storyteller in the world premiere of John Adams' opera A Flowering Tree at Peter Sellar's New Crowned Hope Festival in Vienna .
In September 2010 Owens sang and played Alberich in a new production of the opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen by Richard Wagner by the Metropolitan Opera.
In the 2013/2014 music season, Owens sang the St. Matthew Passion by Johann Sebastian Bach with the Berliner Philharmoniker under the direction of Sir Simon Rattle , played Sarastro in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Die Zauberflöte at the Metropolitan Opera, and performed with Vodnik at the beginning of 2014 made a new role debut in Antonín Dvořák's Rusalka at the Lyric Opera of Chicago , sang Hercules in the opera of the same name by Georg Friedrich Handel with the Canadian Opera Company and gave Alberich in The Ring of the Nibelung by Richard Wagner at the Deutsche Oper Berlin and the Wiener State Opera . He also had a recital with soprano Susanna Phillips and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra .
In the 2014/2015 opera season Owens sang the role of Porgy in George Gershwin's opera Porgy and Bess with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Dutchman in Richard Wagner's The Flying Dutchman at the Washington National Opera , Philippe II in Don Carlos by Giuseppe Verdi at the Opera Philadelphia and the Macbeth in Verdi's opera of the same name at the Glimmerglass Festival .
The 2015/2016 opera season took Owens back to the Washington National Opera (as Stephen Kumalo in Lost in the Stars by Kurt Weill ) and to the Metropolitan Opera (as Orest in Elektra by Richard Strauss ). Engagements in other vocal works this season included the Te Deum by Anton Bruckner with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Riccardo Muti , the 9th Symphony by Ludwig van Beethoven with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and the Minnesota Orchestra , Maurice Ravel's L'enfant et les sortileges with Esa-Pekka Salonen and Bayerischer Rundfunk, Johannes Brahms A German Requiem with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and Antonín Dvořák's Stabat Mater with Franz Welser-Möst and the Cleveland Orchestra . He also gave Simon in a concert performance of Judas Maccabaeus by Georg Friedrich Händel .
Owens started the 2016/2017 opera season at the Lyric Opera of Chicago as Wotan in Wagner's Das Rheingold . He then appeared in three operas at the Metropolitan Opera: in L'amour de Loin by Kaijo Saariaho , in Rusalka by Antonín Dvořák and in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Idomeneo . In the role of King Dodon he was heard at the Santa Fe Opera in The Golden Rooster by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and as Méphistophélès at the New Zealand Opera in Auckland in La Damnation de Faust by Hector Berlioz .
Repertoire (selection)
Opera
| composer | Opera | role |
|---|---|---|
| John Adams | Doctor Atomic | General Leslie Groves |
| John Adams | A flowering tree | Storyteller |
| Vincenzo Bellini | I Capuleti ei Montecchi | Capellio |
| Vincenzo Bellini | Norma | Oroveso |
| Alban Berg | Wozzeck | |
| Hector Berlioz | La Damnation de Faust | Méphistophélès |
| Benjamin Britten | The Rape of Lucretia | Collatinus |
| Michael Kevin Daugherty | Jackie O | Aristotle Onassis |
| Gaetano Donizetti | Anna Bolena | Enrico VIII |
| Antonín Dvořák | Rusalka | Vodník |
| George Gershwin | Porgy and Bess | Porgy |
| Elliot Goldenthal | Grendel, Transcendence of the Great Big Bad | Grendel |
| Charles Gounod | fist | Mephistopheles |
| Charles Gounod | Roméo and Juliette | Brother Laurent |
| georg Friedrich Handel | Ariodante | Il Re di Scozia |
| georg Friedrich Handel | Hercules | Hercules |
| György Ligeti | Le Grand Macabre | |
| Claudio Monteverdi | L'incoronazione di Poppea | |
| Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | The Magic Flute | Sarastro |
| Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | Idomeneo | La Voce |
| Giacomo Puccini | Tosca | Angelotti |
| Giacomo Puccini | Tosca | Il Barone Scarpia |
| Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov | The golden rooster | King Dodon |
| Gioachino Rossini | Il barbiere di Siviglia | Don Basilio |
| Kaija Saariaho | L'amour de loin | Jaufré pack |
| Richard Strauss | Elektra | Orestes |
| Giuseppe Verdi | Aida | Amonasro |
| Giuseppe Verdi | Aida | Ramfis |
| Giuseppe Verdi | Don Carlos | Philippe II |
| Giuseppe Verdi | Il trovatore | Ferrando |
| Giuseppe Verdi | Macbeth | Macbeth |
| Giuseppe Verdi | Otello | Lodovico |
| Richard Wagner | the Rheingold | Alberich |
| Richard Wagner | the Rheingold | Wotan |
| Richard Wagner | The Flying Dutchman | Dutchman |
| Richard Wagner | The Valkyrie | Wotan |
| Richard Wagner | Götterdämmerung | Alberich |
| Richard Wagner | Götterdämmerung | Hagen |
| Richard Wagner | Siegfried | Alberich |
| Richard Wagner | Siegfried | Wotan |
| Kurt Weill | Lost in the Stars | Stephen Kumalo |
Vocal works
| composer | plant |
|---|---|
| John Adams | El Niño |
| Johann Sebastian Bach | St. Matthew Passion |
| Ludwig van Beethoven | 9th symphony |
| Johannes Brahms | a German Requiem |
| Anton Bruckner | Te Deum |
| Antonín Dvořák | Stabat Mater |
| georg Friedrich Handel | Judas Maccabaeus |
| Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | requiem |
| Maurice Ravel | L'enfant et les sortileges |
| Giuseppe Verdi | Messa da Requiem |
Awards
- 1996: Winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions .
- 1999: ARIA Award
- 2003: Marian Anderson Award
- 2011: Grammy Award Best Opera Recording for John Adams: Doctor Atomic
- 2012: Grammy Award Best Opera Recording for Richard Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen (Deutsche Grammophon)
- 2013: Opera News Award Winner
- 2017: Musical Americas "Vocalist of the Year" Award
- Second prize at the Plácido Domingo Operalia Competition
- Prize at the Luciano Pavarotti International Voice Competition
Discography (selection)
- John Adams: A Flowering Tree, recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra (Nonesuch Records)
- Michael Kevin Daugherty: Jackie O, recorded with the Houston Grand Opera Studio (Argo Records)
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Requiem, recorded with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (Teldec)
Web links
- Eric Owens at imgartists.com
- Eric Owens at bach-cantatas.com
- Eric Owens at operabase.com
- Eric Owens at discogs.com
- Eric Owens in an interview at nor.org
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i Eric Owens (bass baritone) at bach-cantatas.com. Retrieved February 21, 2018 .
- ^ A Lesson in Listening. In: Opera News. January 2012, accessed on February 21, 2018 .
- ^ New Crowned Hope. Retrieved February 22, 2018 .
- ^ Richard Wagner Das Rheingold. (PDF) Retrieved February 21, 2018 .
- ↑ John von Rhein: Lyric Opera revives a 'Porgy' of glory and grit. November 18, 2014, accessed February 21, 2018 .
- ↑ a b c Eric Owens at operabase.com. Retrieved February 23, 2018 .
- ↑ a b c d e Eric Owens Bass-Baritone at imgartists.com. Retrieved February 21, 2018 .
- ↑ Winners. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on April 21, 2018 ; accessed on February 22, 2018 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Eric Owens OUSSAMA ZAHR salutes the distinguished achievement of the OPERA NEWS Awards winner. Retrieved February 21, 2018 .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Owens, Eric |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American opera and concert singer with a bass-baritone voice |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 11, 1970 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Philadelphia |