Stanislas de Barbeyrac: Bastille Day 2022 - Concert de Paris

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Freddie De Tommaso's newly launched album Il Tenore has debuted at No 1 in the Uk Classical Charts, with his interpretation of  Puccini's Nessun Dorma attracting more than one million streams this year alone. 

The album features a collection of arias and duets from famous operas by Puccini: Tosca, Turandot and Madama Butterfly and Bizet: Carmen. He is joined by fellow Decca artist Lise Davidsen (Tosca) and Natalya Romaniw (Cio-Cio-San) and Aigul Akhmetshina (Carmen).

We are thrilled to welcome British bass Brindley Sherratt, one of today’s most respected singers to the MWA roster for general management. Noted for his extraordinary vocal and stage presence, his many career highlights include Sarastro Die Zauberflöte at the Vienna State Opera,  Dutch National Opera and Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; Claggart Billy Budd at the Aldeburgh and Glyndebourne Festivals, the BBC Proms, Teatro Real in Madrid, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and in New York at the Brooklyn Academy of Music; Arkel Pelléas et Mélisande in Frankfurt and Zurich Opera; Sparafucile in a new production of Rigoletto at Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; Rocco Fidelio and Ochs Der Rosenkavalier at the Glyndebourne Festival; Bottom A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Festival d’Aix en Provence; Doctor Wozzeck at the Lyric Opera of Chicago; Pogner Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg at the Welsh National Opera; Filippo Don Carlo for Opera North; Pimen Boris Godunov at English National Opera and Zurich Opera; and Fiesco Simon Boccanegra at English National Opera.  

Highligths of the 2021/22 season include Oliver Mears’ new production of Rigoletto as well as Sarastro Die Zauberflöte , both at Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; Hunding in Richard Jones’ new production of The Valkyrie for the English National Opera; Swallow in Stefan Herheim’s new production of Peter Grimes at the Bayerische Staatsoper and a return to the Salzburg Festival. Concert appearances include Gremin Eugene Onegin with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Fabio Luisi and his role debut as Gurnemanz in semi-staged performances of Parsifal with the Orchestra of Opera North conducted by Richard Farnes. Future seasons see him return to Metropolitan Opera, Bayerische Staatsoper, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence as well as making his company debut with Opera national de Paris.   

He works regularly with the leading orchestras and conductors and recent engagements have included the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House with Pappano; the Philharmonia with Sir Andrew Davis; the Hallé Orchestra with Sir Mark Elder; the Mahler Chamber Orchestra with Harding; the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra with Bicket; the Monteverdi Choir with Gardiner; the Scottish Chamber Orchestra with Nézet-Séguin and the Orchestre des Champs-Elysées and Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen with Langrée.   

Born in Lancashire into a family of strong singers, he initially studied trumpet at the Royal Academy of Music, of which  of which he is now a Fellow and Visiting Professor. 

Freddie De Tommaso took the Covent Garden stage  by storm when he jumped in as Cavaradossi in Royal Opera’s production of Tosca on December 8, thus becoming the youngest ever tenor to perform the role on the iconic stage  and the first Brit since 1963.

De Tommaso, who was due to perform the role on the 11th,  took to the stage after the first interval when the tenor originally scheduled became unwell during the first of the three acts, prompting Neil Fisher to write in his review for The Times:  "How did he fare? I’ll let Cavaradossi answer that: “Vittoria!” 

The real excitement, however, was for Cavaradossi, Freddie De Tommaso (...) He had upstaged himself already, days earlier, attracting rave headlines by jumping in halfway through for Brian Hymel, taken unwell during the other cast’s opening night. Half Italian but raised in Tunbridge Wells, De Tommaso – remember the name – is hurtling to stardom.

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Having trained at the Royal Academy of Music, first as a baritone, then switching up to tenor, he won the international Plácido Domingo Tenor prize in 2018 and was quickly signed up to Decca. Bright-toned in the Italianate style, but with heft to soar over the orchestra in mid-range, De Tommaso is not shy to show how loudly, how securely, how effortlessly he can sing. That prolonged, dazzling high A sharp on “Vittoria!” was, to tell it straight, milked. Why not… it was a rare thrill to hear a tenor voice of this ease and brilliance. The new Pavarotti? We’ve heard that before. This time it might just be true (The Guardian)

" A star is born as Freddie De Tommaso set the house alight" : Freddie De Tommaso is the real deal, a glorious Italianate throb animating a voice whose fate-sealing, defiant cries of “Vittoria!” in Act II set the house trembling.

Baritonal warmth at the lower end of the voice only adds to the sunburst-reveal of the top, and he’s just getting started (The Independent)

 MWA Management is proud to announce that Grammy Award-winning Canadian bass-baritone Gerald Finley, one of the most influential artists of our time, is joining the company for general management. 

Celebrated for his performances and artistry worldwide, Finley’s long and distinguished career encompasses the complete spectrum of vocal art, ranging from Mozart to Verdi and Wagner, to Adams and Turnage. Revered by audiences and his peers alike, Finley has been constantly expanding his repertoire with new roles and collaborations with the greatest opera companies, orchestras and conductors.

This month Finley joins forces with The Theatre of Sound in an innovative production of Bartok’s monumental work Bluebeard’s Castle in a new chamber version at Stone Nest, London, to raise awareness about dementia. Usually presented as a Gothic horror story centred around an abusive relationship, this new, fully staged presentation reimagines the piece as a love story between a long-married couple coming to terms with living with the illness. Click here for more information: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/theatreofsound/545916#.

Bluebeard is a role that features heavily in Finley’s diary this season, as he also performs it with l’Orchestre de Paris and Esa-Pekka Salonen, and with the Vienna Symphony and Marin Alsop. Other engagements include the title role in Le nozze di Figaroat the Berlin State Opera with Daniel Barenboim and the Count at Bayerische Staatsoper and the Metropolitan Opera; the opening gala concert at the Paris Opera with Gustavo Dudamel; the title role in Falstaff at the Vienna State Opera; the world premiere of Mark Anthony Turnage’s song cycle Without Ceremony at Vienna’s Konzerthaus, followed by performances across Europe, Canada and the US.

Gerald Finley: “I am thrilled to be joining Maria Mot and the dynamic team at MWA Management, following the retirement of my previous manager Stefania Almansi, and am looking forward immensely to the future of projects and collaboration with them. I want to thank IMG for all their support throughout the years and very much look forward to this new chapter in my professional life.” 

Maria Mot, founder of MWA Management: “I am absolutely thrilled to welcome one of my favourite artists to the MWA family. I have always been a huge fan of Gerald Finley’s astonishing artistry and commitment to the art form. It is hard to imagine a more complete artist today and it is a true honour to work with him and to continue to support his extraordinary legacy”.

The National Norwegian Television, NRK, are airing on 21 September a documentary about Lise Davidsen, filmed over the course of 18 months. The documentary which is an intimate portrayal from her childhood until now, had the camera crew follow her during her debuts in Bayreuth and Metropolitan as well as the  Covid pandemic.  Davidsen made history in May 2021 when she reopened Teatro Alla Scala in Milan with a solo concert with Riccardo Chailly  on the same night she  was named "Female Singer of the Year"  by the Opera Awards. Two days later she inaugurated the reopening of Bayerische Staatsoper.  Earlier this month, she  received the Anders Jahre Culture Prize and has been nominated for the Nordic Council Music Prize. The documentary will be available in Norway only.

 Lise Davidsen will make her Teatro alla Scala debut on 10 May, in the reopening concert of the opera house, marking 75 years since La Scala was rebuilt. She will perform a solo concert conducted by Maestro Riccardo Chailly, with a programme featuring works by Verdi, Wagner, Purcell, Tchaikovsky and Richard Strauss.

On 26 March Decca Classics will release Lise Davidsen's much anticipated second solo album, which features music by Beethoven, Wagner and Verdi, including some arias from operas Davidsen has performed on stage in recent years, including Fidelio (Leonore’s aria ‘Abscheulicher!’), Cherubini’s Medea and Santuzza' in Cavalleria rusticana. Other operatic heroines explored include Verdi’s Leonora from La forza del destino and Desdemona  from Otello plus the first of Wagner’s five Wesendonck Lieder.  To honour the launch, Lise will make several TV and Radio appearances as well as gracing the cover of Gramophone Magazine. To keep up to date with her latest appearances and interviews follow us on social media.