Gerald Finley premieres a new opera by John Adams

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 Huw Montague Rendall, Brindley Sherratt and Michael Colvin join Opera de Paris for their upcoming performances of Mozat's ever so popular opera The Magic Flute which opens on 17 September. 

Huw Montague Rendall makes his company debut as Papageno, a role he has performed to sensational critical acclaim for his debuts with Royal Opera House and Chicago Lyric Opera last season.

Michael Colvin is Monastatos, a role he performed  together with Huw Montague Rendall last autumn at Royal Opera House.  Colvin, who also sings Spoletta Tosca for the company, returns to Paris after  having sung  Basilio Le Nozze di Figaro and Duke of Cornwall Lear in previous seasons.

Brindley Sherratt also makes his company debut as Sarastro, one of his signature roles and a vehicle this season for his return to Royal Opera House and in future seasons to Metropolitan Opera.

This production of The Magic Flute runs from 17 September to 19 November. For performance dates and tickets please click here

 One of the  most celebrated classical artists today, the Norwegian soprano Lise Davidsen is set to make a huge splash as the star of the much coveted Last Night of the Proms, the UK’s greatest classical music event. She will perform among others her signature aria: Dich teure Halle from Wagner’s Tannhäuser, the Easter Hymn from Masagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana as well as taking on Lady Macbeth’s entrance scene Vieni t’affretta from Verdi’s Macbeth as a nod the British culture and history. She is joined by star cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason and conductor Dalia Stasevska. 

 Davidsen is currently the Artist in Spotlight at the Barbican, where her next appearance on 30th of May is a gala operatic evening together with none other than Freddie De Tommaso and pianist James Baillieu. For more ticket and more information click here.  

Next season, UK audiences can also see Davidsen at the Royal Opera House as Elisabeth in Tannhäuser (29th January –16th February 2023) and her role debut as Elisabetta in Verdi’s Don Carlo (30th June – 15th July 2023). 

 https://www.royalalberthall.com/tickets/events/2022/prom-72-last-night-of-the-proms-2022/ 

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”.

Komische Oper Berlin inaugurated  their new season with the premiere of George Enescu's Oedipe starring Leigh Melrose in the title role. A real "tour de force" musically and dramatically which garnered him huge public and critical acclaim:

" The outstanding Leigh Melrose carries the evening with a singing that is close to speaking - and in fact Enescu has repeatedly noted transitions into the spoken song. At the same time, Melrose still has reserves for magically soft tones until the conciliatory final vocal" (Berliner Zeitung)

 "Leigh Melrose, in the fraught title role, gives a remarkable performance, gripping and powerful, consummately emotional yet always in control." (Financial Times)

 "Leigh Melrose’s mesmerising performance in the title role. One felt, rather than merely observed, every twist and turn of the fatal screw, words, music, and gesture conceived and delivered in post-Wagnerian whole." (Seen and Heard International)

On 16 April Decca Classics release Freddie De Tommaso's debut album Passione , recorded in London with the Philharmonic Orchestra and Renato Balsadonna. The album explores De Tommaso's Italian heritage and pays tribute to his two heroes: tenor Franco Corelli, whose centenary we celebrate this year, and to his late father, Franco De Tommaso.