I respect that kind of honesty, and I always enjoy working with him.” “He tells you exactly how he feels, but he’s very respectful. “I’ve always felt tons of support from him,” says Kelsey. Kelsey made his San Francisco, Covent Garden, and Metropolitan Opera debuts with the Italian maestro. This “Rigoletto” also marks his latest collaboration with company music director Nicola Luisotti. I’m very much looking forward to what we’ll be able to create together.” “She’s a wonderful colleague, with a beautiful voice, beautiful talent. San Francisco Opera has assembled an excellent cast, says Kelsey, who is paired with the Gilda of Georgian soprano Nino Machaidze. Once you launch into the aria proper, it’s very physical, because he’s come apart - and he’s making no bones about the fact that he knows what’s going on.” “He’s thinking ‘Where is she? What have they done with her?’ - all the while trying to keep a straight face. “He’s trying to keep everybody happy and not show his feelings,” says Kelsey. He never sits still, so this is very much what you have to plan for.”īy the Act II ‘Cortigiani’ scene, Rigoletto realizes his daughter, the innocent Gilda, has been abducted. “It’s very physical,” he says, “especially in the first scene of Act I, in the court, where he has to run around the room, making everybody laugh. He’s just as comfortable with the role’s physicality. The role lies high for many baritone voices, but in a coaching session a few years back - “with a famous mezzo-soprano who shall remain nameless” - he discovered an upper extension in his voice, one he didn’t know existed. Despite its musical, emotional, and physical demands, he says it’s a great fit. Opera mainstage debut in 2008 as Marcello in “La Bohème.” In subsequent roles for the company - in “Il Trovatore,” “Madama Butterfly,” “Aida,” “Attila,” and “La Traviata” - he’s earned accolades for his robust stage presence and dark-hued vocalism.īut Kelsey, now in his late 30s, always had his eye on “Rigoletto.” Since his debut in the title role, at Norwegian National Opera in 2011, he’s returned to it nine times - and will reprise it in Chicago this fall. Kelsey first arrived in San Francisco in 2002 as a young artist in the Merola Opera Program.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |