Gidon Saks, Bass-Baritone

Wednesday, May 30, 2012 at 7:30 pm
Terrace Theater

Songs of Beethoven, Mussorgsky, Shostakovich, Ibert and Richard Rodney Bennett. Full Program >

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A very engaging artist, Gidon charms the opera and concert stages over the world. Recent highlights include Konig Heinrich in Lohengrin with the CBSO under Andris Nelsons, Hagen in Götterdämmerung for La Fenice (which won an Abbiati Award), Claggartin Billy Budd for Opéra National de Paris, Four Villains in Les contes d’ Hoffmann under Antonio Pappano at Covent Garden, Scarpia at Bregenz Festival, Bluebeard at the Concertgebouw under Peter Eotvos, in Nantes and for the opening of a new theatre in Angers, and Don Pizzaro for Canadian Opera Company. His critically acclaimed performance as Claggart with the London Symphony Orchestra under Daniel Harding was also recorded by EMI / Virgin Classics, which won a Grammy Award 2010 for Best Opera Recording. Previously he sang this role for Royal Opera House, Opéra National de Paris, Scottish Opera, Geneva and Antwerp.

Other opera highlights in Europe include Kaspar in Die Freischütz and Don Pizarro in Fidelio for Staatsoper Berlin, title role of Boito’s Mefistofele for De Nederlandse Opera, Seneca L’incoronazione di Poppea for La Monnaie, title role of Don Giovanni for Reisopera, Mefisto in Spohr's Faust in Vienna and Cologne, Filippo in Don Carlo in Geneva and Palermo, Sparafucile in Rigoletto, Ashby in La Fanciulla del West and Cadmus/Somnus in Semele for Vlaamse Opera. In the UK Gidon sang in The Pilgrim’s Progress under the late Richard Hickox at the Royal Opera House, title role in Boris Godunov, Kaspar, Nick Shadow in The Rake’s Progress and Hagen for English National Opera, Leporello, Achillas, Sarastro for Scottish Opera, Don Pizarro, Count Figaro, Daland and Kochubei Mazeppa for Welsh National Opera. While with the Canadian Opera Company Gidon has sung Rochefort in Anna Bolena with Dame Joan Sutherland, Daland in Der Fliegende Holländer, Wurm in Luisa Miller, Bluebeard and Boris Godunov. For Washington National Opera he sang Fafner in Siegfried, Hunding in Die Walküre, Daland and Musiklehrer in Ariadne auf Naxos. Other opera appearances include Wurm at Spoleto USA Festival and San Francisco Opera, Konig Heinrich in Lohengrin, Fafner and Hagen in Der Ring des Nibelungen in Seattle, Mephistopheles in Gounod's Faust for Cape Town Opera, Colline in La Boheme and Kecal in The Bartered Bride for New Israeli Opera.

Gidon has created several roles including George Moscone in Stewart Wallace’s Harvey Milk directed by Christopher Alden (Houston Grand Opera, New York City Opera and San Francisco Opera) which was also recorded for Teldec under Donald Runnicles, Hamilcar in Fénélon’s Salammbô (Bastille), and the Messenger in Goehr’s Arianna (Royal Opera House).

His recordings include Abbot in Curlew River (Philips) with Sir Neville Marriner, the Gravedigger in Weill’s Silbersee (BMG), the title role in Handel’s Hercules under Minkowski (Deutsche Grammophon) and Saul with Rene Jacobs, which won a Gramophone Award. Gidon Saks is also active as a director/designer and is visiting Professor of Voice at the Conservtoire of Ghent in Belgium. He also frequently gives masterclasses internationally.

Highlights in 2010/11 season include Nick Shadow in The Rake’s Progress for Staatsoper Berlin under Ingo Metzmacher, Gaspard in Le Freyschutz for Opéra Comique under John Eliot Gardiner, Fasolt in Das Rheingold for La Fenice under Jeffrey Tate, Hagen in Götterdämmerung in La Coruna and return to Nantes and Angers for Bluebeard’s Castle revival.

Roger Vignoles is internationally recognised as one of the world’s most distinguished piano accompanists and musicians of today. He regularly partners the finest singers in major venues around the world and is regarded as a leading authority on the song repertoire. Roger Vignoles was inspired to pursue a career as a piano accompanist by the playing of Gerald Moore.

Having read Music at Magdalene College, Cambridge, he joined the Royal Opera House as a repetiteur and then completed his training with the renowned Viennese-born teacher Paul Hamburger. Since then, reviewers worldwide have consistently recognised his distinctive qualities, likening Roger to “that Gerald Moore accompanist incarnate—but with better sound— truly without peer these days” (Audiophile Audition). In the course of his distinguished career he has collaborated with such leading singers as Elisabeth Söderström, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Sir Thomas Allen, Barbara Bonney, Kathleen Battle, Christine Brewer, Brigitte Fassbaender, Bernarda Fink, Susan Graham, Thomas Hampson, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Dame Felicity Lott, Mark Padmore, John Mark Ainsley, Joan Rodgers and Sarah Walker. He performs regularly at major venues across the world such as the Wigmore Hall, Philharmonie Cologne, Vienna Konzerthaus, Vienna Musikverein, the Royal Concertgebouw, Musee d’Orsay, Carnegie Hall and the Frick Collection in New York, La Scala in Milan, Frankfurt Oper, Théatre des Champs-Élysées, Schubertiade Schwarzenberg, Bonn Beethovenfest and Teatro del Zarzuela in Madrid. Recently, he also made extended tours to Japan with Mihoko Fujimura, and to North America with Measha Brueggergosman and Kate Royal.

Roger Vignoles is frequently invited to devise and direct programmes and festivals of song. He has created several series at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, including “Young Brahms”, “Landscape into Song” (a celebration of Schubert) and “Scenes from Schumann”. From 1998 to 2002 he was artistic director of the Nagaoka Winter Festival in Japan. He is currently the artistic director of Sommer Lied Weinberg in Upper Austria, the Ciclo de Lied Galega at Santiago de Compostela in Spain and the Tetbury Festival in England. In 2009/10 he presented a series of Strauss songs recitals at the Wigmore Hall. His extensive discography includes many highly-acclaimed recordings, from German Lieder and French Melodies to Spanish Canciones and Cabaret Songs: Schumann and Brahms with Bernarda Fink on Harmonia Mundi; the ongoing Hyperion Strauss series with Christine Brewer, Anne Schwanewilms, Andrew Kennedy, Christopher Maltman and Alastair Miles; and Schubert’s Schwanengesang with Robert Holl on Hyperion. His recent recording of Britten’s Winter Words and Holy sonnets of John Donne, Before Life and After, with Mark Padmore on Harmonia Mundi received the prestigious Diapason d’Or and Prix Caecilia awards in 2009.

Roger Vignoles is recognised internationally as an outstanding teacher and has given masterclasses in Amsterdam, Brussels, Copenhagen, Stockholm, New York, Boston, Baltimore, Montreal and Toronto. He is a regular visitor to the University of Indiana, Bloomington, as well as to the Britten-Pears Young Artists’ Programme at Snape. Roger is Prince Consort Professor of Accompaniment at the Royal College of Music in London and has been awarded an Honorary Fellowship of Magdalene College, Cambridge honoris causa ('as a mark of honour').

Highlights in 2010/11 include recitals with Elīna Garanča in Baden-Baden, with Elizabeth Watts at the Royal Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, with John Mark Ainsley at Oper Frankfurt, with Miah Persson at Tonhalle, Zurich, Wigmore Hall and Wiener Konzerthaus, and with Alek Shrader at Spivey Hall, Atlanta. At the Wigmore Hall he performs with with Christine Brewer, Christine Rice, Florian Boesch and Renata Pokupić and UK appearances at Queen Elizabeth Hall, Bath Mozartfest, Oxford Lieder and Cheltenham Festivals. In 2011/12 Roger Vignoles will curate his own song recital series at the Wigmore Hall, a North American tour with Florian Boesch and a European tour with Elīna Garanča. Roger Vignoles is represented by Intermusica.