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The Canadian baritone, Gerald Finley, began singing as a chorister in Ottawa, Canada, and completed his musical studies in the UK at the Royal College of Music, Kings College, Cambridge, and the National Opera Studio with the support of the Friends of Covent Garden, The Countess of Munster Musical Trust, The Worshipful Company of Musicians and as the winner of Glyndebourne's John Christie Award.
Gerald Finley has become one of the leading singers of his generation, recording with major labels and performing at the major opera and concert venues in a wide variety of repertoire, all to critical acclaim.
In opera, W.A. Mozart's Figaro became a foundation of Gerald Finley's work with the major opera houses, but this developed into performances of all the leading W.A. Mozart baritone roles, most recently Don Giovanni and the Count He has performed in the leading roles of recent world premieres including Mark Anthony Turnage's The Silver Tassie (as Harry Heegan) at English National Opera for which he was nominated for the 2000 Oliver Award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera and for which he won the 2000 Royal Philharmonic Society Award for Singers. It has been released on the ENO Live label. He created the title role in Fantastic Mr. Fox at L.A. Opera. He has also performed and recorded the title role in Ralph Vaughan Williams' Pilgrims Progress with the Royal Opera Covent Garden, and has recently completed the title role in the new DVD film version of Benjamin Britten's Owen Wingrave, a role he first sang at Glyndebourne in 1997. In Sariaaho's L'amour de loin at the Theatre du Chatelet Paris, and Santa Fe Festival he won critical acclaim for the lead role of the troubador Jaufre Rudel. It has been released on DVD by DG and Finnish National Opera, conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen. At English National Opera he sang Chou en Lai in John Adams' Nixon in China, and the title role in Eugene Onegin to outstanding reviews. He sang the lead role (Robert Oppenheimer) in the world premiere of John Adams' new opera Dr. Atomic at San Francisco Opera in October 2005.
Gerald Finley's close association with Glyndebourne, where he has performed most seasons since 1986, includes appearances as Papageno, Figaro, Guglielmo, Nick Shadow and Agamemnon in Iphigenie en Aulide. At the Metropolitan Opera New York, he has sung Papageno and Marcello, and sang the title role of Don Giovanni to critical acclaim in 2005 while at the Royal Opera Covent Garden his roles have included Don Giovanni, Giorgio Germont in La Traviata, Creonte in Haydn's Orfeo, the Forester in The Cunning Little Vixen and in 2006 Count Almaviva in Marriage of Figaro and Yeletsky in Tchaikovsky's Queen of Spades. He has worked regularly at the Opera de Paris with roles including Valentin, Sharpless, Papageno, Figaro, Il Conte Almaviva, Don Giovanni, and has continued with the role of Olivier in Strauss's Capriccio, in Robert Carsen's acclaimed production. At the Salzburg Easter Festival 2004 he sang Guglielmo and his next appearance there will be as Golaud in a new production of Pelleas et Melisande in 2006. His singing of the role of Argante in the recent recording of George Frideric Handel's Rinaldo with Cecilia Bartoli has also received critical acclaim.
Gerald Finley's varied concert work consists of performances of work by today's leading composers including Mark Anthony Turnage, Julian Phillips and Richard Blackford. His equally prestigious appearances in classical repertoire is prodigious, and he has featured in recordings of Haydn, Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms and W.A. Mozart. He is a frequent guest of many orchestras throughout Europe and he continues his work from J.S. Bach, Haydn and G.F. Handel to Benjamin Britten, Igor Stravinsky and Anton Webern His recent relationship with the Berliner Philharmoniker includes performances of L.v. Beethoven and W.A. Mozart with Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Sir Simon Rattle. As a recitalist, he has appeared throughout Europe, is a regular guest at the Wigmore Hall, and he has issued a number of song discs on the Hyperion label, most recently Songs of Charles Ives with Julius Drake, and in the Schubert series with Graham Johnson, An 1827 Schubertiade. Upcoming projects with Hyperion include the songs of Samuel Barber. His disc Songs of Travel won the 1998 Canadian Juno Award for best Classical Album. He has recently recorded the complete songs of Henri Duparc for the CBC label in Canada. He works regularly with Julius Drake and Roger Vignoles. |
