John Relyea

Last updated

John Relyea (born 1972 [1] in Toronto) is a Canadian-American operatic bass.

He was born in 1972 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, [2] to American-born Gary Relyea and Estonian mother Anna Tamm-Relyea. Both parents are opera singers and voice teachers. He first studied voice at age 17 with his father.

Relyea attended the Curtis Institute of Music vocal program in Philadelphia. He later continued his vocal training with renowned American operatic bass Jerome Hines, voice teacher Armen Boyajian, and with Bulgarian bass Nicolai Ghiuselev.

After attending the Curtis Institute he continued his training as an apprentice in the San Francisco Opera's Adler Fellowship. He has appeared in over 20 roles on the San Francisco Opera stage.

His international opera career began in 2000 as Alidoro in Rossini's La Cenerentola, in a highly-acclaimed debut with Metropolitan Opera. He has since appeared there in over 240 performances.

His vast repertoire of roles has seen him appear with major international opera houses including the Royal Opera House, the Opera National de Paris, Bayerische Staatsoper, La Scala, Liceu of Barcelona, Teatro Real of Madrid, Canadian Opera Company, and many others.

Throughout his career he has been renowned for interpretations of the role of Figaro in Le Nozze de Figaro, Mephisto in Berlioz’s La Damnation de Faust and Gounod’s Faust, King Marke in Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, and the title role of Bartok’s Bluebeard’s Castle. He most frequently performs roles of Verdi and Wagner.

He has also performed a wide span of concert repertoire with major Symphony Orchestras worldwide, including the Berlin Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, LA Philharmonic, Toronto Symphony, Montreal Symphony, Philharmonie de Paris, Swedish Radio Orchestra, and NDR Hamburg.

Mr Relyea currently resides in Rhode Island with his wife and two sons.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ezio Pinza</span> Italian opera singer (1892–1957)

Ezio Fortunato Pinza was an Italian opera singer. Pinza possessed a rich, smooth and sonorous voice, with a flexibility unusual for a bass. He spent 22 seasons at New York's Metropolitan Opera, appearing in more than 750 performances of 50 operas. At the San Francisco Opera, Pinza sang 26 roles during 20 seasons from 1927 to 1948. Pinza also sang to great acclaim at La Scala, Milan and at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Hampson</span> American opera singer

Thomas Walter Hampson is an American lyric baritone, a classical singer who has appeared world-wide in major opera houses and concert halls and made over 170 musical recordings.

Thomas Bernard Heppner is a Canadian tenor and broadcaster, now retired from singing, who specialized in opera and other classical works for voice.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cheryl Studer</span> American dramatic soprano (born 1955)

Cheryl Studer is an American dramatic soprano who has sung at many of the world's foremost opera houses. Studer has performed more than eighty roles ranging from the dramatic repertoire to roles more commonly associated with lyric sopranos and coloratura sopranos, and, in her late stage, mezzo-sopranos. She is particularly known for her interpretations of the works of Richard Strauss and Richard Wagner.

Spiro Samuel Malas was a Greek-American bass-baritone opera singer and actor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rose Bampton</span> American opera singer (1907-2007)

Rose Bampton was an American opera singer who had an active international career during the 1930s and 1940s. She began her professional career performing mostly minor roles from the mezzo-soprano repertoire in 1929 but later switched to singing primarily leading soprano roles in 1937 until her retirement from the opera stage in 1963.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Francisco Araiza</span> Mexican tenor (born 1950)

José Francisco Araiza Andrade, is a Mexican operatic tenor and lied singer who has sung as soloist in leading concert halls and in leading tenor operatic roles in the major opera houses of Europe and North America during the course of a lengthy career. Born in Mexico City, he studied singing at the Conservatorio Nacional de Música de México and later in Germany, with Mozartian tenor Richard Holm, and lieder interpretation with Erik Werba. He made his operatic debut in 1970 in Mexico City as First Prisoner in Beethoven's Fidelio. Araiza initially came to international prominence singing in Mozart and Rossini operas, but in the 1980s broadened his repertoire to include Italian and French lyric tenor roles and Wagnerian roles such as Lohengrin and Walther von Stolzing. He was made a Kammersänger of the Vienna State Opera in 1988. Now retired from the opera stage, he teaches singing and serves on the juries of several international singing competitions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom Krause</span> Finnish opera singer

Tom Gunnar Krause was a Finnish operatic bass-baritone, particularly associated with Mozart roles.

Matthew Rose is an English operatic bass.

Anthony Dean Griffey is an American opera tenor. He is a regular presence on the stages of opera houses and concert halls around the world. Griffey has also been noted for his acting talent in addition to his voice.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Angel Blue</span> American soprano (born 1984)

Angel Joy Blue is an American soprano. She won the Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording for the Metropolitan Opera production of Porgy and Bess in the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards. Her voice has been recognized for its shining and agile upper register, "smoky" middle register, beautiful timbre, and ability to switch from a classical to a contemporary sound. She has performed internationally and won numerous awards including a Grammy Award, Operalia and Miss Hollywood. According to family lore, her father Sylvester predicted her to be "the next Leontyne Price" when she was born.

Donald Munro Bell is a Canadian bass-baritone and vocal pedagogue. For over four decades he actively performed in concerts and operas internationally. He retired from performance in 1994. As a vocal pedagogue he has researched and published studies on vocal acoustics and laryngeal function. He is the founder of the Vocal Arts Acoustical Research Group at the University of Calgary, where he currently serves on the voice faculty.

Janet Williams is an American soprano who has won international critical acclaim for performances at the Metropolitan Opera, Berlin Staatsoper, Paris Opera, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Opera de Lyon, Nice Opera, Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, Opera Geneva, Frankfurt Opera, Cologne Opera, Leipzig Opera, San Francisco Opera, Washington Opera, Dallas Opera, and Michigan Opera Theatre as well as in concerts throughout Europe, North America, Canada, Israel and Japan with conductors including Vladimir Ashkenazy, Daniel Barenboim, Myung-whun Chung, Philippe Herreweghe, René Jacobs, Marek Janowski, Neeme Järvi, Raymond Leppard, Fabio Luisi, Sir Neville Marriner, Nicholas McGegan, Zubin Mehta, Kent Nagano, John Nelson, Donald Runnicles, Gerard Schwarz and Michael Tilson Thomas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nathan Berg</span> Canadian opera singer

Nathan Berg is an operatic bass-baritone. He is a Grammy Award winner, and four-time Grammy nominated, a Juno award winner and 2014 Juno Awards nominee

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ildar Abdrazakov</span> Russian opera singer (born 1976)

Ildàr Amìrovich Abdrazàkov is a Russian bass opera singer. Honoured Artist of Russia (2021).

Richard Bernstein is an American bass. He is currently a member of the Metropolitan Opera; 2023–24 is his 28th consecutive season with the company; he has sung over 500 performances at the Metropolitan Opera, and has been a part of more than 125 international live broadcasts with the company.

Brian Mulligan is an American operatic baritone who has performed in major opera houses and concert halls all over the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Pomeroy</span> Canadian operatic tenor (born 1973)

David Pomeroy is a Canadian operatic tenor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elliot Madore</span> Canadian opera singer

Elliot Madore is a Canadian lyric baritone with an international operatic career.

Detlef Roth is a German operatic bass-baritone.

References

  1. "Opera Stars of Today—John Relyea". Archived from the original on September 28, 2013. Retrieved September 26, 2013.
  2. Metropolitan Opera International Radio Broadcast Information Center — 2007–08 Broadcasts Archived April 24, 2008, at the Wayback Machine