Wright, Bakst present final entry in Hodgson Faculty Series

Kathryn Wright, opera coach at the Hugh Hodgson School of Music, will present the final Hodgson Faculty Series recital with tenor Lawrence Bakst at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, March 18. Tickets to the performance, which takes place in Ramsey Concert Hall, are $10, $5 for UGA students with ID.

The program will feature works for tenor and piano by Franceso Paolo Tosti, Martha von Sabinin, Friedrich von Flotow, Giuseppe Verdi, Gaspare Spontini , Ferdinando Paer, Ludwig von Beethoven, and Richard Wagner.

Before joining the Hodgson School, Wright worked as an opera coach/prompter in Germany for two decades. Prior to that, she free-lanced extensively in New York. Her credentials include four years at the Oper der Stadt Köln under James Conlon, two years at the Semper Oper in Dresden under Giuseppe Sinopoli, and four years as a guest artist at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, working with conductors such as Peter Schneider, Adam Fisher, Carlo Rizzi, Placido Domingo and James Levine, as well as artists such as Deborah Voigt, Jennifer Larmore, Roberto Alagna, Bryn Terfel, and Ben Heppner among many others.

From 1996 to 2003 she was also a guest in Sydney for the Winter Season of the Australian Opera, where she prepared, assisted and prompted for many individual productions as well as coaching for their Young Artists Program. She was on the musical staff of the Deutsche Oper Berlin from 2001 to 2011, where again she was privileged to collaborate with many of the well-known singers and conductors of our time, including Christian Thielemann and, most recently, Donald Runnicles.

Based in Germany, Lawrence K. Bakst’s career has taken him around the world and included appearances with acclaimed artists including Violetta Urmana, Sherrill Milnes, Ghena Dimitrova, Piero Cappuccili, Michele Crider, Vladimir Chernov, and Leo Nucci. He has performed in theaters in Paris, Toulouse, Marseille, Barcelona, Madrid, Rome, Torino, London, Athens, Rio de Janiero, and Tokyo.

Winner of the top prize in many competitions — including the Metropolitan Opera National Auditions, the Vinas in Barcelona, the Concours de Chant in Toulouse and the G.B. Viotti in Vercelli — Bakst started his European career at the Wexford Festival as Hagenbach in Catalani’s La Wally. He quickly secured a position at the Opera in Wuppertal, where he stayed for five years, and began what has so far been a more than twenty-year association with Pina Bausch’s Tanztheater as Pylades in her production of Gluck’s Iphigenie auf Tauris.

Bakst specialized in the major Verdi and Puccini tenor roles, especially Il Trovatore, Aida, Don Carlos, Luisa Miller, and then Otello; as well as Puccini’s Calaf, Rodolfo and Pinkerton; and many Verismo roles, including Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci and La Bohème, Enzo in La Gioconda, Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana, and Franchetti’s Christoforo Colombo. Since the late 1990′s Bakst has added dramatic roles like Tannhäuser, Meyerbeer’s Le Prophète, Florestan, Gherman in Tschaikovski’s Pikovaya Dama, and the young Siegfried, all the while continuing to sing earlier roles such as Rodolfo in La Bohème and Verdi’s Ballo, Don Carlos, and Requiem.

His vocal and stylistic studies have included Franco Corelli, Mario and Signora del Monaco, Ettore Campogalliani, and Arrigo Pola. His first voice teacher was Hans J. Heinz at the Juilliard School, and he now works with Frau Irmgard Hartmann in Berlin. Coaches have included Joan Dornemann, Linda Hall, Yelena Kurdina, Janine Reiss, Alberta Masiello, and Dante Mazzola.

Mr. Bakst’s biography appears courtesy of larry.bakst.de

Franceso Paolo Tosti (1846-1916)                                      Goodbye! (Whyte-Melville)

                                                                                           Maytime (Augusta Hancock)

                                                                                           L'alba separa dalla luce l'ombra (G. D'Annunzio)

Martha von Sabinin (1831-1892)                                       Acht Lieder, Op. 1

                                                                                           O wär ich ein Stern (Jean Paul)

                                                                                           Stille Liebe (Goethe)

                                                                                           Mein Herz und Deine Stimme (Platen)

                                                                                           Dein Auge (Dilia Helena)

                                                                                           Lied (J. Sturm)

                                                                                           Das Fischermädchen (Heine)

                                                                                           Das ist ein Brausen und Heulen  (Heine)

                                                                                           Ich habe dich geliebt (Heine)

Friedrich von Flotow (1812-1883)                                     Rezitativ: "Sie gingen" & Arie: "Ganz war es Dein" from the opera Andreas Milius

Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901)                                             Recitativo: "La vita è inferno..." & Aria: "O tu, che in seno agl'angeli"  from La Forza del Destino

Gaspare Spontini (1774-1851)                                          Recitativo: "Qu'ai-je vu?" & Aria: "Non, non, je vis encore" from La Vestale

Ferdinando Paer (1771-1839)                                           Recitative: "Ciel, che profonda oscurità" & Aria: "Dolce ogetto" from Leonora                                     

Ludwig von Beethoven (1770 - 1827)                                "Gott, welch Dunkel hier" from Fidelio

Richard Wagner (1813 - 1883)                                           "Winterstürme" from Die Walkyrie