Michael Devlin (musician)
Encyclopedia
Michael Devlin is an American opera
singer who is internationally known as a bass-baritone
and singing-actor.
, Devlin began his career with the New Orleans Opera
Association, where he debuted in a small role in La bohème (with Audrey Schuh
as Mimì), in 1963. His next appearance was as Spalanzani in Les contes d'Hoffmann (a performance now available on Compact Discs, from VAI), with Beverly Sills
and Treigle, in 1964. He was subsequently seen in Werther
(opposite Giuseppe di Stefano
), Carmen, Ariadne auf Naxos
, Aïda
(as Amonasro, with Marisa Galvany
) and, in 1999, returned for The Ballad of Baby Doe
(as William Jennings Bryan).
and staged by Tito Capobianco
, in 1966. Further appearances there included L'amour des trois oranges (as Léandre), Giulio Cesare
(as Nireno, later the title role), The Crucible (opposite Chester Ludgin
), Bomarzo, Nine Rivers from Jordan (world premiere, by Weisgall), La bohème
(as Colline), Le coq d'or (with Karan Armstrong
), Lucia di Lammermoor
, Manon
, Œdipus rex, Le nozze di Figaro (in the title role), Mefistofele
(with Harry Theyard
), Louise
, Carmen
, Maria Stuarda
, Susannah
, Così fan tutte
, Les contes d'Hoffmann
, Faust
(in Frank Corsaro
's production) and Pelléas et Mélisande (as Golaud). He returned to the company in 2000, for The Mother of Us All, portraying Daniel Webster.
debut in 1978 as Escamillo in Carmen. His other performances at that venue have included Hänsel und Gretel (as Peter), Les contes d'Hoffmann (as the Villains, opposite Plácido Domingo
), Die Fledermaus (as Dr Falke), Bluebeard's Castle (with Jessye Norman
), Salome (as Jokanaan), Samson et Dalila (as Abimélech), Faust
, and Wozzeck
(as the Doctor). He has also often appeared at the New York City Opera
, as well as with companies in Chicago, Amsterdam, Salzburg, Verona, Madrid, London (Salome
at Covent Garden
), Paris, Prague, San Francisco (Il prigioniero), etc.
Works in his discography include Handel's Giulio Cesare (as Nireno, conducted by Rudel), Ginastera's Bomarzo (with Salvador Novoa
), Haydn's L'infedeltà delusa (conducted by Antal Doráti
), Rameau's Dardanus (with Frederica von Stade
, conducted by Raymond Leppard
), and Schönberg's Moses und Aron
(as the Ephraimite, conducted by Pierre Boulez
).
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
singer who is internationally known as a bass-baritone
Bass-baritone
A bass-baritone is a high-lying bass or low-lying "classical" baritone voice type which shares certain qualities with the true baritone voice. The term arose in the late 19th century to describe the particular type of voice required to sing three Wagnerian roles: the Dutchman in Der fliegende...
and singing-actor.
New Orleans Opera
The protégé of the great Norman TreigleNorman Treigle
Norman Treigle was an American operatic bass-baritone, who was acclaimed for his great abilities as a singing-actor, and specialized in roles that evoked villainy and terror....
, Devlin began his career with the New Orleans Opera
New Orleans Opera
Opera has long been part of the musical culture of New Orleans, Louisiana. Operas have regularly been performed in the city since the 1790s, and for the majority of the city's history since the early 19th century, New Orleans has had a resident company regularly performing opera in addition to...
Association, where he debuted in a small role in La bohème (with Audrey Schuh
Audrey Schuh
Audrey Schuh was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, on , and studied both music and medical technology at Loyola University of the South, where she studied with Dorothy Hulse, who was also the pedagogue of Harry Theyard and Charles Anthony...
as Mimì), in 1963. His next appearance was as Spalanzani in Les contes d'Hoffmann (a performance now available on Compact Discs, from VAI), with Beverly Sills
Beverly Sills
Beverly Sills was an American operatic soprano whose peak career was between the 1950s and 1970s. In her prime she was the only real rival to Joan Sutherland as the leading bel canto stylist...
and Treigle, in 1964. He was subsequently seen in Werther
Werther
Werther is an opera in four acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Édouard Blau, Paul Milliet and Georges Hartmann based on the German epistolary novel The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe....
(opposite Giuseppe di Stefano
Giuseppe Di Stefano
Giuseppe Di Stefano was an Italian operatic tenor who sang professionally from the late 1940s until the early 1990s. He was known as the "Golden voice" or "The most beautiful voice", as the true successor of Beniamino Gigli...
), Carmen, Ariadne auf Naxos
Ariadne auf Naxos
Ariadne auf Naxos is an opera by Richard Strauss with a German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Bringing together slapstick comedy and consuming beautiful music, the opera's theme is the competition between high and low art for the public's attention.- First version :The opera was originally...
, Aïda
Aida
Aida sometimes spelled Aïda, is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni, based on a scenario written by French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette...
(as Amonasro, with Marisa Galvany
Marisa Galvany
Marisa Galvany is an American soprano who had an active international career performing in operas and concerts up into the early 2000s. Known for the great intensity of her performances, Galvany particularly excelled in portraying Verdi heroines...
) and, in 1999, returned for The Ballad of Baby Doe
The Ballad of Baby Doe
The Ballad of Baby Doe is an opera by the American composer Douglas Moore that uses an English-language libretto by John Latouche. It is Moore's most famous opera and one of the few American operas to be in the standard repertory...
(as William Jennings Bryan).
New York City Opera
At the City Opera, Devlin first sang the Hermit in Ginastera's Don Rodrigo, conducted by Julius RudelJulius Rudel
Julius Rudel is an American opera and orchestra conductor who emigrated to the United States from Austria at the age of 17 and studied conducting at the Mannes College of Music in New York City. He then forged a 35-year career with the New York City Opera, from 1944 to 1979, and was the Music...
and staged by Tito Capobianco
Tito Capobianco
Tito Capobianco is a noted stage director of opera.He made his official debut with Aïda, at the Teatro Argentino, La Plata, in 1953, then worked at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires...
, in 1966. Further appearances there included L'amour des trois oranges (as Léandre), Giulio Cesare
Giulio Cesare
Giulio Cesare in Egitto , commonly known simply as Giulio Cesare, is an Italian opera in three acts written for the Royal Academy of Music by George Frideric Handel in 1724...
(as Nireno, later the title role), The Crucible (opposite Chester Ludgin
Chester Ludgin
-Biography:Chester Ludgin was a native of Brooklyn, New York. He made his professional debut in 1956 with The Experimental Opera Theatre of America , as Baron Scarpia in Giacomo Puccini's Tosca, conducted by Renato Cellini and directed by Armando Agnini...
), Bomarzo, Nine Rivers from Jordan (world premiere, by Weisgall), La bohème
La bohème
La bohème is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions quadro, a tableau or "image", rather than atto . by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on Scènes de la vie de bohème by Henri Murger...
(as Colline), Le coq d'or (with Karan Armstrong
Karan Armstrong
Karan Armstrong is an American operatic soprano who has had an active international career since the 1960s.-Biography:...
), Lucia di Lammermoor
Lucia di Lammermoor
Lucia di Lammermoor is a dramma tragico in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti. Salvadore Cammarano wrote the Italian language libretto loosely based upon Sir Walter Scott's historical novel The Bride of Lammermoor....
, Manon
Manon
Manon is an opéra comique in five acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Henri Meilhac and Philippe Gille, based on the 1731 novel L’histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut by the Abbé Prévost...
, Œdipus rex, Le nozze di Figaro (in the title role), Mefistofele
Mefistofele
Mefistofele is an opera in a prologue, four acts and an epilogue, the only completed opera by the Italian composer-librettist Arrigo Boito.-Composition history:...
(with Harry Theyard
Harry Theyard
Harry Theyard , tenor, is a native of New Orleans and is a 1957 graduate of Loyola University of the South, where he studied under Dorothy Hulse, who was also the teacher of Audrey Schuh and Charles Anthony...
), Louise
Louise (opera)
Louise is an opera in four acts by Gustave Charpentier to an original French libretto by the composer, with some contributions by Saint-Pol-Roux, a symbolist poet and inspiration of the surrealists....
, Carmen
Carmen
Carmen is a French opéra comique by Georges Bizet. The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée, first published in 1845, itself possibly influenced by the narrative poem The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin...
, Maria Stuarda
Maria Stuarda
Maria Stuarda is a tragic opera, , in two acts, by Gaetano Donizetti, to a libretto by Giuseppe Bardari, based on Friedrich Schiller's 1800 play Maria Stuart....
, Susannah
Susannah
Susannah is an opera in two acts by American composer Carlisle Floyd, who wrote the libretto and music while a member of the piano faculty at Florida State University. Floyd adapted the story from the Apocryphal tale of Susannah and the Elders, though the latter story has a more positive ending...
, Così fan tutte
Così fan tutte
Così fan tutte, ossia La scuola degli amanti K. 588, is an opera buffa by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart first performed in 1790. The libretto was written by Lorenzo Da Ponte....
, Les contes d'Hoffmann
Les contes d'Hoffmann
Les contes d'Hoffmann is an opéra by Jacques Offenbach. The French libretto was written by Jules Barbier, based on short stories by E. T. A...
, Faust
Faust (opera)
Faust is a drame lyrique in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré from Carré's play Faust et Marguerite, in turn loosely based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust, Part 1...
(in Frank Corsaro
Frank Corsaro
Frank Corsaro is one of America's foremost stage directors of opera and theatre. His Broadway productions include The Night of the Iguana ....
's production) and Pelléas et Mélisande (as Golaud). He returned to the company in 2000, for The Mother of Us All, portraying Daniel Webster.
Metropolitan Opera
Devlin made his Metropolitan OperaMetropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
debut in 1978 as Escamillo in Carmen. His other performances at that venue have included Hänsel und Gretel (as Peter), Les contes d'Hoffmann (as the Villains, opposite Plácido Domingo
Plácido Domingo
Plácido Domingo KBE , born José Plácido Domingo Embil, is a Spanish tenor and conductor known for his versatile and strong voice, possessing a ringing and dramatic tone throughout its range...
), Die Fledermaus (as Dr Falke), Bluebeard's Castle (with Jessye Norman
Jessye Norman
Jessye Norman is an American opera singer. Norman is a well-known contemporary opera singer and recitalist, and is one of the highest paid performers in classical music...
), Salome (as Jokanaan), Samson et Dalila (as Abimélech), Faust
Faust (opera)
Faust is a drame lyrique in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré from Carré's play Faust et Marguerite, in turn loosely based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust, Part 1...
, and Wozzeck
Wozzeck
Wozzeck is the first opera by the Austrian composer Alban Berg. It was composed between 1914 and 1922 and first performed in 1925. The opera is based on the drama Woyzeck left incomplete by the German playwright Georg Büchner at his death. Berg attended the first production in Vienna of Büchner's...
(as the Doctor). He has also often appeared at the New York City Opera
New York City Opera
The New York City Opera is an American opera company located in New York City.The company, called "the people's opera" by New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, was founded in 1943 with the aim of making opera financially accessible to a wide audience, producing an innovative choice of repertory, and...
, as well as with companies in Chicago, Amsterdam, Salzburg, Verona, Madrid, London (Salome
Salome (opera)
Salome is an opera in one act by Richard Strauss to a German libretto by the composer, based on Hedwig Lachmann’s German translation of the French play Salomé by Oscar Wilde. Strauss dedicated the opera to his friend Sir Edgar Speyer....
at Covent Garden
Covent Garden
Covent Garden is a district in London on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St. Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit and vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and the Royal Opera House, which is also known as...
), Paris, Prague, San Francisco (Il prigioniero), etc.
Works in his discography include Handel's Giulio Cesare (as Nireno, conducted by Rudel), Ginastera's Bomarzo (with Salvador Novoa
Salvador Novoa
Salvador Novoa is a Mexican dramatic tenor. He is especially known for the operas of Alberto Ginastera....
), Haydn's L'infedeltà delusa (conducted by Antal Doráti
Antal Doráti
Antal Doráti, KBE was a Hungarian-born conductor and composer who became a naturalized American citizen in 1947.-Biography:...
), Rameau's Dardanus (with Frederica von Stade
Frederica von Stade
Frederica von Stade is an American mezzo-soprano. Born in Somerville, New Jersey, she acquired the nickname "Flicka" in her childhood. Von Stade attended the Mannes College of Music in New York City. She made her debut with the Metropolitan Opera in 1970 and in 1971 appeared as Cherubino in The...
, conducted by Raymond Leppard
Raymond Leppard
Raymond "Def" Leppard, CBE is a British conductor and harpsichordist.He was born in London and grew up in Bath, where he was educated at the City of Bath Boys' School, now known as the Beechen Cliff School...
), and Schönberg's Moses und Aron
Moses und Aron
Moses und Aron is a three-act opera by Arnold Schoenberg with the third act unfinished. The German libretto was by the composer after the Book of Exodus.-Compositional history:...
(as the Ephraimite, conducted by Pierre Boulez
Pierre Boulez
Pierre Boulez is a French composer of contemporary classical music, a pianist, and a conductor.-Early years:Boulez was born in Montbrison, Loire, France. As a child he began piano lessons and demonstrated aptitude in both music and mathematics...
).
Videography
- Humperdinck: Hänsel und GretelHänsel und GretelHansel and Gretel is an opera by nineteenth-century composer Engelbert Humperdinck, who described it as a Märchenoper . The libretto was written by Humperdinck's sister, Adelheid Wette, based on the Grimm brothers' fairy tale "Hansel and Gretel"...
(Blegen, von Stade; Fulton, Merrill/Donnell, 1982) [live] - Meyerbeer: L'africaine (Verrett, Swenson, Domingo, Díaz; Arena, Mansouri, 1988) [live]
- Strauss: SalomeSalome (opera)Salome is an opera in one act by Richard Strauss to a German libretto by the composer, based on Hedwig Lachmann’s German translation of the French play Salomé by Oscar Wilde. Strauss dedicated the opera to his friend Sir Edgar Speyer....
(Ewing, Knight, Riegel; Downes, Hall, 1992) [live] - Berg: Wozzeck [as the Doctor] (Dalayman, Neumann, Struckmann; Levine, Lamos, 2001) [live]