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This section contains snippets of news about Gerry's performances, recordings, award nominations (in more or less chronological order - most recent first) plus photos that don’t seem to fit anywhere else

The Classic FM Gramophone Awards 2008 – Artist of the Year nominations

VOTE FOR GERRY

http://www.gramophone.co.uk/vote.asp

From the Gramophone website, July 2008

Recent winners include some of the most exciting names in today’s classical music world: Marin Alsop, Michael Tilson Thomas, Angela Hewitt and, last year, Julia Fischer. But what also marks Gramophone Artists of the Year out from the rest is that they are voted for by the public – readers and listeners of Gramophone and its various media partners around the world (last year’s vote reached a global audience of around 13m) – and so have something about them that has caught the imagination.


With eyes and ears once again preparing to focus on the Gramophone Awards, taking place in Londonon September 25, don’t miss this year’s chance to help decide the Artist of the Year online....

...Gerald Finley has had a magnificent 12 months in opera and song, with captivating recordings of Ives and Barber songs. “It’s difficult to imagine a more ardent exponent than Gerald Finley. While the orchestral writing is spare, Finley’s diction is second to none, allied to exceptional beauty of tone.” David Gutman, Gramophone, April 2008

Shortlisted artists – as chosen by the Gramophone editorial team – are below.   

Natalie Dessay, Soprano

Gustavo Dudamel, Conductor

Gerald Finley, Baritone

Iván Fischer, Conductor

Hilary Hahn, Violinist

Marc-André Hamelin, Pianist

Paul Lewis, Pianist

Anna Netrebko, Soprano

MurrayPerahia, Pianist

Rolando Villazón, Tenor

 

From Angela Hewitt’s website

http://www.angelahewitt.com/

My Trasimeno Music Festival is now over for another year…

… For those of you who have not been present at a concert in the 15-century courtyard of the Castle of the Knights of Malta in Magione, it is hard to describe the magic of the setting on a beautiful summer’s night (we were extremely lucky with the weather as it is outdoors, and only once this year did we have to stop for a few minutes for some raindrops). The illuminated tower, the graceful arches in the balconies surrounding the stage and audience, the occasional bird or bat flying about….all add to the fantastic atmosphere. And the acoustic is amazing for an outdoor venue. The softest pianissimo is heard without any difficulty by all.

This year we presented a Baroque orchestral concert in the stunningly beautiful church of San Pietroin Perugia (in which I conducted a Bach cantata for the first time), and returned to the grandeur of the Church of San Domenico in Gubbio (with conductor Michal Dworzynski). My colleagues were all wonderful, not just as musicians, but as people. To me that makes a difference. The recital with baritone Gerald Finley was an evening that nobody who attended will ever forget…

 

From the Telegraph, 14 June 2008

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2008/06/14/bmweek114.xml

Pianist Angela Hewitt tells Jon Swaine about her week: Tuesday

I took the 8.55amplane to Heathrow. Once home I spent three hours rehearsing a vocal programme for Trasimeno with the wonderful baritone Gerald Finley. We both grew up in Ottawa, Canada, and have both lived in London for many years, but have always been too busy to work together. It was pure pleasure, and reminded me why I put myself through the hell of organising a festival. When we were done I changed suitcases and headed out again, this time to fly to Dublin.

 

 

Gerry with Simon Rattle at a concert with the Berlin Philharmonie, April 2008

Photo courtesy of http://www.geraldfinley.com where a larger version can be found

 

 

Seen in an article on Antonio Pappano in ‘About the House’, the magazine of the Royal Opera House, April 2008

In particular he cites the rewards of working with British directors Richard Jones (in Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk and in the Ravel/Puccini double bill, L'Heure espagnole/Gianni Schicchi) and David McVicar (Rigoletto, Die Zauberflote, Le nozze di Figaro). 'Lady Macbeth was extraordinarily memorable, and Figaro was so lucid, with a wonderful cast, and the particular intelligence of the relationship between the Count [Gerry] and Countess. It was a terrific endeavour, very inspired and tightly prepared.'

 

Seen in The Times,22 March and 5 April 2008...

Top Opera - EUGENE ONEGIN. A slightly less tepid revival of Stephen Pimlott’s drippy production - thanks to a scorching performance from Gerald Finley in the title role. JirÍ Belohlávek conducts.

… and the Telegraph, 28 March 2008

The peerless Gerald Finley shines in the title role of a musically superb revival of Tchaikovsky's drama, conducted by Jirí Belohlávek.

 

 

From http://www.geraldfinley.com/, 7 February 2008
Laurence Olivier Award Nomination!


"Following Gerald Finley's double Juno Award nomination earlier this week, we are thrilled to announce that he has now been nominated for the award for 'Outstanding Achievement In Opera' at the 2008 Laurence Olivier Awards.


Gerald has been nominated for his performance as Golaud in PELLÉAS ET MÉLISANDE at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. The production has also been nominated in the 'Best New Opera Production' category. The winners of the 2008 Laurence Olivier Awards will be announced at a ceremony at the Grosvenor House Hotel on March 9, 2008."

Angelika Kirchschlager (Melisande) and Gerry (Golaud), both nominated for "Outstanding Achievement in Opera" at the 2008 Olivier Awards

 

 

From http://www.geraldfinley.com/, 6 February 2008

Double Juno Awards Nomination!!


We are delighted to announce that Gerald has been nominated for two awards at the 2008 Canadian Juno Awards. In the 'Classical Album of the Year: Vocal or Choral Performance' category both 'Songs by Samuel Barber' (Hyperion) and 'Schubert Among Friends' (Marquis Classics) have been nominated. The Awards ceremony will take place in Calgary on Saturday April 5th and broadcast on Sunday April 6th.

 

Photo courtesy of www.geraldfinley.com

 

From an interview with Julius Drake, Opera News, January 2008, vol 72, no. 7

http://www.metoperafamily.org/operanews/issue/article.aspx?id=3673&issueID=178

ON: Which singers that you've worked with have had an impact on you musically over the years?


JD: There are some close colleagues that I have worked with often over a number of years — Ian Bostridge, for instance. We've worked together since 1992, and that's a long time, and you build up a type of trust with close colleagues like that. I will often be grateful to hear what Ian feels about the piano part. He feels as passionately about the piano part as he does about the vocal part. Because of the relationship of trust that we have built up, he can be very critical about how he thinks the piano part is sounding under my hands. I won't be offended, and I won't be hurt — I'll try to learn from it and try to get at what he's getting at. And I think that one of the great joys of chamber-music partnerships is that you can make a team. And I hope the same works the other way around. And there are other close partnerships that I value for the same reasons — people like Gerald Finley, another person I feel very close to and therefore very relaxed with.

 

Hugo Shirley’s Top twelve recordings of 2007 for Musicalcriticism.com

http://www.musicalcriticism.com/recordings/top-twelve-recordings-1207.shtml

 

Gerald Finley sings Songs by Samuel Barber (Hyperion).

Not the perfect soundtrack to the Christmas family lunch, perhaps, but the redoubtable Gerald Finley's new disc of songs by Samuel Barber is both thought-provoking and emotive. In particular, I admire the way in which the singer has considered the sounds he created to suit this repertoire. The eeriness of so many of these numbers needs not only a beautiful voice but an even vocal production, seamless legato and the ability to respond to the text.

 

 

 

Seen in Rupert Christensen’s “Review of the year” for the Telegraph, 15 December 2007

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2007/12/15/btopera115.xml

…At least these stories related to events and personalities of genuine artistic significance. Elsewhere, however, I was driven mad by the tabloids' infatuation with the likes of Katherine Jenkins, Russell Watson and Paul "Pottarotti" Potts (the karaoke tenor who won Britain's Got Talent), whom they insist on labelling "opera singers". For once and for all, can we get it clear that crooning the odd aria into a microphone does not admit you to the profession?

Let's keep that job description for real talents such as Natalie Dessay, whose Marie in the Royal Opera's delightful La fille du régiment was pure genius. Or Renée Fleming, ravishing as Massenet's courtesan Thais, or Nina Stemme, a rapturous Isolde at Glyndebourne, or Ann Sophie Duprels, a heartbreaking Jenu?fa and Butterfly. Or our two great baritones, Gerald Finley and Simon Keenlyside, or the Mexican tenor Rolando Villazón, or the German bass René Pape. The Pottarottis of this world simply aren't in the same business…

[However...]

…WORST OF 2007

I could happily punch the director Stanislas Nordey for his hideous and pretentious interpretation of my favourite opera, Pelléas et Mélisande at the Royal Opera House.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Excerpt from the blog of Brian Dickie, General Director of the Chicago Opera Theater, 11 December 2007

http://briandickie.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/12/atomic-day.html

“The Dr Atomic dress rehearsal was at Lyric this afternoon, dominated by the extraordinary charismatic performance of Oppenheimer by Gerald Finley.  He was a new talent once - and so joined the Glyndebourne Chorus and served his time with Glyndebourne's touring arm in the 80s.  His is a performance not to be missed - wonderful!”

 

 

From the Guardian, 6 December 2007

Mendes to make opera debut at Glyndebourne

http://arts.guardian.co.uk/theatre/news/story/0,,2222901,00.html

“It is a move that will take him from the hustle of Hollywood to the leafy lanes of East Sussex, from Tinseltown to the rarefied environs of Glyndebourne. Sam Mendes, director of American Beauty and Road to Perdition, is to try his hand at directing opera.

The former Donmar Warehouse artistic director will take on Mozart's Don Giovanni in 2010, a coup for the opera festival, and the result of eight years of wooing.”

“The idea of Don Giovanni had come from Glyndebourne, rather than Mendes, but he was "intrigued and fascinated" by the opera and strongly attracted by the Da Ponte libretto, said Pickard. The festival's music director, Vladimir Jurowski, is to conduct. Rising star Kate Royal will take the role of Donna Elvira; Canadian baritone Gerard Finley will sing Don Giovanni.”

 

 

From Gramophone, Dec 2007

"The best events worldwide... the pick of December's concerts from around the globe"

 

 

From Julius Drake's website http://www.juliusdrake.com/main.php?rubrik=10

 

Click the photo below for details of The Opera Lover's Cookbook: Menus for Elegant Entertaining

By Francine Segan (Author), Mark Thomas (Illustrator).

With a foreword by Renee Fleming and wine notes by Gerald Finley   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From the Salzburg Festspiele Daily magazine, 14 August 2007

 

"Premiere of Le nozze di Figaro: After their various entanglements, Figaro and Susanna, Count and Countess assembled harmoniously in the Blaue Gans where, leaving the fandango behind, Le nozze di Figaro singers Luca Pisaroni, Diana Damrau, Dorothea Röschmann and Gerald Finley celebrated the successful reprise in the Haus für Mozart."

 

From MusicalCritisicm.com: Kyle Ketelsen talks to Dominic McHugh, 26 May 2007

http://www.musicalcriticism.com/interviews/ketelsen.htm

“…Giovanni is a difficult role because you can do it in so many different ways. Simon Keenlyside and Gerald Finley have it down perfectly. You watch them treat a scene in a special way and think, ‘I would never have thought to do it like that but it’s perfect…”

 

 

 

Gerry with pianist and fellow Canadian Angela Hewitt at a reception at Buckingham Palace, 3 May 2005.

(Photo courtesy of http://www.angelahewitt.com)

 

 

 

From Songs for Low Voices, Opera News, August 2003

Stephen Francis Vasta takes an up-close look at the virtues and vices of nine top lieder baritones

http://www.metoperafamily.org/operanews/_archive/803/SongsForLowVoice.803.html

“…In eight selections on Hyperion's 1827 Schubertiad, Canadian-born Gerald Finley impresses me as most closely resembling Fischer-Dieskau in terms of both his basic vocal endowment and its technical handling. His smooth transition into a heady coordination without sacrificing brilliance and ring ensures an exceptionally even note-to-note connection. As his voice moves up the scale in the "Jägers Liebeslied," its timbre lightens without losing its unmistakably baritonal quality. The "Schiffers Scheidelied," with its bracing dotted rhythms, affords him ample expressive opportunities: he portrays the storm with ominous intensity, then softens the color for the eighth strophe's salute to friendship, maintaining a solid core of sound throughout. Three Metastasio settings in Italian draw on a reserve of hearty Italianate irony, though Finley's voice, in "L'Incanto degli Occhi," negotiates the short runs more easily than the turns. Finley is definitely an artist worth watching.”

CHOICE CUTS

 Gerald Finley

"An 1827 Schubertiad" With Graham Johnson. Hyperion CDJ 33036