Gregory Kunde. Tenor. Opera World

GREGORY KUNDE Gregory Kunde is regarded as one of the most elegant and accomplished bel canto singers on the opera stage today. He has appeared regularly at the world’s greatest venues, including New York’s Metropolitan Opera and Carnegie Hall, Chicago Lyric Opera, Opéra National de Paris, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, the Sydney Opera House and elsewhere. He has earned widespread acclaim for his performances of the most notable tenor rôles, including Arnold (Guillaume Tell), Julien (Louise), Des Grieux (Manon), the title rôles in Gounod’s Faust and Roméo et Juliette, and Rossini’s Otello. He has collaborated with many outstanding conductors including Riccardo Muti, Michel Plasson, Georges Prêtre, Sir Simon Rattle, Sir John Eliot Gardiner and Sir Colin Davis. His discography includes Bellini’s Bianca e Fernando, Rossini’s Semiramide, La donna del lago, Ermione, Zelmira, and Armida, Thomas’s Hamlet, Delibes’s Lakmé, Berlioz’s Benvenuto Cellini, and a Gramophone magazine award-winning DVD of the same composer’s Les Troyens at the Châtelet. For more information, please visit www.gregorykunde.com and www.gregorykundechorale.org. Biography September 16th, 2012   Regarded as one of the most ele­gant and accom­plished singers on the opera stage today, tenor Gre­gory Kunde con­tin­ues to impress audi­ences in the world’s lead­ing the­aters with his sen­si­tive phras­ing, impec­ca­ble style, and dra­matic com­mand of the most demand­ing roles of the Ital­ian and French repertoire. Hailed by crit­ics as a ris­ing young star, Gre­gory Kunde made his Euro­pean debut as Nadir in Bizet’s Les Pecheurs des Per­les in Nice, France.  Since then, he has become well known for his inter­pre­ta­tions of some of the most chal­leng­ing tenor roles.  Mr. Kunde has appeared reg­u­larly and with great suc­cess in the world’s most notable venues, includ­ing New York’s Met­ro­pol­i­tan Opera, City Opera and Carnegie Hall, Chicago, San Fran­cisco, Dal­las, Hous­ton, Paris’ Bastille, Chatelet, Opera Comique, The­atre du Champs Ely­see and Salle Pleyel, Amsterdam’s Con­cert­ge­bouw, Berlin, Munich, Dres­den, Buenos Aires, Milan, Rome, Naples, The Rossini Opera Fes­ti­val in Pesaro, Italy, Madrid, Las Pal­mas, Vienna, Zurich, Geneva, Athens, Tokyo, Syd­ney and many others. Mr. Kunde has earned wide­spread acclaim for his per­for­mances of the most demand­ing tenor roles of the French and Ital­ian bel canto operas, includ­ing, most notably:  Arnold of Rossini’s Guil­laume Tell; Julian in Charpentier’s Louise; Des Grieux of Massenet’s Manon;  Nadir of Bizet’s Les Pecheurs des Per­les;  Elvino in Bellini’s La Son­nam­bula;  Fer­nando in Donizetti’s La Favorita;  the title roles in both Gounod’s Faust and Romeo in his Romeo et Juli­ette, Rodrigo in Rossini’s La Donna del Lago, Arturo of Bellini’s I Puri­tani,  Pirro in Rossini’s Ermione, and the title role of Rossini’s Otello. He is a favorite of con­duc­tors and stage direc­tors alike and has col­lab­o­rated with many out­stand­ing tal­ents such as Sir Richard Bonynge, Roberto Abbado, Ric­cardo Muti, Gianan­drea Noseda, Pier Luigi Pizzi, Michel Plas­son, George Prêtre, Sir Simon Rat­tle, Charles Dutoit, Sir Gra­ham Vick, John Nel­son, Sir John Eliot Gar­diner and Sir Colin Davis among others. Her­alded as a bel canto author­ity, Kunde can now claim the music of Berlioz and Verdi as his ter­ri­tory as well.  Shat­ter­ing old ideas of the dra­matic tenor’s secure place in these gen­res, Kunde has con­vinc­ingly brought his bel canto ele­gance to this music.  Under the direc­tion of John Nel­son, Kunde per­formed and recorded Ben­evenuto Cellini in con­cert with the Orches­tra Radio France (Vir­gin Clas­sics).  From that enor­mous suc­cess, he has gone on to sing numer­ous con­cert per­for­mances of La Damna­tion de Faust with Mae­stro Charles Dutoit world­wide.  And at Paris’ Theâtre du Chatelet, Kunde appeared in the chal­leng­ing role of Aeneas, for a land­mark stag­ing of Berlioz’s Les Troyens under the baton of Mae­stro John Eliot Gar­diner.  Since that time, Berlioz con­tin­ues to fig­ure promi­nently in the tenor’s future per­for­mance sched­ule.  More recently, Mr. Kunde has expanded that idea of bel canto style to the music of Verdi hav­ing made debuts in I Vespri Sicil­iani (Ital­ian and French ver­sions), Un Ballo in Maschera and the Requiem.  Upcom­ing projects include La Forza del Des­tino, Il Trova­tore, Luisa Miller and a much antic­i­pated debut as Otello. 2010/2011 saw Mr. Kunde singing the title role in Donizetti’s Poli­uto for the Donizetti Fes­ti­val (Recorded live on DVD for Bon­gio­vanni) in the composer’s birth­place of Berg­amo, Italy, and then a con­cert per­for­mance of Rossini’s Guil­laume Tell in La Coruna, Spain. 2011 began with a sur­prise debut at the Gran Teatro Liceu in Barcelona for Donizetti’s Anna Bolena along­side Edita Gruberova. Then a debut as Arrigo in Verdi’s I Vespri Sicil­iani with Son­dra Rad­vanowsky in Turin (Recorded live on DVD for RAI) and a debut as Henri in Verdi’s orig­i­nal French ver­sion Les Vêpres Sicili­enne in Naples.  Next, a visit to Lima, Peru for Verdi’s Requiem, a recital in La Coruña, Spain and debut at the Fes­ti­val Aix-en-Provence as Tito in Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito with Sir Colin Davis on the podium rounded out the season. Start­ing sea­son 2011/2012, Mr. Kunde returned to Berg­amo and the Donizetti Fes­ti­val for two impor­tant works.  The first as Tamas in Gemma di Vergy, the sec­ond in his oper­atic debut as con­duc­tor of Maria di Rohan.  Both were recorded for DVD by Bon­gio­vanni for release in late 2012-early 2013.  2012 began with a debut in Copenhagen’s Royal Opera as he made his stage debut as Admete in Gluck’s Alceste which was fol­lowed by a debut in Stras­bourg, France and a much her­alded return to the role of Raoul in Les Huguenots of Meyer­beer after a 20 year absence.  A return to La Mon­naie in Brus­sels saw Mr. Kunde singing con­cert per­for­mances Rossini’s mas­ter­piece Otello along­side Anna-Caterina Antonacci and Mae­stro Evelino Pidò.  That was fol­lowed by another Verdi debut as Ric­cardo in Un Ballo in Maschera at the Teatro Regio di Torino.  The sea­son fin­ished in Taormina, Sicily as Pol­lione in Bellini’s Norma at the Teatro Greco Antico and then finally in Vienna at the his­toric The­atre an der Wien as Rodrigo in a reprise of Christof Loy’s pro­duc­tion of Rossini’s La Donna del Lago. Upcom­ing per­for­mances in 2012/2013 bring Mr. Kunde to La Fenice in Venice for a debut as Verdi’s Otello (Novem­ber), to Barcelona for a debut as Gualtiero in Bellini’s Il Pirata (Jan­u­ary) with Mariella Devia, then to Athens, Greece and Bil­bao, Spain to re-visit Verdi’s I Vespri Sicil­iani (Jan­u­ary) and Les Vêpres Sicili­enne (Feb­ru­ary) respec­tively and then a tour of Japan and Korea with La Fenice and Mae­stro Myung-Whun Chung for Verdi’s Otello (April).  The sea­son fin­ishes in Zurich as Arturo in Bellini’s La Straniera with Edita Gruberova (June-July) and a per­for­mance of Rossini’s Sta­bat Mater with Mae­stro Gianan­drea Noseda con­duct­ing in New York’s Mostly Mozart Fes­ti­val (August). His discog­ra­phy includes Bellini’s Bianca e Fer­nando (Nuova Era CD), Rossini’s Semi­ramide (Ricordi CD), Armida (Sony CD), Thomas’ Ham­let (EMI CD), a live record­ing fea­tur­ing Rossini Rar­i­ties enti­tled Di Tanti Pal­piti (Ricordi CD), the much acclaimed EMI CD record­ing of Delibes’ Lakme, Strauss’ Capric­cio (For­lane CD), a DVD of the Chatelet’s land­mark pro­duc­tion of the Berlioz epic Les Troyens (Opus Arte) named as Gramo­phone magazine’s DVD of the Year 2005, Berlioz’ Ben­venuto Cellini (Vir­gin Clas­sics CD) – win­ner of Gramophone’s pres­ti­gious Opera Record­ing of the Year 2005, a solo record­ing of Rossini arias enti­tled In Love and War (VAI CD), a live per­for­mance from the Edin­burgh Fes­ti­val of Rossini’s La Donna del Lago (Opera Rara), Busoni’s Dok­tor Faust (Arthaus DVD) recorded in 2006 along­side Thomas Hamp­son from the Zurich Opera, another highly acclaimed Ben­venuto Cellini (LSO Live CD) with Sir Colin Davis and the Lon­don Sym­phony and most recently, a DVD of the 2008 pro­duc­tion of Rossini’s Ermione (Dynamic) from the Rossini Opera Fes­ti­val.  Recently released: Rossini’s Zelmira (Uni­tel DVD) and Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde (Naxos CD) and Donizetti’s Poli­uto (Bon­gio­vanni DVD).  Soon to be released are Donizetti’s Gemma di Vergy and Maria di Rohan (both Bon­gio­vanni DVD), Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito (from Fes­ti­val Aix-en-Provence), Verdi’s I Vespri Sicil­iani and Un Ballo in Maschera  from the Teatro Regio di Torino (both RAI-Trade DVD) and Rossini’s La Donna del Lago (ORF CD).   More infor­ma­tion can be found on the World Wide Web at www.gregorykundechorale.org.     Role: Classical Artist   Album Title Catalogue No Work Category BERLIOZ, H.: Troyens (Les) (Chatelet, 2003) (Blu-ray, HD) Opus Arte OABD7059D Opera DVD BERLIOZ, H.: Troyens (Les) (Chatelet, 2003) (NTSC) Opus Arte OA0900D Opera DVD BUSONI, F.: Doktor Faust (Zurich Opera, 2006) (Blu-ray, NTSC) Arthaus Musik 101284 Opera DVD BUSONI: Doktor Faust (Zurich Opera, 2006) (NTSC) Arthaus Musik 101283 Opera DVD DONIZETTI, G.: Don Pasquale (La Scala, 1994) (NTSC) Arthaus Musik 107207 Opera DVD DONIZETTI, G.: Don Pasquale (La Scala, 1994) (NTSC) TDKDVD DVWW-OPDPSC Opera DVD MAHLER, G.: Lied von der Erde (Das) (J. Henschel, Kunde, Houston Symphony, Graf) Naxos 8.572498 Vocal OPERA EXCLUSIVE – TEATRO ALLA SCALA (NTSC) TDKDVD DVWW-GOLDBOX3 Opera DVD

Schedule update and Peter Grimes broadcast

October 25th, 2013

 

Hi All:

I’ve just posted a sched­ule update with some addi­tions and some dele­tions as well.  A cou­ple of thing have gone by the way­side but most of all, I’m try­ing to keep my future work post­ings to a year and a half out as many com­pa­nies do not want their secrets out until the sea­son is announced.  I can under­stand that and I have respect­fully adhered to their wishes.

Here in Rome, we are prepar­ing to do a final run-through of Britten’s Peter Grimes this after­noon and we’ll pre­miere it tomor­row night (26 Octo­ber) at 18:00 (CET) Live on RAI Radio 3.  www.radio3.rai.it  Click on “Ascolta in diretta” for the live stream.  Hope you can join us!!

Greg

 

It’s a GK.COM update…really…no joke!

August 19th, 2013

 

Greet­ings from São Paulo, Brazil!

Well, another sea­son has come and gone and I’m STILL not a good web­site updater! I apol­o­gize to those of you who have been wait­ing for updates and have not received them or have received them too late! I am in the process of get­ting that sched­ule updated as I know many of you count on it to keep track of me.

In any case, there have been a few things that have been missed that I wanted to men­tion.  First, after an unfor­tu­nate turn of events in Zürich last May, I had to bow out of the La Straniera pro­duc­tion.  That also means I will not be there in Octo­ber of this year as was pre­vi­ously scheduled.

I was extremely for­tu­nate and happy to be able to take part in a mag­nif­i­cent new pro­duc­tion of Verdi’s Otello in the Palau des Arts in Valen­cia, Spain with my good friends pro­ducer Davide Liv­er­more, soprano Maria Agresta and bari­tone Car­los Álvarez.  Mae­stro Zubin Mehta was our con­duc­tor and it was such a great honor and priv­i­lege to be able to stand in front of him and do this incred­i­ble role.  This was a mag­nif­i­cent pro­duc­tion in every sense.  Con­grat­u­la­tions to all involved.

That was fol­lowed by an his­toric mount­ing of Francesco Micheli’s pro­duc­tion of last November’s Otello at La Fenice in Venice which was adapted and moved into the cor­tile of the Palazzo Ducale in St. Mark’s Square in Venice. Parts of the orig­i­nal sets were not able to be used, but the over­all effect was kept in tact.  It was another spec­tac­u­lar pro­duc­tion, this time under the stars in Venice.  Although it was once an annual sum­mer tra­di­tion in the 1950’s and ’60’s, it had been nearly 50 years since the last per­for­mances of Otello in the Palazzo, and one of those last per­for­mances starred Mario del Monaco as the moor.  I was hon­ored and hum­bled to be asked to be the artist to re-start the Otello tra­di­tion there.  Along­side Carmela Remi­gio and Lucio Gallo with Mae­stro Myung-Whun Chung at the podium it was a mag­i­cal expe­ri­ence to per­form this piece in the home of the Lion of Venice.  We will “repeat the feat” next July as well so I hope some of you will be able to join us.

Another “first” that was not reported here has been my debut (9 August) as Radamés in Aida at the Teatro Munic­i­pal in São Paulo, Brazil.  I have sung (as of this writ­ing) two per­for­mances with three more to go (20, 22 & 25 August) and I am find­ing it to be a won­der­ful role!  My Aida is Maria-Jose Siri who is one of the great Aidas of our day.  She has sung the role many times and is a won­der­ful singer and a sen­si­tive part­ner.  I look for­ward to singing this part many more times in the future and I look for­ward to com­ing back here as well as it is a won­der­ful place to work with a pub­lic that is extremely knowl­edgable and quite enthusiastic.

Well, that puts us up-to-date for now.  I’ll try to be bet­ter at this.

 

First post this year!

January 26th, 2013

 

Hi every­one:

Happy New Year (a lit­tle late)!  I’ve had a great past few months with a debut in Otello of Verdi in Venice, a won­der­ful return visit to Annapo­lis, Mary­land for my bi-annual Mes­siah with the Mid­ship­men, a great Christ­mas at home with my beau­ti­ful girls (albeit I was rather sick the whole time), New Years in Barcelona and two very excit­ing con­certs of Il Pirata at the Liceu with Mariella Devia and now hav­ing com­pleted one of the two con­certs of I Vespri Sicil­iani here in Athens, I’ve finally got­ten around to updat­ing my schedule.

There are some excit­ing addi­tions includ­ing a return this Novem­ber to Venice for Meyerbeer’s L’Africaine and after a 12 year absence, I’ve been invited to come back to La Scala, Milan in April of 2014 for David McVikar’s pro­duc­tion of Berlioz’ Les Troyens with Anto­nio Pap­pano conducting.

I feel extremely blessed to be able to do this incred­i­ble job and I thank you for your con­tin­ued sup­port.  I look for­ward to see­ing you all some­where soon!!

 

 

OTELLO TONIGHT ON RAI RADIO 3!!

November 16th, 2012

 

HI EVERYONE:

Our pre­miere of Verdi’s Otello will be streamed live this evening at 19:00 CET (1:00 pm EST) and you can access it by click­ing the link and then click­ing again on “ASCOLTA RADIO 3 LIVE”.  Hope you can join us tonight!!!

http://www.radio3.rai.it/dl/radio3/programmi/puntata/ContentItem-06ed46fa-70cd-4ae4-98dd-d76ec5bda19d.html

 

I know, it’s about time!!

September 16th, 2012

 

Hi Every­one:

Yes, can you believe it? I’m actu­ally post­ing some­thing! I’ve been putting it off and putting it off and finally I sat down today and UPDATED MY SCHEDULE!!  You can find it on the sched­ule page in a new for­mat as well.  It is as up-to-date as can be (except for a cou­ple of projects yet to be con­firmed) so I hope this will take away any ques­tions and con­cerns some of you may have had.

Some of the new things are (as most of you already have heard) Otello (of VERDI!!) in Novem­ber at La Fenice in Venice, which will be my debut there, then a Jan­u­ary return to the Liceu in Barcelona for a debut as Gualtiero in Il Pirata with Mariella Devia for two con­cert per­for­mances. Next, I’ll return to the Megaron in Athens with the Greek National Opera for I Vespri Sicil­iani, then I’ll head directly to Bil­bao to start rehearsals for Les Vêpres Sicili­enne (IN FRENCH!! AM I CRAZY?!).  You can click on the high­lighted links to direct you to the the­atre web­sites for more information.

Thank you all for your con­tin­ued sup­port, good wishes, prayers and kind words.

Look for more updates as we con­tinue to roll along on this unbe­liev­able ride. I promise to do this more often

 

Schedule update!

November 15th, 2011

 

Hi All:

Finally…I have been able to update my sched­ule on the web­site.  A cou­ple of new things for next year, but a lot of things for future years.  Hope to see you some­where, sometime!

 

 

Naples…Semiramide…This Friday!!

November 15th, 2011

 

Hi every­one!

Just a quick update.  We will open Semi­ramide on Fri­day evening here in Naples..sur­prise!!  We have a won­der­ful Semi­ramide, Laura Aikin who brings a great dra­matic com­mand to the part.  Sil­via Tro Santafe as Arsace and Simone Albergh­ini as Assur round out an excel­lent cast led by Gabriele Ferro in the pit.  Luca Ronconi’s new pro­duc­tion will be a fit­ting open­ing night treat.  This will mark my return to Idreno, the part that got me started as a true Rossini singer in Pesaro in 1992.  It’s been about 6 years since I’ve sung this role and I am every excited to sing it again, espe­cially here at the San Carlo in front of such a great pub­lic.  Open­ing night will be broad­cast on RAI Radio3 on Fri­day evening begin­ning at 19:00 CET (1:00 pm EST).

Here’s the link if you’re inter­ested:  http://www.rai.tv/dl/RaiTV/popup/player_radio.html?v=3

 

 

Back in Italy

November 8th, 2011

 

Hi every­one:

Just fin­ish­ing here with the Accad­e­mia di Santa Cecilia Orches­tra in Rome tonight with our last con­cert of Mat­teo D’Amico’s Veni, veni Mephostophilis and Liszt’s A Faust Sym­phony.  The D’Amico piece was great fun.  It’s a won­der­fully dra­matic and very singable piece.  The Liszt was not much to do, but it was a great plea­sure to do it with such a great orches­tra, choir and of course, Anto­nio Pap­pano whom I’ve known since our days at Lyric Opera of Chicago in the 8o’s but never got a chance to work with as a con­duc­tor.  He’s fantastic!

Back to Naples tomor­row to re-start rehearsals for Semi­ramide, now with Laura Akin as Semi­ramide.  We open on the 18th and I will sing just that one and the next on the 20th.  Then home for Thanks­giv­ing.  Whew!  Watch for some fun video post­ings and sched­ule updates in the next few days. Ciao…

 

More Bergamo…

October 2nd, 2011

 

OK, day 3 with orches­tra and it’s really start­ing to gel.  They’ve been great to work with and very patient as well with the new kid.  We had the soloists there for the first part of the rehearsal today and it was a LOT of fun.  We accom­plished every­thing we needed to accom­plish.  We’ve read it through twice but the real work begins tomor­row with the entire company.

I am soooooo look­ing for­ward to it!

More to come.….

 

Bergamo, the orchestra rehearsals begin

September 30th, 2011

 

Sooooo, today was the day I’ve thought about for a long time.  First day in the pit with the orches­tra.  And can I tell you…IT WAS A BLAST!!!  Thanks to all the won­der­ful musi­cians who were so kind and help­ful on this first day.  I think it actu­ally went veeeeeery well…and, we’ve only just begun.  Tomor­row, 5 more hours, Sat­ur­day the same and Sun­day we add the cho­rus and soloists on the stage.  Dress on Wednes­day evening.  CAN’T WAIT!!!!  Video will appear soon, so do keep a lookout.