Sunday Artist Spotlight

February 21, 2016 at 2 pm | Steven Condy 
(Title character in this season's Falstaff)

Location: OperaDelaware Studios (4 South Poplar St. Wilmington, DE 19801)

Join us February 21st for one of OperaDelaware's favorite singers, baritone Steven Condy, in a Sunday afternoon recital featuring many of his personal favorites. 

The program will also feature our music director, Jeffrey Miller, at the piano. It will be followed by a "talk back" session moderated by OD's General Director, Brendan Cooke. This is a wonderful opportunity to get to know one of today's most exciting operatic artists—up close and personal!

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STEVEN CONDY BIOGRAPHY

Steven Condy enjoys a career filled with notoriety and acclaim for his creative portrayals of the great “buffo” roles, and is admired not only for his robust and nuanced voice, but also for his natural acting ability. The Washington Times enthused that he has “the comic timing of John Candy and a voice that remains flexible, rich and true through every intricacy,” and Anthony Tomassini of the New York Times offered that he would “vote the prize for the most naturally clear diction of the cast to the hardy baritone Steven Condy.” This season, Condy will delight audiences with his performances in the title role of Don Pasquale at Opera Naples and Opera on the James; and an appearance as Falstaff with OperaDelaware.

Renowned for his interpretation of Dr. Bartolo in Il barbiere di Siviglia, recently, the Boston Music Intelligencer raved of his “most delightfully surprising and truly brilliant performance...the agility of his voice, not only in negotiating the vocal roller-coasters, but also in creating comically nuanced coloring, combined with his clumsily agile physicality and an edgy-but-not-threatening delivery of the role as a whole, stole the show. Based on his performance, the opera might well be re-titled Don Bartolo.” He performed the role at Houston Grand Opera, San Francisco Opera, Washington National Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Portland Opera, Madison Opera, Opera Memphis, Virginia Opera, Sarasota Opera, and Austin Lyric Opera, among many others.

The title role in Verdi’s Falstaff is another signature role in Mr. Condy’s repertoire, which he performed at companies such as Utah Opera, Indianapolis Opera, Chautauqua Opera, Kentucky Opera, and most recently, Opera San Jose. Of his Falstaff, Opera News hailed: “Dominating the proceedings was Steven Condy’s hilariously larger-than-life yet totally believable and sympathetic Sir John. Condy never let his skillful embodiment of the fat knight’s physical and behavioral grotesqueries affect the inherent beauty of his singing; his warm, manly tone, fine legato and ready mezza voce reminded one just how squarely within the bel canto tradition the role of Falstaff lies.” He is also in demand as Don Magnifico in La Cenerentola, a role he performed at Madison Opera, Portland Opera, Utah Opera, Memphis Opera, Florentine Opera, Lyric Opera Kansas City and Austin Lyric Opera.

Other notable engagements from his extensive career include: Major General Stanley in The Pirates of Penzance with Arizona Opera; Sacristan in a new production of Tosca with the Houston Grand Opera; the title role in Don Pasquale with Opera New Jersey, Utah Opera, Calgary Opera, and Edmonton Opera; Betto in Gianni Schicchi in a new production with Los Angeles Opera directed by Woody Allen, followed by his European opera début in the same production with the Spoleto Festival dei Due Mondi; Benoit/Alcindoro in La bohème with Dallas Opera and Opera Company of Philadelphia; Dulcamara in L’elisir d’amore with Chautauqua Opera, Washington National Opera, and Arizona Opera, among others; Baron Zeta in The Merry Widow with Washington National Opera; Sulpice in La fille du régiment with the San Francisco Opera and Opera Lyra Ottawa; and Don Alfonso in Così fan tutte with Arizona Opera and Hawaii Opera Theater.

As a concert artist, Condy graces stages throughout the country earning critical acclaim. From his recent appearance as a soloist in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Lincoln Symphony, The Lincoln Journal Star wrote: “Baritone Steven Condy… began the poem that inspired the Ninth, his powerful voice booming through the hall.” Highlights of concert appearances include Händel’s Messiah with the Columbus Pro Musica Chamber Orchestra, Masterworks Chorus at Carnegie Hall, and La Orquesta Sinfónica del Principado de Asturias in Oviedo, Spain; the role of Antonio in Le nozze di Figaro with the Minnesota Orchestra, conducted by Jeffrey Tate; Belshazzar’s Feast and Gordon Getty’s Plump Jack with New Mexico Symphony Orchestra; and gala concerts with the Indianapolis Symphony and the Orquesta Sinfónica Sinaloa de las Artes in Mazatlan, Mexico.

Mr. Condy earned accolades and awards from some of the industry’s most prestigious organizations including: The Luciano Pavarotti International Voice competition, The Sullivan Foundation, The Richard Tucker Music Foundation competition, Pope Foundation competition, MacAllister Award competition, the Metropolitan Opera National Council auditions, and the Mario Lanza Institute Scholarship competition. Mr. Condy holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Hartford and a Master of Music degree from Yale University’s School of Music. He is the Artistic Director of the Cairn University Opera Theater in Langhorne, Pennsylvania, and the Director of the Vocal Intensive Study Program with the MasterWorks Summer Music Festival. 

RECITAL PROGRAM     

Mentre ti lascio, K. 513
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

Chansons de Don Quichotte    
Jacques Ibert (1890-1962)
1. Chanson du depart de Don Quichotte
2. Chanson à Dulcinée
3. Chanson du Duc
4. Chanson de la mort de Don Quichotte

The Poetry of Goethe
Zigeunerlied, Op. 55, Nr. 2
Ferruccio Busoni (1866-1924)    
Zigeunerlied, Op. 25, Nr. 3
Louis Spohr (1784-1859)    
Erlkönig, Op. 1, Nr. 3
Carl Loewe (1796-1869)    
Erlkönig, Op. 1, D. 328    
Franz Schubert (1797-1828)

Intermission

Songs of Experience
Daron Aric Hagen (b. 1961)    
1. Youth, Day, Old Age, and Night
2. Amelia’s Song
3. Wisdom
4. Elegy for Ray Charles
5. The Stranger’s Grave
6. Two Butterflies

Impossible Dream from Man of La Mancha
Mitch Leigh (1928-2014) and Joe Darion (1917-2001)
Mama, A Rainbow from Minnie’s Boys    
Larry Grossman (b. 1938) and Hal Hackady (1922-2015)
She Loves Me from She Loves Me    
Jerry Bock (1928-2010) and Sheldon Harnick (b. 1924)