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Biography
From
Handel’s Messiah and Mozart’s Don Giovanni to the contemporary
works of Hindemith, Britten, Bloch and Rorem, baritone
Jonathan Hays
exhibits extraordinary breadth of vocal flexibility and interpretive
expression. Engagements in 2007 and 2008 include Papageno in Die
Zauberflöte with Portland Opera, a return to the Summerscape Festival at
Bard College in the title role of Gilbert and Sullivan’s, The Sorcerer,
and Belcore in L’Elisir d’Amore with Chattanooga Opera. He has
been reengaged by the Celebrity Series of Boston and the Toronto Symphony
for performances of Rob Kapilow’s whimsical orchestral song cycle, And
Furthermore, They Bite, and he will perform Jorge Martín’s tour-de-force
work for baritone, The Glass Hammer, in the cities of Brooklyn, NY;
Chapel Hill, NC; and Harrisburg, PA with pianist Craig Ketter.
Renowned
as an interpreter of contemporary music, Mr. Hays essayed the role of Shadow
Grendel in the world premier of Grendel by Eliot Goldenthal and Julie
Taymor with the Los Angeles Opera and Lincoln Center Festival, collaborated with
Ned Rorem and New Music New Haven on Mr. Rorem’s Songs of Sadness,
originated the role of Isiah Berlin in The Guest from the Future by Mel
Marvin and Jonathan Levi at the Summerscape Festival, and performed multiple
roles in the OK Mozart Festival’s world premier production of Jean Michel
Damase’s Ochelata’s Wedding. He was recently heard with the American
Symphony Orchestra at Avery Fisher Hall performing in two operas by Hindemith,
Das Nush-Nushi and Mörder, Hoffnung der Frauen, and bowed as
Friedrich Bhaer in Mark Adamo’s Little Women with Dayton Opera.
Also
acclaimed for his portrayal of roles in the standard repertory, Mr. Hays’ has
sung principle roles in Don Giovanni (Don Giovanni), Le Nozze di
Figaro (Count, Figaro), Die Zauberflöte (Papageno), Cosi Fan Tutte
(Guglielmo), Das Rheingold (Donner), La Boheme (Marcello,
Schaunard), L’Elisir d’Amore (Belcore), Giulio Cesare (Achilla),
Deidamia (Fenice), L’Italiana in Algeri (Taddeo), La
Cenerentola (Dandani), La Gazza Ladra (Fernando), I Pagliacci
(Silvio), Fidelio (Fernando), Albert Herring (Sid, Vicar),
Béatrice et Bénédict (Somarone), and others, with companies that include The
Washington Opera, Central City Opera, The Lyric Opera of Kansas City, The
Caramoor Festival, Connecticut Opera, Connecticut Grand Opera and Orchestra,
Opera de la Colombia, Cape Town Opera, Syracuse Opera, Greensboro Opera Company,
The Oklahoma Mozart Festival, The Utah Festival Opera Company, Eugene Opera, and
Yale Opera. After an acclaimed performance of Rossini’s La Gazza Ladra
with the Caramoor Festival and the Orchestra of St. Lukes, Paul Griffiths of The
New York Times wrote of his work, ‘…in all his contributions, the nobility of
his voice matched the nobility of his bearing and his singing was consistently
strong, lucid, direct and bang on the note. His was a magnificent performance’.
A
frequent guest of symphony orchestras all over North America, Mr. Hays has
performed the solo material in works such as Handel’s Messiah; J.S.
Bach’s Magnificat, St. Matthew Passion and B-minor Mass;
Avodath Hakodesh by Ernest Bloch; Rob Kapilow’s And Furthermore, They
Bite and Polar Express; and Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana, with
organizations including The Orchestra of St. Luke's, St. Luke's Chamber
Ensemble, The American Symphony Orchestra, Toronto Symphony, Eos Orchestra,
Colorado Symphony, Musica Viva, The Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, The
Alabama Symphony, The New Jersey Symphony, and The Buffalo Philharmonic
Orchestra.
Mr. Hays divides his free time between New York City and the Berkshire Mountains
of Massachusetts.
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