Rockwell BLAKE

Rockwell Blake
June, 2002

"Cavaliere Ufficiale" in the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic" for his "outstanding services to Italian music", "Officer" in the Order of Arts and Letters of the French Republic" for his outstanding contribution "to culture in France and in the world", Doctor of Music, Honoraris from the University of the State of New York for "his extraordinary contribution to the art of bel-canto"; these are but a few of the recent honors bestowed on Rockwell Blake in his more than year 25 year career.

During those years Mr. Blake has been acclaimed for opera, concert and recital performances in all the major theaters of the world. He has appeared across North and South America, Israel, Japan and Europe, performing regularly at the Metropolitan Opera, the San Francisco Opera, Chicago Lyric Opera, La Scala, Vienna State Opera, the Grande Theatre de Geneve, the Teatro La Fenice, the opera houses of Rome, Turin, Parma, Florence, Bologna, Palermo and Naples, the Paris Opera, Chatalet, Theatre Champs Elysees and Opera-Comique the opera companies of Marseilles, Nice, Lyon, Toulouse, Aix-en-Provence, Montpelier, Bordeaux, Avignon and Strasbourg, Brussels' La Monnaie, the Liceu in Barcelona , the Teatro Real and Teatro Zarzuela in Madrid, and the theaters in Zurich, Hamburg, Munich and Lisbon. Since 1983 he has been a regular guest of the Rossini Festival held annually in the composer's birthplace of Pesaro.

With his extraordinary vocal technique, a two-and-one-half octave range, and an elegant and graceful style tenor Rockwell Blake continues to lead the revival of rarely heard operatic masterpieces by Mozart, Rossini, Donizetti and Bellini. Mr. Blake has sung the leading role in over 50 operas from this highly specialized repertoire, including such little-known works as Mozart’s’ Mitridate, Re di Ponto and Zaide, Haydn's L'Infedelta Delusa, Donizettis’ Il Furioso all'Isola San Domingo and Marin Faliero Bellini's Il Pirata, and Meyerbeers’ Il Crociato in Egitto & Robert le Diable. As the number one exponent of Rossini's tenor roles, Mr. Blake includes 20 operas, 10 concert works and numerous songs, by that composer, in his repertoire.

Trained in singing by Renata Carisio, tenor Rockwell Blake studied music in Plattsburgh, New York, the city where he was born. He began his professional singing career at the age of 23. As the winner of two George London Awards (1974 & 1975) he was immediately invited by George London to make his solo operatic debut as Lindoro in Rossini’s Italiana in Algeri, a production which opened the 1976-1977 season at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. Hailed by critics as "what the world has been waiting for since the Rossini revival began" he became the first winner of the prestigious Richard Tucker Award in 1978. Soon thereafter he made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera, at the side of Marilyn Horne, once again as Lindoro in Rossini’s Italiana in Algeri. Other Met roles include Lord Arthur Talbot in Bellini's I Puritani, Don Ottavio in Mozart’s Don Giovanni and the Count Almaviva in Il Barbiere di Siviglia. It was as Almaviva that the Met restored, especially for him, the daunting eight minute tenor aria of the last act, "Cessa di piu resistere", written by Rossini for the legendary Manuel Garcia, but, due to it's extreme difficulty, usually absent from productions since the opera's 1816 world premiere. Finally the New York audiences heard Rossini’s masterpiece as Rossini himself intended. Today, thanks to Mr. Blake and his insistance to include this aria whenever he sings Almaviva in Barbiere productions, a new generation of young tenors now has the opportunity to sing this aria around the world.

Eight years ago Mr. Blake turned his attentions, in part, to a long-neglected repertoire of early French operas, composed for a kind of tenor voice which rarely exists today. He has been credited with their revival and has notably demonstrated this in recordings for the EMI label. His first recording with EMI, Rockwell Blake, Airs d'Opéras français with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo won the prestigious Diapason d'Or de l'Aneé, distinguishing it as the best operatic release for the year 1994 and his recording of Boieldieu’s La Dame Blanche, won the distinction as the Best French classical recording of 1997 by Les Victoire de la Musique. Other record awards included that the "Grand Prix du Disque" of the "Academie Charles Cros", the "Grand Prix du Palmares des Palmares", Frances two top awards in the recording field and Opera International’s "Timbre Platine".

Most recently, and between singing engagements, Mr. Blake has begun to develop a new facet to his career, as a teacher of young singers. For the past five years he has happily accepted invitations from As.Li.Co. to teach Masterclasses with the young artists in this Milan based Italian Opera training center. He has also taught young singers in Masterclasses at the Conservatoire Nationale de Paris, at Santa Cecilia in Rome, Duke University of North Carolina, the State University of New York, the Hamburg Staatsoper, and at the Chicago Lyric Opera young artists program.

Other recordings by Mr. Blake include Arabesque's The Rossini Tenor, on which he is heard in a handful of never-previously-recorded Rossini arias with the London Symphony Orchestra and the Ambrosian Choir under John McCarthy; The Mozart Tenor, offering a collection of unusual Mozart opera and concert arias with the London Symphony under Nicholas McGegan, Encore Rossini, another recording of Rossini rarities with the London Symphony and Ambrosian Choir under Maximiano Valdes and Rossini Mélodies (EMI) with Maestro Antonio Pappano at the piano.


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o p e r a - r e p e r t o i r e...........

Adam – Le Postillon de Longjumeau

Bellini – Il Pirata
Bellini – La Sonnambula

Boieldieu – La Dame Blanche

Cimarosa – Il Matrimonio Segreto

Delibes – Lakmé

Donizetti – Anna Bolena
Donizetti – Don Pasquale
Donizetti – Il Furioso all Isola di San Domingo
Donizetti – La Fille du Regiment
Donizetti – Alina, Regina di Golconda

Gluck – Armide (Rénaud)
Gluck – Orpheé

Handel – Alcina
Handel – Arminio
Handel – Poro
Handel – Semele

Lalo – Le Roid'Ys

Massenet – Le Jongleur de Notre Dame

Meyerbeer – Il Crociato in Egitto
Meyerbeer – Robert le Diable

Mozart – Cosi fan Tutte
Mozart – Die Entführung aus dem Serail
Mozart – Die Zauberflöte
Mozart – Don Giovanni
Mozart – Idomeneo (Idamante)
Mozart – La Clemenza di Tito
Mozart – La Finta Giardiniera
Mozart – Mitridate, Re di Ponto

Pergolesi – Il Flaminio

Rimsky-Korsakov – Le Coq d'Or

Rossini – Adina
Rossini – Armida
Rossini – Elizabetta, Regina d'Inghilterra
Rossini – Ermione (Oreste)
Rossini – Il Barbiere di Siviglia
Rossini – Il Viaggio a Reims
Rossini – La Cenerentola
Rossini – La Donna del Lago
Rossini – L'Italiana in Algeri
Rossini – L'Occasione fa ll Ladro
Rossini – La gazza Ladra
Rossini – Le Comte Ory
Rossini – Mosé in Egitto
Rossini – Otello (Rodrigo)
Rossini – Semiramide
Rossini – William Tell (Pescatore)
Rossini – Zelmira


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o r c h e s t r a - r e p e r t o i r e..........

Bach – Magnificat
Bach – St. John Passion
Bach – St. Matthew Passion

Beethoven – Mass in C Major
Beethoven – Missa Solemnis
Beethoven – Ninth Symphony

Berlioz – L'Enfance du Christ
Berlioz – Nuits d'Eté
Berlioz – Requiem
Berlioz – Te Deum

Britten – Les Illuminations
Britten – Saint Nicolas
Britten – Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings
Britten – War Requiem

Elgar – Dream of Gerontius

Handel – Acis and Galatea
Handel – Alexander Balus
Handel – Alexander's Feast
Handel – Foundling Hospital Anthem
Handel – Israel in Egypt
Handel – Jephtha
Handel – Joseph
Handel – Joshua
Handel – Judas Maccabaeus
Handel – L'Allegro, Il Penseroso, ed Il Moderato
Handel – Messiah
Handel – Occasional Oratorio
Handel – Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne
Handel – Ode on St. Cecilia's Day
Handel – Saul
Handel – Sing unto God
Handel – Solomon
Handel – Theodora
Handel – Utrecht Te Deum
Handel – Wedding Anthem

Haydn – The Seasons

Mendelssohn – Elijah
Mendelssohn – Paulus

Mozart – Requiem

Orff – Carmina Burana

Rossini – Argene e Melania
Rossini – Cantata da Esiguirsi la Sera del di 9 Maggio 1819
Rossini – Il Pianto d'Armonia in Morte d'Orfeo
Rossini – Il Pianto delle Muse in Morte di Lord Byron
Rossini – La Riconoscenza
Rossini – Messa di Gloria
Rossini – Messa Solennelle
Rossini – Stabat Mater

Saint-Saëns – Christmas Oratorio

Stravinsky – La Pulcinella


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[ Copied directly from the website of Blake's publicist,
http://www.dispeker.com/page/blake.html ]

ACCESSOIREMENT Blake doit participer à un gala fêtant Horne à New York en janvier ... Va t-il sortir de sa retraite prématurée et chanter ? MISTEROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO .....................

http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=Dw6cC6wTgh8

Comment peut-on autant se pâmer devant ce que fait Florez ds la même page après avoir entendu ça ?
Il en arrive au bout, c'est super mais bon, rien de plus.