Jay Hunter Morris to sing the title role in Siegfried; Ian Storey takes the role in Goetterdaemmerung. From the press release:
“Over recent months, Ian Storey was dealing with an illness which greatly interrupted his learning period for the role of Siegfried. When he arrived in San Francisco, he realized he could not catch up with both operas, choosing instead to focus his attention on the role of Siegfried in Götterdämmerung. We are fortunate that we had a very capable cover for the role in the person of Jay Hunter Morris, a talented artist who knows the role of Siegfried very well. It was a unanimous and enthusiastic choice to put Jay Hunter Morris into the title role of Siegfried,” said San Francisco Opera General Director David Gockley.
“With great reluctance, I am going to have to withdraw from San Francisco Opera’s Siegfried and instead concentrate on my performance and role debut in Götterdämmerung. I’m greatly saddened that I can’t sing both and have had to make this decision, but I need to do the best thing for me and for San Francisco Opera,” said Mr. Storey.I heard Morris in the tenor roles in Legend of the Ring last year at Berkeley West Edge Opera, and he was mighty impressive - admittedly in a tiny theater. Darned if I remember much about his Walther von Stolzing at SFO a decade ago; he has also sung a number of smaller roles at SFO.
I find this kind of interesting. Not that I'm very concerned about Storey or Morris neither of whom stirs much excitement in me on the face of it.
ReplyDeleteWhat is interesting though is this stamina issue. Assuming that stamina is the cause for the change, it appears that this may be the drawback in doing the cycle over 6 days as opposed to a more exteneded 10-12 days like LA did last year or the Met will do next season as they role out the first of the new Lepage-directed cycles.
Do you think it is odd that Storey would hold onto the Gotterdammerung Siegfrieds over the Siegfried ones?
I should have read the whole press release before posting: Storey has been sick and couldn't learn both roles.
ReplyDelete