Photo Credit: Sim Canetty Clarke
DVD
Recordings
Some upcoming
engagements
News and reviews
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Montreal-born baritone Gerald Finley is well know for his performances in opera, especially in the operas of Mozart.
December 2010
Adams: Doctor Atomic
The Met's Doctor Atomic is scheduled for release on DVD in the United States on January 25, 2011.
Performers: Richard Paul Fink (Bass Baritone), Eric Owens (Baritone), Sasha Cooke (Mezzo Soprano),
Gerald Finley (Baritone), Thomas Glenn (Tenor)
Conductor: Alan Gilbert
Orchestra/Ensemble: Metropolitan Opera Chorus, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra
DVD, amazon.com
Adams: Doctor Atomic / Gilbert, Finley, Cooke, Fink, Glenn, Metropolitan Opera, DVD, arkivmusic.com
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"If Ades is indeed the new Benjamin Britten, the 'old' one got the best vocal recording of the year, Gerald Finley's of his Songs and Proverbs of William Blake and assorted other songs (Hyperion) . . .."--Tim Pfaff, Bay Area Reporter
Benjamin Britten: Songs & Proverbs of William Blake; Gerald Finley and Julius Drake [Hyperion]
is one of
Anne Midgette's Top 10 Classical and Opera Releases of 2010. wnyc.org
The Bach cantatas recording on which Gerald Finley sings a one-minute recitative is one of the Grammy nominees in the Best Choral Performance category.
November 2010
New York Times review of New York Philharmonic's Elijah
Links to some bloggers' reviews of Elijah
Gerald Finley is scheduled to appear in performances of Don Giovanni at the Salzburg Festival on 18, 20, 23, 27, & 29 August 2011.
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Gerald Finley: Wigmore Hall, 29th October 2010, review, 4.5 stars, John E. de Wald, Opera Britannia
November 6, 2010
Here is an excerpt from an artilce by Matthew Gurewitsch in the New York Times about Gerald Finley:
Beyond "Elijah" Mr. Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic envision Mr. Finley in the title role of Messiaen's monumental "St. François d'Assise," which more than a quarter-century after its creation still awaits its New York premiere.
"Gerry is such a consummate artist and such an actor's actor that I think he could take on any role," Mr. Gilbert said recently from Warsaw, on tour with the orchestra. "I can't imagine anyone I'd rather do 'St. Francis' with, or 'Elijah' for that matter. He brings it all together: the beautiful voice, the deep understanding of human psychology, the rigorous preparation. And he's also the most delightful colleague one could wish for."
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October 2010
"Guillaume Tell, Auditorium Parco della Musica, Rome," brief review by Shirley Apthorp, ft.com, 3 stars. The review seems positive in every way and offers no explanation as to why the critic gave the performance only three stars. Maybe she does not find the music so interesting but is not willing to say so? Who knows?
EMI will be issuing a recording of Rossini's opera Guillaume Tell made during the three performances of the opera this month at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome with Gerald Finley, John Osborn, and Malin Byström, conducted by Antonio Pappano, reports an article in Spanish at abc.es.
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Verdi's Otello
"Now 84, [Sir Colin] Davis inspires the London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus to a performance of vigour and refinement, and it's for their contribution -- and Gerald Finley's suave, stylish Iago -- that this recording stands out.
"Simon O'Neill's tight-voiced Moor and Anne Schwanewilms' un-Italianate Desdemona were adequate for the concert performances at which this recording was made, but LSO Live needs better casting if it wants to compete in the central operatic repertoire."--Andrew Clark, for FT.com, review recently released recording of Verdi's Otello, 3 stars
Links to reviews of concert performance of Les Pêcheurs de perles, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden
August 1, 2010
Videos at youtube of recent Glyndebourne Don Giovanni
That performance can be seen at medici.tv by those who are outside of the U.K.
Don Giovanni Unmasked from Glyndebourne on Vimeo.
New release:
Britten: Songs & Proverbs of William Blake
Gerald Finley, baritone, and Julius Drake, piano
amazon.com, release date 8 June 2010
amazon.co.uk, release date 1 June 2010
amazon.fr, release date 17 June 2010
amazon.de, release date 1 June 2010
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"The early song cycle on poems by Walter de la Mare, Tit for Tat, together with a motley collection of folk song arrangements and one-offs (including a setting of Goethe's Um Mitternacht) make an odd context for one of Britten's greatest song cycles. But Gerald Finley sings them all with such an unwaveringly beautiful tone and attention to every syllable, and pianist Julian Drake is so wonderfully attuned to the baritone's inflections that it hardly seems to matter."--Andrew Clements, reviewing CD of Britten: Songs and Proverbs of William Blake, etc., for guardian.co.uk, 4 stars
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May 16, 2010
"The Don of all Giovannis: Gerald Finley has made the Mozart part his own, and this summer Glyndebourne will feel the full force of his demonic charms," by Hugh Canning, Times Online
March 2010
February 2010
"The other bohemians were notably good, above all Gerald Finley's Marcello, strongly sung and managing to inject a surprising amount of personality into the proceedings (I hear down for the new productions of Onegin and Don G in a few years, which sounds good to me)."--Likely Impossibilities, reviewing La Bohème performance at Metropolitan Opera, New York
"The baritone Gerald Finley, last seen at the Met as J. Robert Oppenheimer in John Adams's "Doctor Atomic" (a riveting portrayal of a role Mr. Finley created), is an immensely gifted and versatile artist and was excellent as the hot-headed painter Marcello. He sang with robust sound, honesty, intelligence and impressive Italian diction."--Anthony Tommasini, New York Times
"Finley was perhaps the finest Marcello I can remember. What a luxury to have a really excellent baritone in this role."--Ed Rosen, anna-netrebko.blogspot.com
Reviews of Met La Bohème at GeraldFinley.info
February 2010
Gerald Finley has announced his engagement to marry long-term partner Heulwen Keyte!
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"Le baryton canadien Gerald Finley est maintenant reconnu comme l'un des grands interprètes actuels de la mélodie."--Claude Gingras, La Presse
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Vienna, January 2010
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Boston, January 2008
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Bach--Cantata No.61: Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland (Advent), BWV61
Werner Güra Tenor, Concentus Musicus Wien--Orchestra, Christine Schaefer Soprano, Gerald Finley Bass, Arnold Schoenberg Chor Chorus/Choir, Nikolaus Harnoncourt Conductor
Gerald Finley sings the one-minute recitative "Siehe, ich stehe vor der Tür und klopfe an"
CD amazon.com, release date 8 December 2009
MP3 amazon.com
CD amazon.co.uk, release date 4 January 2010
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November 2009
Gesang der Insekten: Gerald Finley im Kammermusiksaal
November 2009
Gerarld Finley en La Zarzuela. Sigue con buen pie el ciclo de lied.
Review in French of Elijah performance at Geneva, 15 October 2009, ConcertoNet.com
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Glyndebourne Festival Opera Announces 2010 Summer Season
"The festival's second new production is Don Giovanni, continuing a Glyndebourne tradition of constantly revisiting the mature Mozart operas. Twenty-four years after originally joining the company's chorus, Gerald Finley will play the title role, and is joined by an equally stellar cast: Kate Royal's Elvira, Anna Samuil's Anna, William Burden's Ottavio and Luca Pisaroni's Leporello. Music Director Vladimir Jurowski will conduct the OAE."--MusicalCriticsm.com
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Hyperion CDs are on sale during September 2009 at ArkivMusic
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"If Gerald Finley were not also such an outstanding interpreter of German, French and American songs, he could easily get pigeonholed as an English-music specialist. The clarity and precise shading of his singing ensures that not a word goes astray; the effortless elegance of his phrasing preserves the exact shape of every line, while crucially never lapsing into the sentimentality that so often seems to be lurking round the corner in this repertory."--from review by Andrew Clements for the Guardian of June 22, 2009, recital at Wigmore Hall
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Gerald Finley now has
his own website, at
geraldfinley.com
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Click to join fansofgeraldfinley
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Article by Dominic
McHugh, musicalcriticism.com, 28 April 2007
La Scena Musicale article, May 1998
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