Steven Tharp

Whether performing Bach or Rorem, Wagner or Donizetti, Steven Tharp convinces critics and audiences alike that the work at hand is his specialty. Opera News has praised the "bel canto flexibility and sweetness" of his voice. Will Crutchfield in The New York Times wrote: "He can handle the coloratura of Mozart and Rossini (including real trills) at a level that was simply not available from tenors 30 years ago and is still rare."

Steven Tharp returns to the Reisopera for his fifth production, having previously appeared in Opera Seria, Boris Godunov, Les Contes d’Hoffmann and Snow White. He has performed as well with the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, Netherlands Opera, the Badisches Staatsoper in Karlsruhe, the Teatro Massimo (Palermo), the Netherlands Reisopera, Glimmerglass Opera, Opera Pacific, the Minnesota Opera, Skylight Opera, Bel Canto at Caramoor, and the companies of Dallas, Houston, Seattle, Memphis, Omaha, Salt Lake City and Miami. In addition to the major tenor parts of Mozart and Handel, his more than 50 operatic roles include Jaquino in Fidelio, Nemorino in L’Elisir d’Amore, David in Die Meistersinger, and Lysander in Midsummer Night’s Dream. Mr. Tharp has a special interest in lesser-known 18^th and early 19^th Century opera, and has taken roles in Gluck’s Les Pèlerins de la Mecque, Haydn’s L’Isola Disabitata and L’Infedeltà Delusa, Scarlatti’s Gli Equivoci nel Sembiante, Conti’s Don Quixote in Sierra Morena, Grétry’s Zémire et Azor, and Schubert’s Alfonso und Estrella.

Mr. Tharp has appeared in concert with orchestras worldwide, including the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony, Colorado Symphony, Vancouver Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Chicago Music of the Baroque, and American Bach Soloists, under conductors including Sir Georg Solti, Daniel Barenboim, Kurt Masur, Charles Dutoit, Valery Gergiev, Christoph von Dohnanyi, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, James Conlon, Marin Alsop, JoAnn Falletta, Alan Gilbert and Jane Glover. His concert repertoire extends from Monteverdi to John Musto, includes the masterpieces of the 18th and 19th century — the Bach passions, the masses of Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert, the oratorios of Handel, Haydn, and Mendelssohn — and extends to Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius, Schönberg’s Gurre-Lieder, the Verdi Requiem, and Britten’s War Requiem.

Recitals have also been a constant and important feature of Mr. Tharp’s career. At the New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art he collaborated with Will Crutchfield in two series, The World of Schubert’s Songs and The World of Heinrich Heine. He has also appeared in recital at the 92nd Street Y, Carnegie’s Weill Hall, the Bard Festival, Caramoor, Newport Chamber Music Festival, Carmel Bach Festival, the New York Festival of Song and venues in Europe, Japan and South America.

Mr. Tharp has recorded for Decca, Delos, Newport, Albany and Naxos. His world-premiere recording of the complete songs of Edward MacDowell, accompanied by the late James Barbagallo, earned a Grammy Award nomination, and his recording of Frank Martin’s Le Vin Herbé was an "Editor’s Choice" in Opera News. Albany released his recording of Vaughan-Williams’ On Wenlock Edge with the Ciompi Quartet, and he can be heard on a Delos release of Handel’s Messiah with the American Bach Soloists. Mr. Tharp’s live recording of Schubert’s Schwanengesang, with the Dutch pianist Jan-Paul Grijpink has just been released, and a CD of Fauré songs will be issued in 2011.

Season 2011/12 brings return engagements to the National Symphony of Mexico with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and the Louisiana Philharmonic in Mozart’s Requiem, among other engagements.

During the 2010/11 season, Steven Tharp returned to the Reisopera for his fifth production, having previously appeared in Opera Seria, Boris Godunov, Les Contes d’Hoffmann and Snow White. He also debuted with the Florida Symphony in performances of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, and returned to the National Symphony of Mexico and Washington’s Kennedy Center. Furthermore, he directed a production of H.M.S. Pinafore at the Caramoor Festival in New York. Upcoming engagements include Mozart’s Requiem with the Louisiana Philharmonic and Symphony No. 9 by Beethoven with Mexico’s National Symphony.

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Steven Tharp, tenor...