Congratulations to Kevin Ray on a stellar role and company debut as the title role of Peter Grimes with Chautauqua Opera on Saturday. The Chautauquan Daily certainly liked it: "The title role is among the formidable challenges in the operatic repertory. Indelible accounts of the part have come from tenors as different as Peter Pears, Britten’s life partner, and Jon Vickers. In the Chautauqua production, Kevin Ray put his own stamp on the role, playing Grimes as a tortured soul who aches to find some semblance of worldly contentment. ...he soon let his focused voice bloom and wrap itself around Montagu Slater’s words and Britten’s luminous music. The role’s difficult range held no terrors for Ray, who sailed eloquently through the most mesmerizing passages, such as the wide leaps in “What harbour shelters peace” and the anguished, repeated notes in “Now the Great Bear and Pleiades.” Although his mad scene might have been even more crazed, Ray became a hypnotic ghost as he carried the dead apprentice through the audience to the ship Grimes was about to sink. He will surely be in demand to sing the role in opera houses around the world. chqdaily/2013/07/08/magnetic-from-start-to-finish-vibrant-theatricality-raises-chautauqua-operas-peter-grimes-to-great-heights/
Posted on: Mon, 08 Jul 2013 14:13:30 +0000