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HOMETOWN DEBUT WITH WINNIPEG SYMPHONY On February 6, 2009, James McLennan will make his professional debut in his home town of Winnipeg, Manitoba singing the Tavener Requiem with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra. A highlight of the WSO New Music Festival's closing gala concert, the Requiem will also feature a fellow Brandon University alumnus, cellist Yuri Hooker. CBC will record the performance for broadcast on Sunday Afternoon in Concert with host Bill Richardson and The Signal with hosts Pat Carrabre and Laurie Brown. Please see calendar for more information.
TWO APPEARANCES AT VANCOUVER OPERA IN 2008-09 SEASON James McLennan returns to Vancouver Opera this season for two productions. In November, he will perform the role of Triquet in Eugene Onegin, Tchaikovky's masterpiece based on the epic poem by Alexander Pushkin. The production will feature Brett Polegato as Onegin, Rhoslyn Jones as Tatyana, John Tessier as Lensky and Allyson McHardy as Olga. Pamela Berlin will direct, with Johnathan Darlington conducting. McLennan will be in Vancouver again in the spring to perform the Fourth Jew in Richard Strauss' Salome. Based on Oscar Wilde's controversial play, Salome was a succès de scandale at its 1905 premiere, due to its blatant eroticism and violent depiction of a biblical story. Joseph McLain will direct a vividly modern production starring Mlada Khudoley in the title role, Greer Grimsley as Jokanaan, John Mac Master as Herod and Judith Forst as Herodias. Johnathan Darlington will conduct. See calendar for performance dates.
NEW WORLDWIDE EXCLUSIVE MANAGEMENT James McLennan is now represented worldwide by Dean Artists Management. Please see Contact Page for more information.
McLENNAN JOINS TAPESTRY STUDIO COMPANY James McLennan has joined Tapestry New Opera’s recently formed Studio Company.
McLENNAN TO RETURN TO CALGARY OPERA IN 2008 James McLennan will join Calgary Opera's stellar cast as President Arthur in the Canadian premiere of Thomas Moore's The Ballad of Baby Doe. With a libretto by John Latouche, the story is based on the real life events of Horace Tabor, Elizabeth "Baby" Doe Tabor, and Augusta Tabor. Set in the late 1800s in a silver mining town in Colorado, the opera weaves a tale of love, betrayal, power, and scandal. From the Calgary Opera website: Called “a singers’ opera in that it has memorable melodies, elements of spectacle, points of national and historical interest, including musical Americana, and time-honoured characters and plot,” The Ballad of Baby Doe is the centerpiece of our 2007-2008 season. After premiering in 1956 at the Central City Opera House, The Ballad of Baby Doe has become an American classic." The opera will be conducted by Hal France and directed by Kelly Robinson (who directed McLennan in his debut as Tamino in the Banff Festival's Die Zauberföte last year). The production will feature Valdine Anderson, Elizabeth Turnbull, John Fanning, John Avey, and Marcia Swanston. See calendar for performance dates. McLENNAN SUCCEEDS WITH PASSION James McLennan's performance of the Bach St. John Passion with the Calgary Festival Chorus was applauded by audiences and critics alike. The Calgary Herald lauded him as a tenor "of a special type", praising his delivery of the arias, as well as the challenging Evangelist role. More in press. McLENNAN OFFERS "VIVID PORTRAYAL" IN BITTERSWEET GYPSY VIOLINS James McLennan returned to Toronto Operetta Theatre in the complex role of Laczi, the troubled son of famed gypsy violin leader (Zigeunerprimas) Pali Racz. The ensemble cast included baritone Terry Hodges in a "virtuoso performance" (Christopher Hoile) as Pali Racz, Elizabeth DeGrazia as Julishka, Katerina Tchoubar as Sari, and Rori McGlynn as Count Irini, with conductor Jose Hernandez . Playing to sold-out audiences, critics lauded McLennan's "sweet lyric voice" and his "passionate delivery" as a young man struggling to fulfill his true potential. "Unlike most Golden Age operettas and even those of his contemporaries, Kálmán's operettas tend to focus more on the psychology of realistic characters rather than farcical plots filled with multiple disguises. “Gypsy Violins” is no exception. Sensitive direction and solid performances from the cast prove that this highly engaging and moving work does not deserve its relative obscurity." (Christopher Hoile, Stage Door) More in press.
OPERA IN CONCERT SHINES LIGHT ON UNFINISHED MOZART WORK On January 28, James McLennan makes another role debut, this time with Opera In Concert as Sultan Soliman in Mozart's unfinished opera, Zaide. Though the composer abandoned this score to work on Idomeneo, audiences will recognize many thematic and plot elements which eventually made their way into another famous Singspiel opera, Die Entführung aus dem Serail. From the Opera in Concert Website: "Zaide contains some striking advances and much music of great beauty. A fascinating innovation is the melodram or melologo, as Mozart called it. In Thamos Mozart has Sais speaking over continuous music, but in Zaide he interrupts the music for speech. By the time of Die Entfuhrung he had forgotten about melodram and wrote sung accompanied recitatives as in Italian opera." This seldom heard piece will be performed with Toronto's celebrated Aradia Ensemble, led by conductor Kevin Mallon.
McLENNAN SCORES TRIUMPH AS CANDIDE Standing ovations for McLennan in the title role of Leonard Bernstein's comic masterpiece "Candide." A company debut for Toronto Operetta Theatre, this work has not been seen by Toronto audiences since a Canadian Opera Company production in 1985. The public were not disappointed. Opera News wrote enthusiastically: “Tenor James McLennan's boyish good looks and fresh-faced innocence made him an ideal Candide. The richness of his voice and the emotional intensity he gave "It Must Be So" and "Nothing More Than This" lent the character and the opera the depth they require so crucially.” The Toronto Star noted his "considerable charm" and "strong yet pure tenor." More in press. The production, conducted by Julian Wachner, also featured famed Canadian Mezzo-Soprano Jean Stillwell in a showstopping performance as The Old Lady, Carla Huhtanen as a vivacious Cunegonde, and Ian Funk in the multiple roles of Voltaire, Pangloss, and Martin. |
As Sesto in Giulio Cesare |