|
|
|
One
of America's most versatile operatic bass-baritones, George Cordes
has displayed equal brilliance in both the comic and serious
repertoire with such houses as the Metropolitan
Opera, New York City Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand
Opera, and Dallas
Opera. He performed a dizzying array
of roles in his six seasons with New York City Opera, the
highlight being consecutive appearances in 2000 and 2001 on PBS
telecasts of Live from Lincoln Center.
Other companies he has sung with include Santa Fe, St. Louis, Kansas
City, Pittsburgh, New Orleans, Columbus, and Cleveland.
Mr.
Cordes appeared as the Bonze in Madama
Butterfly with the Met
in the Parks in June 2004. His
Metropolitan Opera debut in 2000 was as Monterone in Central Park,
and he again appeared with the Met in the Parks the following year as
Angelotti. His roles with NYCO include
Figaro in Le Nozze di Figaro, Colline
in La Boheme, the
Four Villains in Les Contes
d’Hoffmann, Timur in Turandot,
Monterone in Rigoletto,
the Speaker in The
Magic Flute, Zuniga in Carmen,
Masetto in Don
Giovanni, Harasta in The
Cunning Little Vixen, Tchelio in The
Love for Three Oranges, and Pistola
in Falstaff. In
spring 2001,
Mr. Cordes won
accolades as Colline in a new production of La
Boheme for NYCO’s Live
From Lincoln Center broadcast on PBS. The
previous spring, he appeared as Angelotti in a NYCO production of Tosca,
another Live
from Lincoln Center telecast.
In
April 2005, George
Cordes debuted
with Opera Boston in a critically acclaimed production of Robert
Ward's The Crucible. He
sang the pivotal role of the Reverend Hale in a strong cast that
included James Maddalena as the embattled John Proctor. In May
2007, he returned to Opera Boston as Nourabad in a critically
acclaimed production of Bizet's Les Pecheurs de Perles. In
2004, he debuted with Lyric Opera of Kansas City, chewing up
the stage in the comic role of Nick Bottom in A Midsummer Night's Dream,
and with Opera Tampa, powerfully portraying the sympathetic
old blind king Timur in Turandot. |
|
|
A
previous triumph for Mr.
Cordes
was his debut with Houston Grand Opera in 2001 in the role of Monterone,
in a cast that featured Dmitri Hvorostovsky as the tortured jester.
He returned to Dallas Opera the same season to sing Angelotti,
and, in April 2002, he made his debut with Syracuse Opera,
singing the role of Leporello. The same year, he
made his first trip to Japan to debut as Colline with the Tokyo City
Orchestra. He has since returned to
the Metropolitan Opera to cover the roles of Angelotti,
Hector's Ghost in Les Troyens, Father Trulove in The Rake's Progress,
and Pritschitch in The Merry Widow.
George
Cordes has gained a reputation as one of the best Figaros around. He
won rave reviews as Mozart's wily valet with Opera
Theatre of St. Louis in 1999 in a
brand new production by Christopher Alden. He
has sung the role in two different seasons with New York City Opera
and scored a triumph in an Opera Columbus production in 2001. |
As
Leporello with Syracuse Opera |
Mr.
Cordes again sang Figaro in fall 2003 with Teatro de la Opera in San
Juan, Puerto Rico. He has appeared as
Escamillo in Carmen with Opera Grand Rapids, Scarpia in Tosca
with Opera Mississauga, Sarastro in The Magic Flute
with Tri-Cities Opera and El Paso Opera, and
Commendatore in Don Giovanni with Tri-Cities Opera. He
also appeared with the Ohio Light Opera for two seasons.
|
Click
on the album cover to go to the
Albany
Records website and hear a sample! |
George
Cordes also has had the honor of being chosen by composer Robert
Xavier Rodriguez to perform several of his works, including the world
premiere of Forbidden Fire, a
cantata for bass-baritone, chorus and orchestra. In 2001, he debuted
with the Hilton Head Orchestra, singing Scrooge!, a
piece by Mr. Rodriguez based on Dickens' A Christmas Carol.
He
also has sung Con Flor y Canto, based on the ancient Mayan
Popol Vuh, with Orquesta de las
Americas in Mexico City. He recorded
all three pieces with the University of Miami orchestra and chorus
for a CD released in 2001 by Albany
Records entitled Robert Xavier Rodriguez: Works for Chorus and Orchestra. The
CD is available online at the website www.albanyrecords.com
and through Tower Records and other music stores.
As
an active concert artist, George Cordes also has sung with the Hartford
Symphony, the Berkshire Choral Festival, Ascension Music, the
Masterworks Chorale, the Canton Symphony, and other
orchestras in works that include Messiah, The Verdi Requiem,
the Mozart Requiem, Elijah, Bach's St. Matthew Passion,
and numerous other sacred and secular works. |
George
Cordes received his training at the Boston
Conservatory of Music and the University
of Akron School of Music. He then
spent two years as an apprentice artist with both the Santa
Fe Opera and Pittsburgh
Opera.
Mr.
Cordes was a regional finalist in the Metropolitan
Opera National Council Auditions and
a finalist in the George London,
Richard Tucker and MacAllister
competitions. He
has won awards from the Center for Contemporary Opera, the
Liederkranz Foundation, Opera Columbus, and the National Association
of Teachers of Singing.
|
