Stuart Skelton on Britten, Wagner & Bieito

[Il Grande Inquisitor]

Forumites may well be interested to read my recent interview with Australian tenor Stuart Skelton. I met him in the midst of a madcap four days: Florestan-Grimes (Birmingham)-Florestan-Grimes (RFH). He certainly has tremendous stamina and delivered a fine Peter Grimes on Saturday evening.

http://www.opera-britannia.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1019:interview-stuart-skelton&catid=15:interviews&Itemid=14

He is especially interesting on Grimes and the other Britten role he would consider - Captain Vere.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Many Thanks, IGI.

[verismissimo]

Very interesting, Mark. Did you discover anything about his musical education? Who and where were his teachers? I haven't even spotted where he was born and grew up.

[Il Grande Inquisitor]

Very interesting, Mark. Did you discover anything about his musical education? Who and where were his teachers? I haven't even spotted where he was born and grew up.

Stuart started out as a treble in St Andrew's Cathedral Choir, Sydney at the age of eight. He received his early vocal training in Sydney and came to National attention after winning Australia’s two most prestigious awards. He furthered his studies at the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music under professors Barbara Honn and Thomas Baresel, graduating in 1995 with his Master of Music, and then proceeding to San Francisco where he was invited to join the prestigious Adler Fellowship during which he became the first Australian to win the Belvedere Competition in Vienna. He has received awards from the Sullivan Foundation and the Robert Lauch Memorial Award from the Wagner Society of New York. He also studied, albeit briefly, with James King.

[verismissimo]

Brilliant. Thanks. I rather think that the evangelicals who control St Andrew's nowadays have dispensed with the choir and all the sort of music that SS would have sung as a boy.