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“Possessor of
a strikingly beautiful voice” and “Completely commanding
on stage” are but two of the powerful phrases used by critics and
writers to describe the voice and stage talents of Charles Robert
Austin. A native of Nebraska, Mr. Austin is a former Marine Corps
Officer and Cobra Helicopter Pilot. Mr. Austin is able to move freely
and almost effortlessly from one musical style to another, being as much
at ease with Bach as with Wagner or with Opera as with Oratorio.
Acclaimed
internationally as a rising Bass-Baritone star in the Wagnerian realm,
Mr. Austin has sung the roles of
Wotan and Hunding in productions of Die Walkure
with Opera Theatre of Pittsburgh and Virginia Opera respectively,
as well as the role of King Mark in performances of
Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde with the Tokyo
Philharmonic, Teatro de la Opera San Juan, Cincinnati Symphony, Virginia
Opera, and Minnesota Symphony. He has performed Die Meistersinger
with Cincinnati Symphony and the Spoleto Festival as Viet Pogner
and Hermann Ortel, as Daland in Der Fliegende
Hollander with Opera Pacific, as Klingsor in
Parsifal and as King Henry the Fowler in Lohengrin,
both with the Cincinnati Symphony.
Mr. Austin is also a participant in the critically acclaimed "Evelyn
Lear and Thomas Stewart Emerging Singers Program," a program sponsored
by the Wagner Society of Washington DC. Mr. Austin’s
operatic repertoire of over 100 roles also includes Puccini’s Scarpia;
Floyd’s Olin Blitch, Gounod’s and Boito’s Mephistopheles,
Janacek’s Dr. Kolenáty, Bartok’s Duke Bluebeard; Verdi’s
Falstaff, Phillip II, and Sparafucile; Donizetti’s
Raimondo (Lucia) and Dulcamara (Elixir); Heggie’s Warden
George Benton (Dead Man Walking), Offenbach’s Four Villains,
and Mozart’s Leporello, Osmin, Don Alfonso, Figaro and
Sarastro, to name but a few. Mr. Austin has
performed at the most important venues in North America, Europe and
Asia. His performances include Handel’s Messiah, Mozart’s
Great Mass in C, both Beethoven’s Ninth
Symphony and the choral masterpiece Missa Solemnis,
and Verdi’s Nabucco, all at Carnegie Hall in New York
City. He sang Mozart’s version of Handel’s Messiah at
Avery Fischer Hall, Haydn’s Creation with the Mostly
Mozart Festival, Schubert’s seldom performed oratorio Lazarus
with the New York Chamber Orchestra at Alice Tully Hall, and Handel’s
Messiah with the Washington Choral Society at the Kennedy
Center in Washington DC. Mr. Austin has appeared with the Chicago Lyric
Opera, San Francisco Opera, Santa Fe Opera, the Holland Festival at the
Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Spoleto Festival in Italy, Canadian
Opera Company, the Tokyo Philharmonic, Seattle Symphony, Dallas
Symphony, the Choral Arts Society of Washington DC, Greater Miami Opera,
Florentine Opera, Hawaii Opera Theater, Anchorage Symphony, Milwaukee
Symphony, Los Angeles Master Choral, and the VARA Radio Symphony of the
Netherlands. Mr. Austin can be
heard on several recordings including the benchmark recording of
Menotti’s The Consul as the Secret Police Agent,
recorded under the direction of the composer himself at the Festival of
Three Worlds in Spoleto, Italy, as well as the recently released Naxos
recording of
Shostakovich's The Execution of Stepan Razin under the
directon of Gerard Schwarz with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, and
Seattle Symphony Chorale. Mr. Austin can also be heard on a
recording of Haydn’s opera La Fedelta Premiata as the
High Priest Melibeo, under the direction of the late David Golub
conducting the Padua Chamber Orchestra as well as a recording of Puccini’s Tosca with Riccardo Muti
conducting the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra. You can find Mr. Austin’s website at
www.Charles-R-Austin.com.
return to the top
COMPANIES: return to the top Ricardo Muti, Gerard Schwarz, Jesus Lopez-Cobos, Leonard Slatkin, Bruno
Bartoletti, Robert Shaw, John De Main, Edo de Waart, John Fiore, George
Manahan, Richard Buckey, John Crosby, Steven Barlow, Joel Revzen, Richard
Bradshaw, Joe Illick, David Zinman, Peter Mark, James Conlon, Robert Porco, Jorge
Velazco. return to the top
With Ken Cazan,
after performance With Maestro
GianCarlo Menotti, return to the top
return to the top
Daland,
Der Fliegende Hollander with Opera Pacific
THE EXECUTION OF STEPAN RAZIN THE
CONSUL LA
FEDELTA
PREMIATA
TOSCA WAR
AND PEACE return to the top Home |
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The
cast and conductor from the Spoletto Festival production/recording
of the The Consul (from left) Louis Ottey, Susan Bullock, Maestro
Richard Hickox, Victoria Livengood, Charles Robert Austin