Brent Ellis sings Cruda, funesta smania from Lucia

[mantiXcore]

I saw him sing Iago in Otello in Atlanta in 2001. He's awesome! Not just with his voice, but he gets into character really well and is really fun to watch.

[MaestroJosephShore]

I knew Brent Ellis well. I worked with him in Santa Fe where he sang lyric baritone roles like Marcello. He knew he was a lyric baritone and told me Ashton was the heaviest he would sing. However, over the years he began to sing heavier roles. He was essentially a strong lyric baritone. Many lyric baritones want to be Verdi baritones and end up pushing their voices. Many Verdi baritones want to be dramatic tenors. :) Brent sang Ford to my Falstaff in Aspen. But to me he is not a Verdi baritone.

[Agorante]

@MaestroJosephShore

I believe that Ellis had a wooden leg. His leg had been shot off in Viet Nam. Or am I thinking of someone else? I heard him the first time in Poppea as Ottone. This production was on a severly raked stage. He was then and is here a lyric baritone but then again Tamburini the originator of the role was a bass who couldn't sing Verdi baritone parts either.

In Poppea Alan Titus sang the tenor lead. He too went onto Verdi baritone roles.

[ENRICOASHTON]

impresionante! no entiendo las 4 estrellas y media, tendrían que ser 5 sin duda!

[stevevandien]

I heard and saw Ellis live 24 years ago in Milwaukee with the Florentine Opera. He doubled Alfio and Tonio in Cav/Pag. His voice was large and powerful, with terrific thrust; "Il cavallo" sounded like continual blasts from a cannon. And his acting was effective -- extroverted in Cav, a little more understated in Pag. His Prologue to the latter was quite moving --

[baricoop]

wow. I really like this guy. good point, ring throughout the voice. That is a HARD scene to sing, and I think he did awesome in it. Bravo Brent Ellis!

[donatello1]

What year was this production?

[abgbddsg]

He is a quite good singer and performs this difficult scene very well. It is also very nice to see the right style of costumes for this opera, something that became very rare in our time!

[nisticom]

Good, powerful voice. But his italian is not good, his acting disconnected from the text and his style... well, no style! But these days few people care about style...

[JCTII1965]

Brent is a GREAT actor and singer.  His Italian is pretty good, otherwise he would never have sung around in some of the places he has sung.

Style? He has fire and intensity, to go with a fantastic true Verdian Baritone. This IS rare today.

[nisticom]

Well, if you say so... however, I do not think his italian is so good (and I am from Italy). Perhaps good enough for americans. Everybody keep talking about Verdian Baritones, but I have the feeling that this is based only on power of voice and not beauty and, again, style... but anyway, opera is always a matter of personal taste, isn't it?

[JCTII1965]

I'll have to go with your Italian mark. And I personally would prefer a more ble canto approach like de Luca or Battistini. Over here it is about power do to the size of the houses. State Theatre is 3000+, and was real pitiful acoustic prior to Kellog and the refurbishing.

[nisticom]

I agree with the size of the houses in the USA. I live in NY and sang a few times at the State Theater (with NYCO), the size of the house is almost scary. The upcoming general manager at NYCO will do more acoustics "improvements"... let's hope for the best.

Anyway, over all, I like Brent Ellis, just not so much the kind of singer I prefer (like, as you say, Bastianini or Cappuccilli or Bruson, have you heard Bruson's Cruda Funesta? really wonderful) Ciao...

[divobari2]

I sooooooo agree with you. This idea that a Verdian Baritone has to blow you out of the water with his sound is sooooooooo tacky!!! It is about beauty and style. Yes, there are some thick passages, and you need to have some power, but a true "listener" ultimately wants the beauty... not the "c*msh*t" of sound.