From a live performance of Giuseppe Verdi's Macbeth sung in German.
Macbeth - Michael Davidson
Lady Macbeth - Regina Fonseca
Assorted pics from: Aida, Rigoletto, Macbeth, Tales of Hoffmann, Die Kluge,
Il Trovatore, Das Rheingold, Parsifal, Falstaff, Don Pasquale, Nabucco, Tosca, Andrea Chenier, Simon Boccanegra,
La Boheme, Cardillac, Palestrina and La Gioconda.
Resume of Michael Davidson, baritone
Born in Long Beach, California, Michael Davidson studied voice with the Bolshoi's Verdi baritone Vladimir Dubinsky (a student of Antonio Cotogni's), while Hugo Strelitzer and Herbert Weisskopf were his coaches. Michael gave his European debut at the Concertgebouw presenting a variety of Verdi arias, later he returned there to sing the title-roles in Leoncavallo's Edipo Re (a role concipated for Titta Ruffo) and Dallapiccola's Il Prigionero. Further engagements include the Royal Opera Stockholm, National Theater Mannheim, Royal Opera Antwerp, Vancouver Opera, the Staatsopern in Vienna, Berlin, Munich, Hamburg, Stuttgart and the Gran Teatro de Liceu. Additionally the operas in Cologne, Karlsruhe, Portland, Hannover, Basel, Wuppertal, Frankfurt, Nürnberg, Dortmund and the Deutsche Oper am Rhein Düsseldorf-Duisburg.
Among his stage-partners have been Luciano Pavarotti (Rigoletto), Mirella Freni (La Boheme), Raina Kabaivanska (Madama Butterfly), Lucia Popp (Der Rosenkavalier), Eva Marton (Tosca), Montserrat Caballe (Aida), Martina Arroyo (Aida), Tatjana Troyanos (Carmen), Nadine Connor (La Traviata), Maria Chiara (Otello), Anton Dermota (Palestrina), Ileana Cotrubas (Rosenkavalier), Fiorenza Cossotto (Il Trovatore), Agnes Baltsa (Rosenkavalier) Diana Damrau (Hänsel und Gretel, Rigoletto, Der Freischütz) and Waltraud Meier (Cardillac, Carmen, Il Trovatore, Der Rosenkavalier, Rigoletto). Michael Davidson has appeared in concerts with Mario del Monaco, Erika Köth and Renee Kollo and with such conductors as Giuseppe Patane, Alberto Erede, Kees Bakels, Hans Wallat, Horst Stein, Donald Runnicles and Nello Santi. Mr. Davidson also performed the King in Die Kluge under the direction of the composer Carl Orff. For his artistic accomplishments he has been awarded the title of Kammersänger. Michael Davidson retired from the stage in 1999 as Tonio (I Pagliacci), over 40 years after his debut. His son Robert is now an aspiring young baritone.
Throughout his career Mr. Davidson's repertoire has had a particular focus on the works of Giuseppe Verdi, singing the lead baritone roles in Otello, Un Ballo in Maschera, La Forza del Destino, Il Trovatore, Luisa Miller, La Traviata, Falstaff, Aida, Attila, Don Carlo and I Masnadieri and the title-roles of Rigoletto, Macbeth, Simon Boccanegra, and Nabucco.
He however also frequently portrayed such roles as the four demons (Les Contes D'Hoffmann), Scarpia (Tosca), Michele (Il Tabarro), Rance (La Fanciulla del West), Marcello (La Boheme), Enrico (Lucia di Lammermoor), Tonio (I Pagliacci), Alfio (Cavalleria Rusticana), Barnaba (La Gioconda), Escamillo (Carmen), Amfortas (Parsifal), Wolfram (Tannhäuser), Faninal (Der Rosenkavalier), the High Priest of Dagon (Samson e Dalilah), Valentin (Faust), Dunois (Joan of Arc), Gerard (Andrea Chenier), Sebastiano (Tiefland), the count in Capriccio as well as the title-roles in Gianni Schicci, Edipo Re, Eugene Onegin, Guglielmo Tell and Cardillac.
To purchase a complete recording of Edipo Re live from the Concertgebouw Amsterdam please follow this link:
http://www.opera-club.net/release.asp?rel=75
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I have known your dad personally and seen/heard him many times at the Nationaltheater Mannheim.
A beautiful baritone voice and a great personality and stage presence. So glad to listen to these clips on youtube. Hope you will be as great as him !
operabuff1 3 years ago 2
Hi R,
Macbeth's rising "Com'angeli d'ira, vendetta tuonarmi udrò di Duncano le sante virtu" and Philippo's "No, non macchiò la fè giurata, a me infedele, infedele non fu" are for me the most beautiful phrases for low voices.(Verdi) Naturally there are others, like in "Sangue a me" the "Il velame del futuro alle streghe squarcerò" (reminds me of Germont's "Dove il mio figlio, piú non lo vedo, in te piú Alfredo trovar...")
Fantastic voice your dad had and I'm sure still has. Greetings from me.
gallferi 3 years ago 2
An excellent performance (the German translation becomes less and less distracting as the scene goes on -- that's how good it is ;-)
And what a lovely photo collage tribute to your dad.
fanciulladelsouth 4 years ago 2