Ég vildi bara láta fólk vita að það er talsverður áhugi fyrir því að fá David Bartleet til landsins. Hann var hér í febrúar og vakti athygli margra söngnema og söngvara. Nú er s.s. möguleiki að fá hann frá 9.-14. maí en auðvitað aðeins ef hann fær góða þátttöku. Verð verður sem fyrr 5000 kr. á tímann. Hann mun fá aðstöðu hjá okkur í Söngskóla Sigurðar Demetz og þegar er ég kominn með nokkrar bókanir hjá honum. Það er því um að gera að bóka tímanlega og bíða ekki endilega fram á síðustu dagana sem hann er hér… síðast þurftu nokkrir frá að hverfa á síðustu dögum.
Eiginkona Davids, Anne Williams-King, spinto sópransöngkona, kemur með honum og hefur einnig lýst sig reiðubúna að gefa einkatíma. Anne debúteraði í Covent Garden í haust í Lady Macbeth frá Mtsensk eftir Sjostakóvítsj við frábærar undirtektir, en hún á að baki mjög góðan feril í Evrópu og Ástralíu.
Ég hef sjálfur unnið talsvert með David og hann hefur opnað fyrir mér margt í notkun líkamans í söngnum, en sumum ykkar er e.t.v. kunnugt að ég er á förum í maí til Þýskalands til að taka þátt í uppfærslu af Meistarasöngvurum Wagners, þar mun ég fara með stærsta tenórhlutverkið, Walther von Stolzing. Það að mér var boðið svo bitastætt hlutverk get ég að nokkru eignað David svo eitthvað virðist maðurinn kunna fyrir sér. Enn á eftir að ganga endanlega frá skipulagningu en allt miðast það að áhuga ykkar.
Áhugasamir hafi samband á gudbjornsson@internet.is eða í síma 663 4239
Gunnar Guðbjörnsson
Anne Williams-King’s singing life began at the Welsh National Eisteddfod as the seventeen year old winner of the two major prizes. She was soon winning important prizes in competitions at home and abroad including the Belgian “Bel Canto Competition” and third prize in “Cardiff Singer of the World”. Her career has taken her to much of Europe, as well as Japan, North America and Australia.
In autumn 2006 she made her Royal Opera Covent Garden debut in the title role of Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (Shostakovitch) conducted by the Royal Opera’s music director Antonio Pappano. Her performance was met with superlative audience and critical acclaim. Her opera debut was actually made in Paris at the Theatre du Chatelet, whilst her British debut was at the Welsh National Opera singing Amelia in Verdi’s “Un Ballo in Maschera”. She has sung at all the major opera houses in Britain in leading roles which include Violetta, Donna Anna, Senta, Aida, Micaela, Fiordiligi, Vitellia, Jenufa, Governess (Turn of the Screw) and in particular, the Puccini heroines: Mimi, Liu, Madame Butterfly, Tosca and Suor Angelica. She is in demand throughout Europe for roles such as Salome, Leonora (Il Trovatore), Tosca, Rusalka and Emilia Marty (Makropulos Case). She recently sang the title role in Janacek’s Jenufa in Holland, whilst in Germany, Ursula in Hindemith’s “Mathis der Maler”. She was an acclaimed Tosca at Les Azuriales Festival France last year, followed by an outstanding Madame Butterfly at the West Australian Opera, Perth.
After graduating with Honours in History and Economics at Leeds University, followed by a period of teaching, David was awarded the prestigious ‘Opera Scholarship’ at the
Royal College of Music London where his voice teacher was the Welsh baritone Redvers Llewelyn. He later won awards from the Ralph Vaughan Williams and Countess
of Munster Trusts to carry out further studies at the London Opera Centre. During this time his voice teacher was the tenor Richard Lewis, while he studied repertoire with Peter Gelhorn, Norman Feasey, Tom Hammond and Anthony Legge. He began his opera career in 1976 as a founder member of the English Music Theatre with artistic directors Stuart Bedford and Colin Graham. Since then he has developed a varied freelance career, not only as singer, but also an actor and singers’ manager. In recent years he has become increasingly successful as a voice teacher.
He has performed a great variety of opera roles at opera houses and festivals in Britain and Europe. At the Royal Opera House he sang a number of roles in Britten’s Death in Venice and at English National Opera, Rodas in Iain Hamilton’s The Royal Hunt of the Sun. With English Music Theatre he sang Blifil and the Shogun in the world premieres of Tom Jones (Stephen Oliver) and An Actor’s Revenge (Minoru Miki) together with Paco in the British premiere of Hans Werner Henze’s La Cubana. He sang Shuisky in Boris Godunov at the Brighton Festival; the four character tenor roles in The Tales of Hoffmann in Graham Vick’s joint production for Scottish Opera and Birmingham City Opera; Monostatos, First Armoured Man and The Mayor (Albert Herring) for English Music Theatre; Dr Caius in Opera Northern Ireland’s Falstaff, plus Bardolf for Graham Vick’s production at Birmingham City Opera. Among various appearances as an actor he spent a season with the contemporary theatre company “Lumiere and Son” and at about the same time was awarded an English Arts Council Advanced Musicians Bursary (1984) to study major opera character roles with the Norwegian tenor Ragnar Ulfung.
After a short while away from performing in the late 80’s and early 90’s, he resumed his stage and concert work and now appears regularly with the main touring companies, singing roles including Eisenstein and Alfred in Die Fledermaus, Monostatos (Die Zauberfloete), Spoletta(Tosca), Gaston (La Traviata), Pinkerton and Goro (Madama Butterfly).
David Bartleet B.A.; Dip. London Opera Centre; Cert. Educ.
Tel: + 44 20 8780 9377. E-Mail: dbartleet@aol.com