A superb singer and actor, bass-baritone Dean
Elzinga is regularly welcomed on concert and opera stages, often in 20th-century works requiring his unique dramatic
conviction and presence. He enjoyed international acclaim for Peter Maxwell Davies’ Eight
Songs for a Mad King, performing it in New York, Cleveland, Boston and Santa Monica; sang the title role in Harold
Farberman’s A Song of Eddie and Schoenberg’s Die glückliche Hand at New York’s Bard
Festival; performed and recorded Elliott Carter’s What next? in Amsterdam and Turin; and most recently (2008-9)
enjoyed great success performing Schoenberg's Ode to Napoleon with Peter Serkin and the Brentano String Quartet
at New York's 92nd Street Y, as well as on a West Coast tour. Other current season highlights include Beethoven's
Ninth Symphony with the Calgary Philharmonic and Pasadena Symphony; Verdi Requiem with the Florida Orchestra/Stefan
Sanderling; and two operas at Long Beach Opera: Ullman's The Emperor of Atlantis and Carl Orff's The
Clever One.
With a voice suited to considerable baritone and bass literature, Mr. Elzinga has performed Elgar's Dream
of Gerontius (Vancouver Symphony), Britten's War Requiem (Nashville Symphony), Berlioz Romeo et Juliette
(Portland Symphony), Bach’s St. Matthew Passion (National Philharmonic), Vaughan-Williams’ A Sea
Symphony (Rochester Philharmonic), the Verdi Requiem (Santa Rosa Symphony), Brahms Requiem (Baltimore
Choral Arts Society, Memphis Symphony), and Haydn's Die Jahreszeiten and Mahler's Eighth Symphony
at the Bard Festival under Leon Botstein. He
is among the most sought-after Beethoven #9 basses, having performed this work with the Reading, Vancouver, Long Beach, New
West, Phoenix, San Diego Symphonies, Minnesota Orchestra, and Rochester and Naples Philharmonics. Messiah engagements
include the Toronto, Pacific, Baltimore and Ann Arbor Symphonies and Florida Philharmonic. He has sung Haydn’s
Creation with the Florida Orchestra and Amarillo Symphony, and the Mozart Requiem with the Eugene Symphony
and Chautauqua Festival Orchestra.
Equally at home on the operatic stage, Mr. Elzinga's roles include Mozart’s
Figaro, Escamillo in Carmen, Leporello and Méphistophélès at the Vienna Volksoper; two roles
at Des Moines Metro Opera (Nick Shadow in Stravinsky’s
The Rake’s Progress and the Four Villains in Offenbach's Les contes d’Hoffmann); Nilakantha
in The Pearl Fishers at Calgary Opera; Nick Shadow and Leporello in Mozart’s Don Giovanni at the Edmonton
Opera, the Speaker in Mozart's Magic Flute with Michigan Opera Theatre, Pittsburgh Opera and at the Hollywood
Bowl with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Leonard Slatkin. Other opera credentials include the Metropolitan
Opera (Biterolf in Wagner's Tannhaeuser under James Levine), San Diego Opera (the King in Aida), Seattle
Opera (Hoffmann Villains), Arizona Opera (Leporello and Figaro), Hawaii Opera Theatre (Almaviva in Figaro),
Sacramento Opera (Leporello, Méphistophélès in Gounod’s Faust), Glimmerglass and New York
City Operas (Polyphemus in Handel’s Acis and Galatea), Opera Omaha (Raimondo in Donizetti’s
Lucia di Lammermoor), Opera San Jose (title role of Il Turco in Italia) and Vancouver Opera (Ramfis in Aida).
Of special note was his participation as Hagen in the Long Beach Opera’s reduction of Wagner’s Ring
cycle. He has also performed the title role of Mozart's Don Giovanni and Figaro in concert with the National
Philharmonic. Conductors with whom he
has worked include Christopher Seaman, John DeMain, David Lockington, Bertrand de Billy, Asher Fisch, Boris Brott, Emmanuel
Villaume, Yves Abel and Maximiano Valdes.
SEE: www.deanelzinga.com for more information.
