Dean Elzinga


Vaughan-Williams' Sea Symphony with Chris Seaman and the Rochester Philharmonic: 

“...first-class soloists.  Bass-baritone Dean Elzinga seemed tailor-made for this kind of music, with his ringing projection and emphatic declamation.”

The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, October 13, 2007

Schoenberg's Ode to Napoleon with Peter Serkin and the Brentano String Quartet at New York's 92nd Street Y

"Dean Elzinga brought an imposing ferocity to his vivid, powerfully musical recitation."                                                           -The New York Times, December 15, 2008

 

"Dean Elzinga's malevolently oily Nick Shadow was resonantly sung and limned with keen, sardonic humor." 

-Opera News, October 2006

Dean Elzinga


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.

 

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