eNEWS UPDATE
MAY 2009
MELBA'S RING ENDS AS IT BEGAN:
with international acclaim and awards
Melba congratulates Timothy Mussard on winning the Prix Lauritz Melchior
The impact and achievement of Melba Recordings’ history-making recording of Wagner’s Ring Cycle—the first ever to be recorded in state-of-the-art Super Audio CD—continues to make itself felt and to win international recognition.
Enthusiastic accolades from critics and record buyers around the world greeted the appearance in 2008 of the Melba Ring’s final climactic instalment, Götterdämmerung, with unanimous praise being heaped on tenor Timothy Mussard as Siegfried—a compelling performance that has now been rewarded with this year’s coveted Prix Lauritz Melchior*, a “Gold Orpheus” created to recognise a Heldentenor by the Académie du Disque Lyrique.
Timothy Mussard’s Siegfried in Götterdämmerung was admired by critics around the world.
“The scale of the role is honoured… the heroic character is there, too… he conveys a shining memory of his love. The final notes of this Siegfried here are magnificent” Anacluse (France)
“Mussard gets through the role admirably. He’s full of swagger in the early scenes, suitably naïve in the Second Act and is urgent and moving in his death scene” Musical Criticism (UK)
“Lyrical and ardent… a glorious end to the first Australian recording of Der Ring des Niebelungen” The Age (Australia)
The Prix Lauritz Melchior for Timothy Mussard is the latest honour to be received by a Melba Recordings artist and serves to underline the still young company’s fast-growing reputation as one of the most innovative and imaginative classical recording labels to emerge anywhere in the world in the last decade.
Editor’s note:
*Named after the legendary Danish-American tenor, the Prix Lauritz Melchior is awarded by the Académie du disque lyrique in France in recognition of the year’s most outstanding performance by a Wagnerian tenor in a recording.
TIMOTHY MUSSARD biography
American-born Timothy Mussard is one of opera's most accomplished heroic tenors. Following his Siegfried for the State Opera, Stuttgart in 2000, he reprised the role for the State Opera of South Australia to international acclaim. In 2008 he sang both Siegfrieds in Marseille Opera’s Ring Cycle.
In the United States, he has appeared with the Los Angeles Music Center Opera (in the title role of Stiffelio and as Herod in Salome), Florida Grand Opera (Erik in Der fliegende Holländer), Seattle Opera (title roles of Lohengrin and Don Carlos; Florestan in Fidelio; Radames in Aida), Austin Lyric Opera (the title role in Tannhäuser), Knoxville Opera (Turiddu in Cavalleria rusticana), and Dayton Opera (Pollione in Norma). He has also sung with Opera Colorado, New Orleans Opera, Opera Columbus, and Tulsa Opera.
He has also appeared at the Hong Kong Arts Festival as Herod and repeated his portrayal in the debut production by Opera Cleveland in 2007.
Notable conductors with whom he has worked include Zubin Mehta, Herman Michael, Gerard Schwarz, Edward Downes, Richard Hickox and Klaus Donath.
As a concert artist, he has appeared as tenor soloist in Beethoven's Symphony No.9 with the Glendale Symphony; a gala opera concert for the Lyric Opera of Chicago conducted by Zubin Mehta; concert performances of Fidelio at Dartmouth College; Lukas Foss’ Serenade for Tenor and Orchestra conducted by the composer in Mexico City and Los Angeles. He has also given recitals throughout North America as a scholar specialising in the Lieder of Schubert and Schumann.
A resident of southern California, Timothy Mussard holds M.M. and D.M.A. degrees from the University of Washington (Seattle). In addition to his singing career, he was the Associate Professor and Chair of the Voice Department and Vice-Chair of the Department of Music at the University of California, Los Angeles and is currently a member of the faculty of the Baldwin Wallace Conservatory in Berea, Ohio.
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