In the wrong hands, Donizetti’s hero can struggle to escape Lucia’s shadow. Yet, as the Globe and Mail noted:

“Christy’s Lucia was matched by the fine tenor of Stephen Costello as Edgardo, Lucia’s true love. With power to burn, and a sweet, focused sound, Costello made the most of his final death scene, as he did with all his appearances.”

MooneyOnTheatre agreed:

“Christy’s voice pairs beautifully in duets with Stephen Costello’s bright, youthful tenor. As Lucia’s lover, Edgardo, Costello brings a fiery passion to the character and especially shines in Edgardo’s heartbreaking aria in Act III.”

The tenor’s fervor made a similar impression on Bachtrack:

“Costello brings fine energy, excellent timbre and a flexible bel canto voice capable of great agility to his role as Edgardo, Lucia’s ardent, faithful-but-fickle Highlander lover. His final aria (before his ostensible suicide) flared with passion.”

Barczablog explained succinctly why such success is no mean feat:

“I’ve never – until now – seen an Edgardo that I really liked. He’s a troubling character, sailing off into the sunset early on, and then suddenly appearing self-righteously five minutes too late, romantic in the ineffectual way that’s classic Walter Scott. … Costello deserves special credit, making such a likable and charismatic Edgardo.”

Evidently, what sets Costello’s portrayal apart is the marriage of diverse talents he brings to the role. For Stage-Door,

“Costello is an ideal Edgardo. He is dashing in appearance, rather like Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings, and has a glorious Italianate voice that throbs with passion. His final contrasting arias are sung with such beauty and vitality that for once the conclusion focusing on Edgardo does not feel like an anticlimax after Lucia’s mad scene.”

As the Toronto Star agreed, his Edgardo offers “the whole package”:

“Stephen Costello’s Edgardo is another masterful performance, eschewing the standard romantic tenor for something rugged and more convincing. A bit of Glaswegian steampunk in his costume and a voice that rang out time and time again with purity and passion made for an unbeatable combination.”

*          *          *          *          *

Now in its fifth season, the Metropolitan Opera’s free Summer Recital Series presents recitals of operatic arias and duets, together with selections from the American Songbook, in parks in all five boroughs of New York. When the series returns this summer, Costello will be featured in two of the upcoming concerts. On Tuesday, July 16, he will help launch the series at Central Park SummerStage, with soprano Erin Morley, described by the Wall Street Journal as “spectacular”; mezzo Isabel Leonard, who recently followed in Costello’s footsteps when she won the 2013 Richard Tucker Award; and pianist Bradley Moore, who regularly collaborates with the likes of Renée Fleming, Plácido Domingo, and Yo-Yo Ma. Then on Friday, July 19, the four artists reunite for a second free outdoor performance at Pier 1 in Brooklyn Bridge Park.

Further details of Stephen Costello’s upcoming engagements follow, and more information about the artist is available at the web sites listed below.

Stephen Costello: upcoming engagements

May 9, 12, 15, 18, & 24

Toronto, Canada

Canadian Opera Company

Donizetti: Lucia di Lammermoor (Edgardo)

July 16

New York, NY

Metropolitan Opera Summer Recital Series

Central Park SummerStage

(with Erin Morley, soprano; Isabel Leonard, mezzo-soprano; Bradley Moore, piano)

July 19

New York, NY

Metropolitan Opera Summer Recital Series

Brooklyn Bridge Park, Pier 1

(with Erin Morley, soprano; Isabel Leonard, mezzo-soprano; Bradley Moore, piano)

www.facebook.com/pages/Stephen-Costello

twitter.com/CostelloTenor

#          #          #

© 21C Media Group, May 2013

More details are available Here

Tuesday, July 16 at 8 pm

Central Park SummerStage, Manhattan

Stephen Costello, tenor

Isabel Leonard, mezzo-soprano

Erin Morley, soprano

Bradley Moore, pianist

Friday, July 19 at 7 pm

Brooklyn Bridge Park, Pier 1, Brooklyn

Stephen Costello, tenor

Isabel Leonard, mezzo-soprano

Erin Morley, soprano

Bradley Moore, pianist

The Canadian Opera Company has been introducing Torontonians to many fine young singers over last few seasons. One of the vocal treats in Lucia di Lammermoor, which opens tonight, is American tenor Stephen Costello. Still only in his early 30s, he’s already making a mark on the world’s opera stages.

Costello sings the role of Edgardo in Gaetano Donizetti’s musically florid take on a Gothic horror story by Sir Walter Scott. This production, which comes to us from English National Opera in London, is directed by David Alden and stars equally young-and-talented American soprano Anna Christy as Lucia.

The Toronto production is promising because it is a showcase of the current fine state of bel canto singing.

I had a chance to sit down with Costello during a day off from rehearsals last week, and we dove right in to the subject of of bel canto opera and its unique vocal demands — of having to sing runs and trills that embellish the basic melody in pretty much every single aria.

Costello has in the half-dozen years of his mainstage career made a specialty of singing operas from early 19th century Italy.

“Some people say Mozart teaches you a lot about the voice. I think bel canto teaches you a lot about the voice,” the tenor explains. “That’s because you have to learn how to pace it, how to sing it with a beautiful line and good tone.”

You also have to know how to navigate through the full range of the voice from middle register all the way up – especially through the passaggio, the natural break between what are known as the chest voice and the head voice.

Costello says a role like Edgardo in Lucia gives the voice “a good stretch, that will help you find the placement for higher notes which you’ll need in bigger music later on.”

It’s clear that this singer is very conscious about his instrument and how it is developing. Although the human voice never really stays the same, it changes especially quickly — often dramatically so — during a person’s 20s and 30s.

I ask Costello if he has a specific plan for his career.

Says he would like to have a plan, but, “with a voice, you just never have any idea which way it’s going to go, and, theoretically, if you sing correctly and you don’t push your voice and it gets stronger and stronger, your voice should start to open up more and get a little fuller.” That leads to bigger music. “But you don’t know until your voice starts to do it.”

Great tenors are not easy to find, so there is a lot of pressure on promising young singers to take on a lot of different roles very quickly. But, for Costello, careful pacing is key. He says a singer needs a manager instead of an agent: “An agent will book you, but a manager will help plan which jobs you take.”

The singer also has to remember that the voice is like muscle, and needs to be treated accordingly.

“Using your voice is like going to the gym,” Costello says. “If you’re constantly working out, you can’t go to the gym the next day and work out all the same muscles you worked out the day before. It would be exhausting. You would pull something, and it’s the same thing with singing. If you’re going to use your voice so much the same day, you’re not going to want to use it the next day. You need to let it rest and heal.”

The busy singer has also learned that he has to tend to his spouse. The native Philadelphian’s wife is soprano Ailyn Pérez — they met in school in the City of brotherly Love — and she is just as busy as he is. So they take August off every year to spend some quality time together.

They are apart for much of the rest of the year.

“You just have to suck it up and get over it,” says Costello, matter-of-factly. “You can fixate on not being together, or you can say, okay, this is the time we’re going to be together, let’s make the best of it.”

They try to visit each other’s gigs. Costello will fly off to England after his Toronto run to see Pérez in a production of Falstaff in Glyndebourne. But opening-night-visits rarely happen. “We’ll call each other on opening night and wish each other good luck,” says the tenor.

“Using your voice is like going to the gym,” Costello says.

Given how quickly Costello has made it onto the world’s most prestigious opera stages — he had his Met début in 2007, when he was 26 — it’s surprising to find out he started his musical life as a trumpeter.

He was 17 when he began to have an inkling of becoming a singer. That’s when he joined the chorus at his high school.

“My trumpet teacher said you need to join the chorus to train your ears and to help improve your sight reading,” Costello recalls. “He said if you can sight sing you can easily play it on your instrument. So I did it and I liked it – I don’t know why.”

He continues: “I had this guy next to me. He got all the leads in the musicals and he was just so loud, so I thought I’d turn it into a game and be louder than he is. I figured someone would eventually stop me and say you’re too loud, or something. But nobody ever did, so I just enjoyed it.”

In his final year in high school, the big musical production was going to be South Pacific, which had a small, dull trumpet part. “It’s 10 notes here and 10 notes there. That’s exhausting. So I auditioned for Emile and they gave me Cable. I just really, really liked it,” Costello smiles.

Besides enjoyment, the budding singer also discovered the relief of being freed from performance anxiety. “I felt I had more control over my nerves, because it’s hard on your body,” he says of musical theatre and opera. “When you play the trumpet and your hands start to shake, you’re screwed.”

Although he had still intended on studying trumpet for his undergraduate music degree, he ended up auditioning for voice, and never looked back.

Costello might be conscious of taking care of his instrument, of learning the right roles at the right time in his physical and artistic development, and of making sure he spends enough time with Pérez. But, ultimately, he is doing exactly what he loves.

“If you enjoy singing, just be thankful you can do it,” he concludes.

+++

For all the details and background information on the Canadian Opera Company’s production of Lucia di Lammermoor, clickhere. Performances run to May 24.

The fast-rising young tenor Stephen Costello has firmly established himself as one of the current generation’s most impressive artists. He came to national attention in 2007 when, at age 26, he debuted at the Met’s season- opening night and was quickly invited to appear again that same season. In 2009, Costello won the prestigious Richard Tucker Award. He subsequently made his debuts at a number of the world’s most important opera houses and music festivals, including London’s Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Salzburg Festival, and the Vienna State Opera. In 2010 he inaugurated the role of Greenhorn in the Dallas Opera’s acclaimed world-premiere production of Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer’s Moby Dick.

His performances as Cassio in Verdi’s Otello, conducted by Riccardo Muti at the Salzburg Festival, were released on DVD in 2010 (Major/Naxos), and his Covent Garden debut in Linda di Chamounix was released on CD in March 2011 (Opera Rara).

Next week Stephen Costello will headline Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor at the Canadian Opera Company as Edgardo opposite soprano Anna Christy in a revival of David Alden’s ground-breaking English National Opera production.

It was in Lucia that the tenor made his house debut at New York’s Metropolitan Opera back in 2007, when his portrayal of Arturo so impressed Met Music Director James Levine that the young tenor found himself undertaking the opera’s male lead that same season. As Parterre.com reports, thanks to his “youth, sweet timbre, precocious poise, and emotional involvement” as Edgardo, it was Costello who “got the biggest ovation at the end” of the night.

Stephen Costello opens in Lucia di Lammermoor with the Canadian Opera Company on April 16th

Now the Richard Tucker Award-winner looks forward to reprising the role for all nine of the Canadian Opera Company’s upcoming performances between April 17 and May 24. I ask Stephen Costello ten questions: five about himself and five more about his portrayal of Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor.

1) Are you more like your father or your mother?
I am not really sure. I am sort of a mix of both I think. I can’t complain I had great parents growing up. Sure like all families we have had fights and I am sure I have said terrible things at one point, but I love them both very much. They have taught me to be polite and respectful, and never forget who you are and where you have come from. That also keeps me grounded as a person.

2) What is the best thing or worst thing about being a singer?
There are so many great things about being a singer. You get to travel all over the world, work with amazing artists and musicians. You also get to bring music and joy to audiences and people who really need to be entertained and forget about life for a while. These are the things that keep us in the business.

The worst part about being a singer is not seeing family and friends. I spend weeks away from my wife at a time and it is terrible. I have also missed watching my nephew Sean and Godson Patrick grow up. I have missed birthdays and Christmases. In this business you have to be willing to make sacrifices. That is the worst part of being a singer. A lot of people will say rejection, I think that makes you stronger. It is not seeing the ones we love, that’s what gets me.

3) Who do you like to listen to or watch?
I listen to everything and everyone. The more you listen to, the more ideas are in your head. I can watch YouTube for hours. I feel it is important to watch the stars of the past and the stars of today and see what makes them famous or special. I think we learn more as a singer watching others. I have been on a Bruno Mars kick for a while. I think he is so talented. I also love watching movies. Anything with Jimmy Stewart, Tom Hanks, or Johnny Depp, I am There. Would love to meet these guys and pick their brains.

4) What ability or skill do you wish you had, that you don’t have?
I wish I had the ability to make a decision. I can make decisions on work, but nothing else. It is awful. I will end up trying to decide on lunch or dinner, and then it is too late. I also wish I could fly, but then again who doesn’t.

5) When you’re just relaxing and not working what is your favourite thing to do?
Hangout with friends and go to the movies. If I am not doing that I am getting in touch with family members and planning trips to see them all. I think family is the most important thing in a person’s life.

Five more concerning Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor

1) How does portraying Edgardo challenge you?
Edgardo is a role that I had to grow into. The first time I had sung Edgardo was on stage at the Met and I think I was 25 or 26. I was so young and just hoping not to pass out from nerves. However, I had one of the greatest conductors of all-time leading the way in the pit, Maestro James Levine. Knowing that he believed in me and my ability gave me confidence and security as the night went on. Today having worked with him is something I will always remember and treasure.

Since then I have had a chance to get to know the role better. That happens with every role the more you sing it. It is a role that is not long, but very demanding. I have also had tonsil surgery so I have also had to re-vocalize the role as well.

I feel more comfortable with Edgardo and enjoy singing it very much. It is mostly realizing to not get excited and dramatic too soon. It is easy to get carried away in the wedding scene or the Wolf’s Crag scene, but you have to remember there is a very taxing tomb scene still to come. Pacing is the key to singing Edgardo.

2) What do you love about preparing Edgardo for the Canadian Opera Company production of Lucia.
I love working with this cast. It is a great group of people and never a dull moment. Plus the COC has been such an inviting company. I only wish that the weather was nicer!!!!!!

I also enjoy working with a good friend and mentor Stephen Lord. He has helped me so much in this process. I look forward to working with him more and more.

3) Do you have a favourite moment in the opera?
I love the Wolf’s Crag scene in this production. I get to feel like a stunt man. They throw me around and pour water on my head, it is a lot of fun. Plus it is such a good duet.

4) How do you relate to Edgardo and the story of Lucia di Lammermoor as a modern man?

It is hard for me to relate to Edgardo. I was married into a family that has welcomed me with open arms. I think I relate to his passion for Lucia and his beliefs, but thankfully I have never had to feel his pain.

5) Is there a teacher, singer, actor or an influence that you especially admire?
I admire my teacher Bill Schuman very much. He has been by my side from the beginning and has believed in me from day one. He has also given me the tool to be in a career and now support my family. I will always be thankful and grateful to him. He is part of our family. I look forward to many more years together.

*******
Stephen Costello opens in Lucia di Lammermoor with the Canadian Opera Company on April 16th at the Four Seasons Centre. Further info

It was in Lucia that the tenor made his house debut at New York’s Metropolitan Opera back in 2007, when his portrayal of Arturo so impressed Met Music Director James Levine that the young tenor found himself undertaking the opera’s male lead that same season. As Parterre.com reports, thanks to his “youth, sweet timbre, precocious poise, and emotional involvement” as Edgardo, it was Costello who “got the biggest ovation at the end” of the night.

Now the Richard Tucker Award-winner looks forward to reprising the role for all nine of the Canadian Opera Company’s upcoming performances between April 17 and May 24.

April 17, 20, 26, & 30; May 9, 12, 15, 18, & 24

Toronto, Canada

Canadian Opera Company

Donizetti: Lucia di Lammermoor (Edgardo)

“The applause was deafening” (Opera Today) when Richard Tucker Award-winner Stephen Costello made his role debut as Tonio in La fille du régiment at San Diego Opera last month. This auspicious start marked the first of the tenor’s three Donizetti leads this year, the next of which sees him return to the Vienna State Opera to sing Nemorino in L’elisir d’amore opposite his wife and frequent co-star, Ailyn Pérez, (March 1–8) before taking on Edgardo in David Alden’s groundbreaking staging of Lucia di Lammermoor at the Canadian Opera Company (April 17–May 24).

As the male lead of La fille du régiment, the tenor scored a hit at San Diego Opera. Opera Today reported:

“Stephen Costello once again showed us the warm, bright ringing tones of his tenor voice. San Diego has heard him as Romeo and Faust, but the role of Tonio is much more demanding than either. His virtuosic first act aria ‘Ah, mes amis,’ is well known for its nine high Cs and Costello hit each of them exactly in the center of the note, holding the last one with seeming ease. Naturally, the applause was deafening. For the rest of his role he was a charming lover who sang with exquisite lyric tones.”

Now Costello returns for a third consecutive season to the Vienna State Opera, singing Nemorino opposite his wife and fellow Tucker Award-winner, soprano Ailyn Pérez, in Otto Schenk’s iconic staging of L’elisir d’amore. Stephen had this to say about his upcoming performance: “I’m very excited to return to Vienna to sing a great opera at a beautiful house, alongside my beautiful wife, Ailyn, who I have not seen in over a month. The audiences there are wonderful, it’s a great company to work for, and many great artists have performed this role on that stage, so it is incredible to be part of it.”

The tenor’s Nemorino has been justly celebrated on both sides of the Atlantic, inspiring Opera News (speaking of his Michigan Opera Theatre performances) to pronounce him “a first-rate talent”; the UK’s Arts Desk declared that, at Glyndebourne, “Costello’s Nemorino was a revelation.” His collaborations with Pérez have also consistently won praise for their potent chemistry; the two are profiled in the cover story of Classical Singer’s February 2013 issue, they were featured in the June 2012 Issue of Vanity Fair, and they were recently billed as “opera’s hottest couple” at Los Angeles Opera. When they headlined L’elisir at Michigan Opera in March 2009, the Free Press Music Critic was moved to marvel:

“The gorgeous singing, lucid acting, and palpable chemistry between Costello’s Nemorino and Ailyn Pérez’s Adina elevated the evening to a higher plane. … From beginning to end, I had a smile on my face.”

It was at Montreal Opera that the tenor demonstrated his “rich, powerful, nuanced voice” and “strong stage presence” as Edgardo in the company’s “landmark” presentation of Lucia di Lammermoor (Res Musica). In April, for his third and final Donizetti opera of the season, Costello returns to Canada to co-star with soprano Anna Christy in the Canadian Opera Company’s Lucia, a revival of David Alden’s English National Opera production that the UK’s Telegraph called “a magnificent conception.” Stephen Costello had this to say: “I’m looking forward to making my Toronto debut and to working with an old friend, conductor Stephen Lord, on this production.”

Further details of Stephen Costello’s upcoming engagements follow, and more information about the artist is available at the web sites listed below.

Stephen Costello: spring engagements

March 1, 4, & 8

Vienna, Austria

Vienna State Opera

Donizetti: L’elisir d’amore (Nemorino)

April 17, 20, 26, & 30; May 9, 12, 15, 18, & 24

Toronto, Canada

Canadian Opera Company

Donizetti: Lucia di Lammermoor (Edgardo)

www.stephencostellotenor.com

www.facebook.com/pages/Stephen-Costello

twitter.com/CostelloTenor

#          #          #

© 21C Media Group, February 2013

Having a conversation with Stephen Costello isn’t like having a conversation with an opera singer even though his speaking voice is well placed. He speaks more like a dude you’d grab a burger with at Hodad’s.

However, make no mistake, Stephen Costello is an opera singer. Getting to hear him sing his first Tonio in Daughter of the Regiment is kind of like finding Babe Ruth’s rookie baseball card at a yard sell in the dime bin. This is a chance to have one of those “I remember when” stories.

That story might go something like this: “Stephen Costello? Of course, of course, I remember when I heard him sing his first Tonio at San Diego Opera. He was about 30 or 31-years-old and you just knew that he was something special–even back then. Can you imagine that voice singing Ah mes amis? Ya, ya, I know, amazing”.

Here’s the story you could tell if you don’t go to Daughter of the Regiment: “Stephen Costello? Of course, of course, I had a chance to hear him sing his first Tonio at San Diego Opera but I didn’t go–don’t give me that look. What? How was I to know? Okay fine. I blew it.”

Don’t tell that story folks. Daughter of the Regiment opens tomorrow night at the Civic Theater.

San Diego Reader: Tell me about the pinky ring. You never see those.

Stephen Costello: It’s funny you should ask about that. This ring was given to me by aunt Anita. She is the aunt of my teacher Bill Schuman and my wife and I have adopted her as our own aunt.

She’s kind of a spiritual person and she gave me this ring. She said she has meditated on it and that it’s going to bring me good luck and it has. It has brought me a lot of good luck. I never take it off. I even wear it while I’m performing if my costume is a suit or something that works.

Sometimes I’ll put it in my pocket while I’m performing. I feel better when I’m wearing it. Maybe it’s just a mental thing but it works. It doesn’t fit on any other finger except my pinky so I made it a pinky ring.

SDR: So it’s not a Joe Pesci thing?

SC: Naw. It’s funny. My wife gets upset because she’s bought me rings and I really don’t like wearing rings. I wear my wedding ring but I always futz with them. When Aunt Anita gave me this I was like, “It’s awesome”. I have a whole drawer full of rings from my wife and she always asks me why I don’t wear them. I mean look at this thing, it could knock someone out. People also ask me if I could use it as a wax seal. It’s not really for that but it looks cool.

One ring to rule them.

SDR: Where have you been and where are you going?

SC: Well, I started the season with Moby Dick at San Francisco Opera. I wish I could have sung it here in San Diego last year.

SDR: That is such an amazing piece of theater.

SC: Yes, and Jake Heggie [the composer of Moby Dick] is always so grateful to the singers for performing his music. He is genuinely a nice, nice, nice person. He’s one of my favorite people in the entire world. I love Jake. Jake could call and ask me to do anything and I’ll jump at it in a minute.

The thing about Moby Dick is that when we first did it [in Dallas] we became a family. We’ve all kept in touch with each other. We talk with each other regularly. It’s kind of great to get to go to work and sing music that I love and work with people I want to hang out with. It’s like a family vacation except every once in awhile you have to go to rehearsal.

I got to meet Jay Hunter Morris [Captain Ahab]. Everyone else met him here but it was a pleasure to get to know him in San Francisco.

SDR: He’s great and such a humble and genuine person.

SC: You know if there’s anyone who is grateful to be in a career it’s him. I think every day he wakes up and is happy to be singing the way he is. He seems to be honored to be wherever he is. He taught everybody a lot about how to look at things–how to be grateful for what you’re doing and forget about all the other BS.

SDR: Hmm. That’s interesting. I guess on any given day we have more to be thankful for than not.

SC: Right, right. That’s true. I mean look, I could not be working. There’s a lot of people out there that could be great. My teacher always tells me to be be thankful because there’s always someone in a church out there that’s better than you are that’s waiting for their shot. It’s true. There are a lot of people out there. There’s probably people who could sing rings around Franco Corelli and we’ll never know about them.

SDR: I don’t know…

SC: We don’t know. We just don’t know–because they haven’t been given their chance. Or they don’t want to be singer or don’t even know they can sing.

SDR: Yes, there could be tremendous singers out there who have no idea what type of voice they have. I think there’s more and more of it.

SC: A big part of it is the emphasis in education is moving away from performing arts. If I didn’t have the performing arts community in the public schools I grew up in I wouldn’t be doing this today. I would have never–I mean my parents didn’t listen to classical music.

I would have never experienced classical music. I wouldn’t have know how to get involved in something like opera or even how to go see something like opera. I would have thought it was something for rich people. I don’t know what I would be doing today because I wasn’t the best in school. I think I took algebra II twice.

I probably would have ended up like the rest of my family in some sort of trade–which isn’t a bad thing at all–I mean they’re great at what they do but I didn’t know if that was something I wanted to do. A lot times people just get thrown into a job because that’s what their parents have done and that’s what they know and what else do they have?

Getting to hear him sing his first Tonio in Daughter of the Regiment is kind of like finding Babe Ruth’s rookie baseball card at a yard sell in the dime bin. This is a chance to have one of those “I remember when” stories.

There was a time when I thought about not going to undergrad. My parents had to take out a loan for both my sister and I to go to college. Well, a loan for just the first year, after that we had to figure it out on our own. I had some scholarship money but I remember going to school my second year and wondering how I was going to pay.

I tried for more scholarship money but the dean said it was only for jazz and not classical music. I went to the college counselor and she said I could take out loans that have a high interest and that’s what I ended up having to do.

I was still trying to figure out which way I was going to go. I was still trying to figure out my voice and whether I could make it in a career and here I was taking out loans for tens-of-thousands of dollars in order to find out if there’s a chance that I could make it in a career and maybe pay these loans back?

To be continued.