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This Canadian baritone has become one of the leading singers and dramatic interpreters of his generation, with award-winning performances and recordings on CD and DVD with major labels and performing at the world’s major opera and concert venues in a wide variety of repertoire. In opera, Mr Finley has sung all the major baritone roles of Mozart. His Don Giovanni has been seen in New York, London, Paris, Salzburg, Munich, Rome, Vienna, Prague, Tel Aviv, Budapest and Glyndebourne, recently released on DVD. As the Count in “Le nozze di Figaro,” his appearances include the Royal Opera Covent Garden (Opus Arte DVD), Salzburg Festival (2007, 2009), Paris and Amsterdam. At the New York Met his roles include Don Giovanni, Golaud and Marcello. His major success in 2011 was his debut performances as Hans Sachs at the Glyndebourne Festival. Critical successes also include Eugene Onegin and Golaud at Covent Garden, Iago in “Otello” with Sir Colin Davis and the LSO, and the title role in Guillaume Tell with Accademia di Santa Cecilia and Antonio Pappano. In contemporary opera, Mr Finley has excelled in creating leading roles, most notably Howard K. Stern in Turnage’s “Anna Nicole”

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This Canadian baritone has become one of the leading singers and dramatic interpreters of his generation, with award-winning performances and recordings on CD and DVD with major labels and performing at the world’s major opera and concert venues in a wide variety of repertoire.

In opera, Mr Finley has sung all the major baritone roles of Mozart. His Don Giovanni has been seen in New York, London, Paris, Salzburg, Munich, Rome, Vienna, Prague, Tel Aviv, Budapest and Glyndebourne, recently released on DVD. As the Count in “Le nozze di Figaro,” his appearances include the Royal Opera Covent Garden (Opus Arte DVD), Salzburg Festival (2007, 2009), Paris and Amsterdam. At the New York Met his roles include Don Giovanni, Golaud and Marcello.

His major success in 2011 was his debut performances as Hans Sachs at the Glyndebourne Festival. Critical successes also include Eugene Onegin and Golaud at Covent Garden, Iago in “Otello” with Sir Colin Davis and the LSO, and the title role in Guillaume Tell with Accademia di Santa Cecilia and Antonio Pappano. In contemporary opera, Mr Finley has excelled in creating leading roles, most notably Howard K. Stern in Turnage’s “Anna Nicole” at Covent Garden and J. Robert Oppenheimer in John Adam’s “Doctor Atomic” (New York Met, ENO London, San Francisco, Chicago and Amsterdam), as Harry Heegan in Mark Anthony Turnage’s “The Silver Tassie” at ENO, and Jaufré Rudel in Kaija Saariaho’s “L’amour de loin” for the much-acclaimed premieres in Santa Fe, Paris and Helsinki.

Concert appearances this season include works by Sibelius and Walton with the BBC Symphony, Janacek with the Berlin Philharmonic, Harbison’s 5th Symphony with the Boston Symphony, and Mozart Requiem and Missa Solemnis with the Concertgebouw Orchestra.

As a recitalist, he works regularly with Julius Drake. This year they perform at the Wigmore Hall, the Schubertiade and New York’s Alice Tully Hall, as well as Vienna’s Musikverein and Madrid’s Teatro della Zarzuela.

Mr Finley’s recent separate CD releases devoted to songs of Barber and Ives, “Dichterliebe and other Heine settings” by Schumann and “Songs by Ravel”, all in continuing partnership with Julius Drake on the Hyperion label, have been critically acclaimed, including the 2011 Gramophone Award in the 'Solo Vocal' category for "Songs and Proverbs of William Blake" by Benjamin Britten.

Gerald Finley, born in Montreal, began singing as a chorister in Ottawa, Canada, and completed his musical studies in the UK at the Royal College of Music, King’s College, Cambridge, and the National Opera Studio.

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Reviews

"Mr. Finley has long been recognized as a recitalist of rare versatility, a concert artist of the first rank and an opera singer of distinction in a broad repertory "

The New York Times

"I found Finley's account of these five songs quietly gripping. It seemed to combine those most unlikely partners, assuredness and frailty. When appropriate, he could produce a ghostly, almost bodiless head-voice. In more animated moments his tone was effortlessly strong and rich. The final bars [...] were haunting."

Brahms' German Requiem, Usher Hall - Alan Coady, bachtrack.com

"Gerald Finley, in a powerfully controlled yet emotional performance [...], cut to the heart of the music..."

Brahms' German Requiem, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall - Michael Tumelty, heraldscotland.com

"[The words] were sung [...] by the baritone Gerald Finley [...] whose understanding of their quiet, autumnal ecstasy was palpable in a performance heaped with throbbing tenderness and sublime passion."

Brahms' German Requiem, Edinburgh Usher Hall - Kenneth Walton, Scotsman.com

"Finley's tone was velvety smooth, and his projection and characterisation impeccable. "

Andrew Clements, The Guardian

"In the title role, baritone Gerald Finley is at the top of his game. [Re: CD Reviews: Rossini - William Tell, EMI Classics June 2011] "

BBC Music Magazine

"...aided by the Hans Sachs of Gerald Finley that at times touches the heights of mastersinging, in a performance that is the complete package. His bass-baritone sound, warm, lyrical, intensely expressive (helped as well by his superb German diction) is complemented by an onstage character who becomes immensely sympathetic as the evening progresses. Finley illustrates and conveys all this with natural ease, moving beautifully, and singing the role as thrillingly as I have ever heard it. Finley’s voice is not only big enough, it is noble, resonant (his bass extension is particularly fine in the Glyndebourne acoustic) and utterly right for the part. His ovation at the end told its own story... a debut performance by Finley, who will surely become the Hans Sachs of our times. [Re: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, May 2011]"

Mike Reynolds, MusicalCriticism.com

"His elegant baritone, which has gained in muscle since his Hans Sachs at Glydebourne in the summer, brought beauty as well as Nordic angst to the two Swedish songs and rose proudly to the lyrical grandeur of the epic "Koskenlaskijan morsiamet"."

Richard Fairman, Financial Times.

"William Walton's Belshazzar's Feast is English oratorio at its most unbuttoned. Baritone Gerald Finley delivered the solos with the clarity of an orator, and the visionary nobility of a prophet."

Nick Kimberley, London Evening Standard.

"Only the endlessly expressive diction of Gerald Finley (rarely have consonants yielded so much distaste as his at the excess of the Babylonians) betrayed the work's unimpeachably British credentials."

Alexandra Coghlan,The Arts Desk

"Baritone soloist Gerald Finley was alert and sonorous...he has fully seized the opportunities offered by three of Sibelius's rarely heard orchestral songs."

George Hall, Guardian.co.uk

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Discography