OCTOBER 6, 2016 | 1.30 PM
Interview and Photos
- Schumann – Dichterliebe
- Beethoven – Adelaide
- Songs by Richard Strauss
- Roger Quilter – Elizabethan Songs, op. 12
- Spirituals
Review by Joseph So in Musical Toronto
Those who witnessed dramatic tenor Issachah Savage’s debut as Siegmund in Die Walküre at the Canadian Opera Company in 2015, know how fortunate the Music in the Afternoon audience will be to hear this extraordinary artist open the season. Mr. Savage excels on the concert stage and is garnering acclaim as a ‘heldentenor par excellence’, a voice with both dramatic and lyrical qualities. Praised for his ‘trumpet-like, clear, open-throated, powerful’ singing (San Francisco Examiner), and ‘impressive natural instrument’ (Opera News), Mr. Savage is the winner of the 2014 Seattle International Wagner Competition, earning not only the main prize, but the audience favorite prize and orchestra favorite prize. Mr. Savage made his Metropolitan Opera debut in 2015 as Don Riccardo in Verdi’s Ernani under James Levine.
‘From his opening notes – impeccably shaded and coiled with repressed fury – to the opera’s final explosion of grief and shame, Savage sang with a combination of power and finesse that is rare to observe.’
San Francisco Chronicle