Gerald Finley
Baritone superstar Gerald Finley has garnered acclaim in all the major Mozart baritone roles. Yet he has also achieved high praise for the many difficult contemporary roles he has created, among them: J. Robert Oppenheimer in Adams' Doctor Atomic, Harry Heegan in Turnage's The Silver Tassie, the title character in Picker's Fantastic Mr. Fox. If you suspect there is a hole in Finley's repertory, there isn't. He has sung the title role in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin, Marcello in Puccini's La bohème, and many others from late 19th and early 20th operas. Moreover, Finley has appeared in concert and recital in a vast array of works by Handel, Schubert, Schumann, Duparc, Ives, Britten, Maxwell-Davies, and more. He has appeared at major operatic and concert venues around the world. Not surprisingly, Finley, whose rich voice is usually classed as bass-baritone, has made numerous recordings for several labels.
Finley was born in Montreal, Canada, on January 30, 1960. He was a chorister at St. Matthew's Church in Ottawa and then with a large variety of other choirs around the Ottawa area. He enrolled in the music program at the University of Ottawa but soon moved to England to study at Cambridge University (King's College), and London's Royal College of Music. In the early years of his career, he sang with the Cambridge Singers, and then, from 1986-1988, with the Glyndebourne Opera. In 1989, Roger Norrington cast him as Papageno in a production of Die Zauberflöte, and the following year, Finley toured in the role with the Glyndebourne company. Finley's career was soon in meteoric ascent, with notable debuts at the major opera houses, including at the Met as Papageno (1998). With all his success, Finley also took chances, singing the role of Jaufré Rudel in Kaija Saariaho's L'amour de loin at its premiere in 2000 at the Salzburg Festival. Among Finley's more acclaimed recordings is his Songs by Samuel Barber, on Hyperion, which won a Classic FM Gramophone Award in 2008 as Best Solo Vocal Recording.
As his voice deepened in middle age, Finley has expanded his repertory into Tchaikovsky (Eugene Onegin, which he sang at Covent Garden in 2008), Wagner (he played Hans Sachs in Die Meistersinger at the Glyndebourne Opera in 2011), and Verdi (playing Falstaff with the Canadian Opera Company in 2014-2015). In 2015, he gave the premiere of Saariaho's True Fire, which was dedicated to him. Finley's recorded repertory likewise expanded, with an album of Shostakovich songs in 2014 and one of works by Einojuhani Rautavaara the following year in which he was a soloist. In 2016, Finley issued Sibelius: In the Stream of Life, an album of Sibelius songs, mostly arranged for baritone and orchestra. He has continued to record for Hyperion but has also appeared on the Ondine and Chandos labels. In 2020, Finley was featured on a recording of Janácek's The Cunning Little Vixen, with the London Symphony and Simon Rattle, as well as a recording of songs by Peter Lieberson, with the Finnish Radio Symphony under Hannu Lintu.
Finley became an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2014 and a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2017.
© Robert Cummings & James Manheim /TiVo
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Janáček: The Cunning Little Vixen, Sinfonietta
Sir Simon Rattle, London Symphony Orchestra, Lucy Crowe, Gerald Finley, Sophia Burgos
Opéra - Paru chez LSO Live le 4 sept. 2020
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Saariaho : True Fire, Ciel d'hiver & Trans (Live)
Gerald Finley, Xavier de Maistre, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Hannu Lintu
Classique - Paru chez Ondine le 10 mai 2019
Choc de Classica24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
John Rutter Christmas Album
Stephen Varcoe, Ruth Holton, Gerald Finley, Cambridge Singers, City Of London Sinfonia, John Rutter
Classique - Paru chez Collegium le 24 sept. 2002
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Rautavaara: Rubáiyát, Balada, Canto V...
Gerald Finley, Mika Pohjonen, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Helsinki Music Centre Choir, John Storgårds
Classique - Paru chez Ondine le 13 mai 2016
4 étoiles Classica5 de Diapason24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Christmas Night: Carols of the Nativity (Remastered 2020)
John Rutter, The Cambridge Singers, City Of London Sinfonia, Nicholas Sears, Ruth Holton, Gerald Finley
Ambiance - Paru chez Collegium le 1 janv. 1987
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Stanford: Songs of the Fleet, Songs of the Sea & A Ballad of the Fleet
Richard Hickox, BBC National Orchestra Of Wales, Gerald Finley, BBC National Chorus of Wales
Musique chorale (pour chœur) - Paru chez Chandos le 1 mai 2006
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Schubert: Die schöne Müllerin, D. 795
Classique - Paru chez Hyperion le 3 juin 2022
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Ives: A Song - For Anything: 31 Art Songs for Voice and Piano
Classique - Paru chez Hyperion le 1 sept. 2005
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Turnage: Scherzoid
Gerald Finley, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Jonathan Nott, Christian Lindberg
Classique - Paru chez London Philharmonic Orchestra le 1 oct. 2005
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Proud Songsters: English Solo Song
Mélodies - Paru chez Kings College Cambridge le 19 mars 2021
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Schumann: Dichterliebe, Op. 48 & Other Heine Settings
Classique - Paru chez Hyperion le 1 sept. 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS: Songs of Travel / HOLMAN: The Centred Passion (Ralph Vaughan Williams - Robert Louis Stevenson - Derek Holman)
Classique - Paru chez CBC le 1 janv. 1998
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Barber: Songs - Op. 13, Hermit, Dover Beach etc.
Classique - Paru chez Hyperion le 1 nov. 2007
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Britten: Songs & Proverbs of William Blake; Tit for Tat & Other Songs
Classique - Paru chez Hyperion le 1 juin 2010
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Vaughan Williams: Overture to The Wasps & A Sea Symphony
Richard Hickox, London Symphony Orchestra, Susan Gritton, Gerald Finley, London Symphony Chorus
Symphonies - Paru chez Chandos le 1 févr. 2007
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Les grands airs d'opéra (Volume 22)
Extraits d'opéra - Paru chez Chandos le 1 févr. 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Webern: Symphony Op.21
Christiane Oelze, Gerald Finley, Berliner Philharmoniker, Pierre Boulez, BBC Singers
Classique - Paru chez Deutsche Grammophon (DG) le 1 nov. 1996
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
In the Stream of Life - Songs by Sibelius
Gerald Finley, Edward Gardner, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra
Mélodies - Paru chez Chandos le 1 janv. 2017
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Shostakovich: 6 Romances, Op. 62a, Scottish Ballade - Suite on Verses of Michelangelo Buonarroti, Op. 145a
Gerald Finley, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Thomas Sanderling
Musique vocale (profane et sacrée) - Paru chez Ondine le 3 mars 2014
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Proud Songsters: O Lovely Night
Gerald Finley, Christopher Keyte, Simon Lepper
Mélodies - Paru chez Kings College Cambridge le 18 juin 2021
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Lieberson: Songs of Love and Sorrow & The Six Realms
Anssi Karttunen, Gerald Finley, The Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Hannu Lintu
Classique - Paru chez Ondine le 4 sept. 2020
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo