23festivalinternacionaldr.alfonsoortiztirado 2007 / Boletín No. 313 / Enero 11, 2007
Thomas Ruud and Rogelio Riojas-Nolasco
The Norwegian tenor Thomas Ruud accompanied by the pianist Rogelio Riojas-Nolasco will take part in the 23rd International Festival Dr. Alfonso Ortiz Tirado 2007, on Thursday 25th at Alamos’ City Hall and on Friday 26th at Cobach’s Theater Auditorium in Hermosillo. Their program is formed by romantic songs from Norway and Switzerland, and opera arias from Puccini, Cilea, Verdi, Lehar and Bizet.
Thomas Ruud was born in Oslo, Norway in 1967. He studied in the National Collage of Operatic Art in Oslo and graduated in 1991. He received instruction from tenor Jess Thomas and Professor George Buckbee in the University of the Pacific in California, United States. His presentations with the Norway National Opera include Rodolfo in “La Boheme”; Count Almaviva in “Il Barbiere Di Siviglia” (with more than 60 presentations); Alfred in “Die Fledermaus” and Camille in “Die Lustige Witwe”.
He also has performed the character of Polione in Kiel’s Opera Norma; Sänger in Gothenburg’s Opera Der Rosenkavalier; Nadir in Bizet’s piece Pearlfishers with Opera Ringsaker; Tamino in Die Zauberflöte in Opera West; Count Almaviva in Il Barbiere Di Siviglia in Opera Malmö; in the Music Festival Bodø and in the Cultural Festival Suldal; Don José in Carmen in the Museum Heinie Onstad in Oslo; Turiddu in Cavalleria Rusticana in the Opera Ringsaker; Agmund Udbye’s play Fredkulla in Trondheim; Mogens in Olsen’s play Stallo and James Clay in Kitty Le Roy for Caviani with the Stockton Symphony Orchestra; Alfred in Die Fledermaus and Camille in Die Lustige Witwe with the Bærum Symphonic Orchestra.
His appearances in the International Sandefjord Opera Festival includes; Bastien from Mozart’s play Bastien Et Bastienne, Count Almaviva in IL Barbiere Di Siviglia, Camille in Die Lustige Witwe and Count Tassilo in Kalman’s Gräfin Maritza. His obligations with Kristiansund Opera includes Rodolfo in La Bohéme, Duca in Rigoletto, Peder Eriksen in Brein’s play Den Stundeløse, Nanki-Poo in Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Mikado and Count Tassilo in Gräfin Maritza.
His operatic presentations with the Albany Symphony Orchestra includes; Pollione in Norma, Cavaradossi in Tosca, Turiddu in Cavalleria Rusticana and Mr Snow in Rogers and Hammerstein’s Carousell. His oratorical repertoire involves Bach’s play Christmas Oratorio, Dvorak’s Stabat Mater, Händel’s Messiah, Haydn’s Missa Sanctae Caecilae, Mozart’s Misa En F, Misa en C Menor and Requiem, Ramirez’s Missa De Criolla, Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle, Saint-Saëns’s Christmas Oratorio and Schubert’s Misa En G.
In the fall of 2004 he joined the ensemble Staatsoper Hannover, where his presentations involved; Alfredo in La Traviata, Rodolfo in La Bohéme, Tebaldo in I Capuletie e I Montecchi, Belfiore in La Finta Giardiniera, Beppe in I Pagliacci, Andrés in Wozzeck, Danilo and Camille de Rosillon in Die Lustige Witwe, Conte Guido in Eine Nacht In Venedig, and Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus.
In the fall of 2006 will enjoy the Stuttgart ensemble with the performance of Don Jose in Carmen, Pinkerton in Madame Butterfly, Alfredo in La Traviata, and Baron Kronthal in Lortzing’s Der Wildschütz.
Rogelio Riojas-Nolasco, pianist and orchestra director. As a professional pianist has presented concerts in Italy, Spain, Austria, Turkey, Israel, The Caribbean, South Africa, Mexico and the United States, including the White House and the Kennedy Centre in Washington D.C., the Weil Hall in the Carnegie Hall in New York, Opera Theater in Zurich and the Salon Dorado in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He also has performed in the Amalfi Festival and Ravello in Italy, Altenburg Festival in Germany and in the Israel Vocal Arts Institute in Tel Aviv. At present time, Rogelio Riojas-Nolasco works in the State Opera in Stuttgart, Germany.
His debut as an orchestra director was with the Chicago Opera Ensemble in 2000 in Thomas’s opera Mignon; that same year he went back to conduct Donizetti’s La Favorita. In 2001 was invited to conduct Rossini’s Il Barbiere Di Siviglia, with the State Opera from Izmir, Turkey and in New York with the Albany Symphony in the Shaker Mountain Opera. Between 2002 and 2004 he conducted Verdi’s Rigoletto, Bellini’s Norma, Gounod’s Faust and Mozart’s Don Giovanni. In 2005 conducted the Sorozábal’s zarzuela Katiuska, in the Lyric Theater Andaluz in Spain. On February participated as a guest director of the Sonora’s Philharmonic Orchestra and of the Choir of the National Opera Company of the Palace of the Fine Arts. He made a debut on 2006 in Stuttgart’s Opera as conductor of El Barberillo de Lavapiés
Rogelio Riojas-Nolasco has collaborated with Marco Boemi as an assistant of orchestra director in the productions of Massenet’s Werther and Puccini’s Tosca, with Bilbao Opera Companies (A.B.A.O) and Plovdiv Opera in Bulgary; Donizetti’s Luccia Di Lammermoor with Kamal Kahn in Cape City in South Africa; Bellini’s Norma with Marcello Panni with Bilbao Opera; Weber’s Der Freischütz with Sebastián Weigle in the Semper Oper in Dresden; La Traviata with Enrique Mazzola in Hannover Opera in Germany and in the Great Theater of Liceu in Barcelona; Lucia Di Lammermoor, Cavalleria Rusticana, Tosca, La Boheme, Madame Butterfly and Aida, with Denes Striny in the Shaker Mountain Opera in New York.
Peter Bergman from Birkshire Tagle says: “young maestro Riojas-Nolasco has an excellent mastery in the technique of belo-canto”. Charles Kondek from Independent comments about Faust of Gounod: “The Albano Symphony conducted by Rogelio Riojas gave a perfect performance of the score”. Joseph Dalton from Times Union emphasizes his work by saying: “director Rogelio Riojas was always attentive no only to the beginnings but with the rhythms and times too”.
His knowledge of several languages like, Italian, English, French, German and Spanish, has taken him to collaborate as a pianist coach for the Zürich Opera, St. Gallen and Sirnach Operette in Switzerland; Hannover Opera, Natonal Company of Opera of the Palace of the Fine Arts in Mexico City, Bronx Opera in New York and the State Repertory Opera in New Jersey. In adittion has assisted to Master Classes with Elizabeth Schwarzkopf, Francisco Araiza, Marilyn Horne, Renata Scotto, Gerard Souzay, Silvana Bartoli, Ramon Vargas, Gilda Cruz-Romo and Joan Dornemann from the Metropolitan Opera of New York, among others.
