Plishka and Pyatnychko to appear with Opera Orchestra of New York (10/31/99)

Plishka and Pyatnychko to appear with Opera Orchestra of New York

NEW YORK - Bass Paul Plishka, leading member of the Metropolitan Opera, and baritone Stephan Pyatnychko, who makes his Carnegie Hall and New York operatic debut, will appear with the Opera Orchestra of New York in Donizetti's little known and neglected opera "Adelia" on Thursday, November 11, in Carnegie Hall.

The opera, first performed in Rome in 1841, is the only completed opera written during the composer's last decade of active life not to have been revived in the 20th century. Messrs. Plishka and Pyatnychko will appear in the roles of Arnoldo and Carlo, respectively.

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Mr. Plishka, whose professional base is with the Metropolitan Opera, which he joined in 1967, appears regularly with major opera companies in North American cities and in Europe. Highlights of his repertoire for the 1999/2000 season include performances with the Metropolitan Opera in "Aida," "Otello", "Le Nozze di Figaro", "Lucia di Lammermoor", "Elisir d'Amore", "Tristan und Isolde" and "Il Barbiere di Siviglia".

Mr. Plishka's recent engagements include a return to the Salzburg Festival for performances as the Grand Inquisitor in "Don Carlo," "La Damnation de Faust" with the Atlanta Symphony, "Missa Solemnis" with the Pasadena Symphony, "Ernani" with the Marseille Opera, and as a soloist in the Met's 30th anniversary and the pension fund galas.

Mr. Plishka has an extensive discography on Angel, ABC, Columbia, Erato, London, RCA and Vox Records. His recording of Verdi's Requiem with the Atlanta Symphony and Robert Shaw won a Grammy award for the best classical album of 1988. His most recent recordings are "Luisa Miller" and "Le Nozze di Figaro," both with James Levine and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, and Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with the London Philharmonic conducted by André Previn..

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The appearance on the international operatic scene of a truly Italianate baritone is an event that commands notice, and Mr. Pyatnychko is quickly taking on this mantle in his appearances in the West.

Born in 1963 in the village of Hnylovody in the Ternopil region of Ukraine, Mr. Pyatnychko began his vocal studies in 1983 at the Lysenko Conservatory in Lviv. Upon graduation in 1987, he became the house baritone for the Ivan Franko Opera Theater in Lviv.

It was there that he learned his craft and performed the core of his current repertoire, which includes "La Traviata" (in the role of Germont), "Il Trovatore" (Count di Luna), "I Pagliacci" (Tonio), Tchaikovsky's "Iolanta" (Robert), the title role in Tchiakovsky's "Eugene Onegin", as well as the role of Ostap in "Taras Bulba" by the Ukrainian composer Mykola Lysenko.

Mr. Pyatnychko's European debut took place in October 1996 in the title role of "Rigoletto" for the Geneva Opera, followed by his American debut as Count di Luna in "Il Trovatore" for the Baltimore Opera.

In the summer of 1997 he made his first appearance at the Bregenz Festival in Austria, in the title role of Anton Rubenstein's "The Demon," which he reprised at the Konzerthaus in Vienna the following year. He returned to the Bregenz Festival in 1998 singing in Montemezzi's "L'Amore dei Tre Re," and will return yet again to sing in "Un Ballo in Maschera" in the summer of 2000.

Future engagements include "La Traviata", "Il Trovatore" and "Rigoletto" for the San Francisco Opera (2002), "Nabucco" for the Vienna State Opera and "Simone Boccanegra" for the Deutsche Oper Berlin.

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