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Mark Freiman lyric bass / stage director |
Personal website:
www.markfreiman.com/
New York City native Mark Freiman has impressed audiences with his rich lyric bass, his engaging stage presence, and his creative stage direction. In 2020-21, despite the pandemic, he directed La Serva Padrona for Sarasota Opera (live and streaming); and The Tales of Hoffmann for Union Avenue Opera (St. Louis) in a circus tent for social distancing. In 2021-22, he returns to Sarasota Opera to direct The Daughter of the Regiment. He also directs Madama Butterfly and sings the Bonze for Winter Opera St. Louis, and directs Act 2 of La Bohème and sings Alcindoro for their Holiday Extravaganza. Reviewing his 2020 production of La Bohème for Sarasota Opera, Opera News noted “the busy and noisy Café Momus of Act II, in which director Freiman worked his miracles with the smallish stage of the Sarasota Opera House, which was filled to overflowing.”
A recipient of the prestigious Richard F. Gold Career Grant from the Shoshana Foundation, Mark Freiman sang the roles of William Jennings Bryan and the 4th Crony on the Sony Newport Classics CD of The Ballad of Baby Doe, and Simone in the Metropolitan Opera Guild’s Gianni Schicchi, released on video.
Career highlights include two U.S. tours of The Barber of Seville with the N.Y. City Opera National Company, first as Don Basilio, then as Dr. Bartolo. Bartolo was also his debut role with Opera Saskatchewan, Summer Opera Theatre (DC), Tri-Cities Opera (NY), the National Philharmonic (DC), and The Green Mountain Opera Festival (Vermont). Mr. Freiman’s credits also include the opera companies of Sarasota, Kansas City, Ft. Worth, Virginia, Nashville, Mobile, and Central City (Colorado), as well as N.Y. City Opera Education, The Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and the Caramoor Festival (NY). Other favorite roles include Leporello and the title character in Don Giovanni, Don Alfonso in Così fan Tutte, Don Magnifico in La Cenerentola, Dr. Dulcamara in L’Elisir d’Amore, Mephistopheles in Faust, Papageno in The Magic Flute, Colline in La Bohème, Sparafucile in Rigoletto, the Four Villains in The Tales of Hoffmann, and the title roles in Gianni Schicchi, Don Pasquale, and Falstaff.
Additional stage directing credits include The Magic Flute, The Italian Girl in Algiers, Norma, and La Bohème for Sarasota Opera, where he was also stage director for their Apprentice Artists program; Così fan Tutte for Mobile Opera (Alabama); Nabucco and La Bohème (winner of the 2019 St. Louis Theater Circle Award for Outstanding Production of an Opera) for Union Avenue Opera; The Marriage of Figaro for Nickel City Opera (Buffalo, NY); La Bohème, Tosca, Otello, Il Trovatore, Die Fledermaus, and The Pearl Fishers for Winter Opera St. Louis; Bolcom’s Lucrezia for Gateway Opera (St. Louis); and La Bohème for Muddy River Opera (Quincy, IL) and the Southern Illinois Music Festival.
Mr. Freiman’s versatility led him to musical theater as Don Attilio and Passarino in the German-language production of The Phantom of the Opera in Hamburg. At St. Louis’ Muny, the nation’s oldest and largest outdoor musical theater, he played J.H. Rogers in Titanic: The Musical. Gilbert and Sullivan credits include the Lord Chancellor in Iolanthe and the title role in The Mikado with the Colorado Symphony.
Appearing in concert, Mr. Freiman was the bass soloist in Weill’s The Flight of Lindbergh for the St. Louis Symphony’s 2017-18 season-opening concert led by David Robertson. He has sung numerous other works with the St. Louis Symphony and MidAmerica Productions (Carnegie Hall); the Mozart Requiem with the National Chorale (Avery Fisher Hall); Verdi’s Requiem with the Orquesta Filarmonica de Lima (Peru); and Handel’s Messiah with Chorale Delaware and the Gulf Coast Symphony (Florida).
A child soloist for three seasons with the Metropolitan Opera, Mark Freiman sang a solo in the very first Live From the Met telecast, La Bohème with Luciano Pavarotti, available on DVD. He made his professional adult debut singing the title role in The Marriage of Figaro at Virginia’s Ash Lawn Opera.
Updated 9/21
