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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. 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. The New York Times praised Freiman as “strong in every sense: a solid singer, a capable actor and a genuinely funny comedian” when he returned as Mozart’s Figaro for the closing performance of New York’s venerable Amato Opera, where he had trained as a young singer. For his direction of The Italian Girl in Algiers at Sarasota Opera, Opera Now (England) wrote, “Mark Freiman’s production brought out the opera’s inherent comedy without stooping to slapstick for laughs. The Act 1 finale is a masterpiece of screwball comedy as each character becomes lost in confusion, expressed through perfectly synchronised sounds, contortion, and gyrations.”
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.
Stage directing credits include The Italian Girl in Algiers, Norma, and The Magic Flute for Sarasota Opera, where he was also stage director of their Apprentice Artists program; Così fan Tutte for Mobile Opera (Alabama); The Marriage of Figaro for Nickel City Opera (Buffalo, NY); Nabucco for Union Avenue Opera (St. Louis); La Bohème, Tosca, Otello, Il Trovatore, The Pearl Fishers, and Il Trovatore for Winter Opera St. Louis; Bolcom’s Lucrezia for Gateway Opera (St. Louis); and La Bohème and The Magic Flute for Muddy River Opera (Illinois).
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.
