January 28, 2020
Tenor Brandon Jovanovich will blow you away
Brandon Jovanovich has long been a Lyric favorite, and he's among the most versatile tenors performing internationally. Luckily for Lyric, he's here in four widely contrasting roles this spring! (Lucky for Brandon, too, as he lives in the area and gets to spend some time at home with his family!)
First up is Gherman, the neurotic, ill-fated protagonist of Tchaikovsky’s musically lush and brooding thriller, The Queen of Spades. It’s an extraordinarily challenging role musically and dramatically that will showcase Brandon’s exceptional excellence as a dramatic tenor. You’ll experience his riveting transformation into a poor soldier consumed by a frenzied obsession with winning at cards, which destroys him and the one he loves. Just five performances Feb. 15 - Mar. 1.
Then Brandon slips into spiffy naval attire as Lt. B. F. Pinkerton in Puccini’s melodic heartbreaker, Madama Butterfly. His portrayal of the ardent American who loves and then leaves the enchanting geisha Cio-Cio-San will reveal Brandon’s talents as a spinto tenor in performances on Mar. 4 & 7.
To cap off the mainstage season in grand style, Brandon appears in the first two operas of Wagner’s Ring cycle. In Das Rheingold he portrays the bright-voiced Froh, the god who creates the rainbow bridge to Valhalla — a lyric tenor role. And in Die Walküre he shifts into dramatic tenor mode as Siegmund, who stumbles weaponless and injured into the hut of Hunding and Sieglinde, eventually discovering that the former is his mortal enemy and the latter is his twin — with whom he’s fallen in love. He also discovers the sword his father had left in the ash tree that grows in the hut — the mighty Nothung. Brandon’s voice will soar gloriously over the tremendous orchestral forces, and his heartfelt acting will melt all hearts.
What a tour de force! We can’t wait for Brandon to bring it on musically and dramatically in each of these diverse and unforgettable roles.