Bartók: Bluebeard's Castle, Op. 11, Sz. 48 John Relyea, Michelle DeYoung, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra & Edward Gardner

Michelle DeYoung
is one of the world’s most exciting mezzo-sopranos.

Her prolific concert engagements include the New York Philharmonic and London Symphony orchestras under Sir Colin Davis (with whom she recorded Didon in Les Troyens to great critical acclaim), the San Francisco Symphony under Tilson Thomas, the Boston Symphony under Ozawa, the Chicago Symphony and Philharmonia under Boulez, the Cleveland Orchestra under Slatkin, the Royal Concertgebouw under Chailly, the Berlin Staatskappelle under Barenboim and Boulez, the Israel Philharmonic under Maazel and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under Gardner. She has given recitals in New York, San Francisco, Lisbon, Paris, London’s Wigmore Hall and the Edinburgh Festival.

Her operatic engagements have included Jocasta with von Dohnanyi in Paris; Fricka for the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden under Haitink; Fricka, Brangäne, Venus and Shaman in Tan Dun’s The First Emperor at the Metropolitan Opera under Levine; Brangäne in Chicago under Sir Andrew Davis and at the Deutsche Staatsoper in Berlin and La Scala, Milan under Barenboim and Kundry in Bayreuth under Boulez and Berlin under Barenboim.

John Relyea
has appeared in many of the world’s most celebrated opera houses including the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera (where he is an alumnus of the Merola Opera Program and a former Adler Fellow), Lyric Opera of Chicago, Seattle Opera, Canadian Opera Company, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Paris Opera, Bayerische Staatsoper, Vienna State Opera, Theater an der Wien, and the Mariinksy Theater.

His roles include the title roles in Attila, Le Nozze di Figaro, Bluebeard’s Castle, Don Quixotte, Attila, and Aleko; Zaccaria in Nabucco, Bertram inRoberto le Diable, Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermoor, Colline in La Bohème, Don Alfonso in Lucrezia Borgia, Don Basilio in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Alidoro in La Cenerentola, Giorgio in I puritani, Banquo in Macbeth, Garibaldo inRodelinda, Méphistophélès in both Faust and La Damnation de Faust, the Four Villains in Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Escamillo in Carmen, Marke in Tristan und Isolde, Caspar in Der Freischutz, Nick Shadow in The Rake’s Progress, Collatinus in The Rape of Lucretia, and King René in Iolanta.

Mr. Relyea also remains in high demand throughout the concert world where he appears regularly with orchestras such as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Pittsburgh Symphony, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra, and the Berlin Philharmonic.

He has also appeared at the Tanglewood, Ravinia, Blossom, Cincinnati May, Vail, Lanaudière, Salzburg, Edinburgh, Lucerne and Mostly Mozart festivals, and in the BBC Proms.

In recital, he has been presented at Weill Hall and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the Wigmore Hall in London, the University Musical Society in Ann Arbor, and the University of Chicago Presents series.

The many conductors with whom Mr. Relyea has worked with include Harry Bicket, Pierre Boulez, Sir Colin Davis, Christoph von Dohnányi, Gustavo Dudamel, Christoph Eschenbach, Valery Gergiev, Bernard Haitink, Mariss Jansons, James Levine, Lorin Maazel, Sir Charles Mackerras, Sir Neville Marriner, Zubin Mehta, Kent Nagano, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Sir Roger Norrington, Seiji Ozawa, Antonio Pappano, Sir Simon Rattle, Donald Runnicles, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Robert Spano, Wolfgang Sawallisch, and Ilan Volkov.

Mr. Relyea's recordings include the Verdi Requiem (LSO Live), Idomeneo with Sir Charles Mackerras and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra (EMI), Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 with Sir Simon Rattle and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (EMI), and the Metropolitan Opera’s DVD presentations of Don Giovanni, I Puritani and Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (Deutsche Grammophon), and Macbeth (Metropolitan Opera HD Live Series). ​

This season, John sings his role debut in the title role of Mefistofele by Boito with Opera de Lyon, records the role of Duke Bluebeard with the Bergen Symphony for Chandos, and appears as John Claggart in a new production of Billy Budd with the Norsk Opera Oslo. He also returns to the Dresden Semperopera in the role of Marcel for a new production of Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots.

Booklet for Bartók: Bluebeard's Castle, Op. 11, Sz. 48