Anthony Roth Costanzo

Counter-tenor

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“Agile and athletic, Costanzo’s commanding Cesare blazed through Handel’s fiendish coloratura with breath to spare”
(Houston Press, October 2017)

Following his First Prize win Placido Domingo’s international Operalia competition, Anthony Roth Costanzo’s star continues to rise with a busy diary of operatic and concert appearances in an extensive range of repertoire, encompassing the Baroque to world premieres. The American countertenor’s stand-out debut performances as Philip Glass’ Akhnaten at both English National Opera and LA Opera earned him high acclaim for his “touchingly vulnerable” portrayal (Telegraph) and he reprises the role at ENO this season. Further recent role debuts include as Giulio Cesare for Houston Grand Opera, Nerone (L’incoronazione di Poppea) for Cincinnati Opera, and Boy / First Angel in George Benjamin’s Written on Skin.

On the concert platform this season, Anthony sings Messiah with the New York Philharmonic, Bach’s Magnificat with the Mercury Chamber Ensemble, joins Boston Baroque in concert performances of Poppea as Nerone, and joins Anne Sofie von Otter and Philharmonia Baroque in a programme of Handel.

Anthony is an exclusive recording artist with Decca Gold and his first album Glass Handel, with Les Violons du Roy and Jonathan Cohen, released in September 2018, has subsequently been nominated for a Grammy. The programme’s first live performances opened at Opera Philadelphia, followed by a North American tour.

Gallery

Becoming Akhnaten © LA Opera

Duparc: L’invitation au Voyage © WQXR

“Anthony Roth Costanzo sings Akhnaten with a penetrating countertenor that can fill the theatre.”

(Financial Times, Richard Fairman, February 2019)

“… as dignified and vulnerable in his robes of state as he is in his nakedness. His protracted death scene is weirdly moving.”

(Rupert Christiansen, The Telegraph, February 2019)

“In the title role, the countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo acts with fabulous control and sings with an otherworldly bareness of tone that captures the Pharoah’s increasing remoteness from his warring nation.”

(The Guardian, February 2019)

“Costanzo convinces us that the aria couldn’t be sung any other way…The album is engaging from first note to last.”

(Opera News, Critics Choice, January 2019)

“The Costanzo countertenor is remarkable for its purity, sweetness, its ethereal, rather disembodied sound, not to mention an exemplary capability for fioritura…This discis a pleasure and one of the best countertenor albums in recent memory.”

(Opera Canada, January 2019)

“Anthony Roth Costanzo’s sexless, disembodied countertenor is exactly right for the Voice of Apollo”

(George Hall , Opera Magazine, February 2019)

“With so much going on, one might have wondered where to look, except for the fact that Costanzo, with his charisma, sensitivity, plangent sound and communicative power, magnetized attention. He alone would have been more than enough, but it’s unlikely that many audience members had any regrets about being treated to this excessive, ultimately joyous experience.”

(Opera Magzine, December 2018)

“Anthony Roth Costanzo – his countertenor ample, generous and characterful – brings real vocal brilliance to the roll of Roane, the stage manager.”

(Opera Magazine, September 2018)

“Star countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo created a frightening and compelling Nero. He caressed notes and phrases with an exquisite attention that was never pretentious…hurling out vocal runs and high notes as breathtaking as they were chilling. His lithe presence and catlike grace endowed Nero with even more menace.”

(Cincinnati City Beat, June 2018)

“Anthony Roth Costanzo’s portrayal of Nero, the tyrannical emperor of Rome, was searing.”

(Cincinnati Business Courier, June 2018)

Anthony Roth Costanzo, making his Florida Grand Opera debut as Orfeo, scored a triumph with his strong, sustained singing, and some hauntingly beautiful piannissimi in ‘Che faro senza Euridice.’ Blessed with natural acting abilities, and using lithe movements, he achieved a complete characterization.”

(Opera, August 2018)

“In a star turn, countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo dominated the stage, giving a memorable vocal and dramatic performance as Orfeo…his voice is large and voluptuous. Costanzo’s trills and ornaments were assayed with spot-on accuracy in a voice that is superbly controlled”

(South Florida Classical Review, March 2018)

“As the Boy and First Angel, the countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo adroitly navigates the luminous and piercing, the gentle and chilly sides of his two-sided character.”

(Zachary Woolfe, New York Times, February 2018)

“Anthony Roth Costanzo cut the air with his first, unnerving note. He gave his sound cottony softness for intimate moments, but brought back its thrilling steel for dramatic crises.”

(Bachtrack, February 2018)

“Agile and athletic, Costanzo fills the Resilience Theater with a commanding Caesar, able to blaze through Handel’s fiendish coloratura with breath to spare, then quieting the house with subdued ardour when wooing his Cleopatra.”

(Houston Press, October 2017)

“Leading the countertenor charge was the handsome, charismatic Anthony Roth Costanzo, who dug fearlessly into Caesar’s wide dramatic and musical range. His pointed, clear-toned voice was haunting in his Act 3 lament, then thrilling as he dispatched slithery melismas with abandon in ‘Quel torrent, che cade dal monte’

(Houston Chronicle, October 2017)

“as usual, Costanzo was extraordinary. He sang with plush yet virile sound while merging into his character, holding back nothing.”

(Anthony Tommasini, New York Times, July 2017)

“Costanzo’s voice is still very much in its prime, but since the time when he first dazzled audiences, at The Met in 2011, it has acquired a touch of grit in its lower reaches, and a bit of a wild edge on top.”

( The New Yorker, July 2017)

“Anthony Roth Costanzo put his penetrating countertenor and astringent diction to find use as the petulant Prince Go-Go”

( Classical Source, January 2017)

“Anthony Roth Costanzo gives Prince Go-Go luminous pathos”

(The Arts Desk, January 2017)

“Anthony Roth Costanzo stood out as Prince Go-Go as his countertenor displayed exceptional style and precision.”

(Music OMH, January 2017)

“Costanzo captures perfectly the other-worldliness and sexual ambivalence of Akhnaten.”

(San Francisco Classical Voice, November 2016)

“Anthony Roth Costanzo shone with a beautiful, penetrating countertenor as Akhnaten”

(Classical Voice North America, November 2016)

“Dulcet-voiced countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo sang Roane with bell-like tones”

(Opera Today, May 2016)

“Costanzo was vocally impressive and dramatically engaging as Scott’s close chum Roane Heckle.”

(Bachtrack, May 2016)

“Anthony Roth Costanzo was touchingly vulnerably”

(Telegraph, March 2016)

“Costanzo brings to the title role a voice that packs more raw power than any countertenor I can remember”

(Bachtrack, March 2016)

“As Akhnaten, Costanzo seemed perfect for the role, his voice not only blessed with the requisite strength, but also of a decidedly otherworldly quality.”

(Seen & Heard, March 2016)

“Leading the cast is the American countertenor, Anthony Roth Costanzo, whose ethereal tones embody the doomed Akhnaten.”

(The Stage, March 2016)