©Photo: Justin Hyer

©Photo: Eric Richmond

Lawrence Zazzo

Counter-tenor

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“Lawrence Zazzo’s outstandingly imperious title-hero is the best sung and acted countertenor performance of the part (Giulio Cesare) I’ve encountered.”
(Gramophone)

American countertenor Lawrence Zazzo made his operatic debut as Oberon in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream to great acclaim while still a student at the Royal College of Music in London and has since performed the role extensively including at Canadian Opera Company, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence and at Staatsoper Hamburg. In the current season Zazzo repeats the role at Wiener Staatsoper in a new staging by Irina Brook and conducted by Simone Young.

A diverse and thriving international opera career has taken Zazzo to most of the world’s leading opera houses and festivals appearing as Giulio Cesare at La Monnaie, English National Opera, Semperoper Dresden and Opéra national de Paris (released on DVD), Farnace in Mozart’s Mitridate, re di Ponto for Bayerische Staatsoper, and Tolomeo (Giulio Cesare) at the Metropolitan Opera. He has sung the title roles in Radamisto for English National Opera, Orlando for Welsh National Opera, and Solomon for the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, as well as Orfeo (Orfeo ed Euridice) for Canadian Opera Company and Den Norske Opera, Bertarido in Claus Guth’s production of Rodelinda for Opéra National de Lyon, Ottone (Agrippina) at Oper Frankfurt and Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Goffredo (Rinaldo) for Staatsoper Berlin and Opernhaus Zürich, Arsamene (Xerxes) for Oper Frankfurt, and Ottone (L’incoronazione di Poppea) for Theater an der Wien, La Monnaie and Bayerische Staatsoper. Further opera appearances in the 19/20 season include a debut as Handel’s Tamerlano at Oper Frankfurt, and Rodelinda at Dutch National Opera under Riccardo Minasi.

Gallery

Händel: Xerxes - Trailer © Oper Frankfurt

Festival d’Aix 2015 - Midsummer Night’s Dream © Festival d’Aix 2015

Handel: Giulio Cesare (excerpt) © Virgin Classics

Handel: Giulio Cesare (excerpt 2) © Virgin Classics

Mozart: Apollo et Hyacinthus (excerpt) © TallWall Media

Handel: Rinaldo (excerpt)

Vivaldi: Griselda (excerpt)

Mozart: Apollo et Hyacinthus (excerpt)

“Countertenor Lawrence Zazzo fully throws himself into the eccentric role and brilliantly brings out the wild, ludicrous nature of the character”

(Frankfurter Allgemeine, November 2019)

“Lawrence Zazzo’s performance is the main attraction of this reprise…From the outset [Zazzo] gives us a dazzling “Presti omai”, unpredictably eventful and rich in dynamic contrast. The same febrile inventiveness electrifyingly animates the Da Capo of “Va tacito e nascosto” and the vocalizations of “Al lampo dell’armi”, with a conquering rage. Zazzo takes the role of the latin lover to heart (“Se in fiorito”, “Bello / Bella”), but he also gives us “Aure, deh, per pietà” in a version which is both more carnal and poetic than we have ever heard; a visceral interpretation with a simultaneously overwhelming delicacy.”

(Forum Opera – April 2019)

“A vivid performance from Lawrence Zazzo who shone the title role”.

(Financial Times, October 2018)

“Zazzo gave the title role his all. Through gestures, facial expressions and vocal fire, I believed every twist of Orlando’s fate. He was convincing when mad, when fighting, even when sleeping on his feet.”

(The Times, February 2018)

“Lawrence Zazzo is a wonderfully helpless, languishing Arsamene”

(Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung, January 2017)

“The only countertenor this evening is Lawrence Zazzo, with a striking luster and brightness in the voice.”

(O-Ton, January 2017)

“The countertenor Lawrence Zazzo was equipped with the greatest Baroque experience in this cast, and showed his strengths in his organic ornamentation”

(Frankfurter Rundschau, January 2017)

“Lawrence Zazzo as Arsamene is an ardent countertenor with an attractively dark tone.”

(Stuttgarter Nachtichten, January 2017)

“Among the soloists, the countertenor Lawrence Zazzo stood out for his enchantingly beautiful voice in the role of Delio”

(Opernwelt, June 2016)

“Lawrence Zazzo was astounding: he excelled in the laments (essential in the largely plaintive role of Arsace), but displayed great vitality in the recitatives (and was the only performer who really enjoyed this part of the role)…Zazzo delivered the aria [“Furibondo spira il vento”] with power and impressive aplomb…and delivered the most convincing account of this famous aria that we’ve ever heard.”

(Forum Opéra, January 2016)

“Lawrence Zazzo, one of the great countertenors of the last decade, who not only has Arsace in repertoire [but] recorded the opera just ten years ago…Lawrence Zazzo was the star of the evening…His instrument carries an enviable volume…yet maintains its freshness and elasticity…No other countertenor shapes every word, every syllable…His initial aria “O Eurimene ha l’idea di Rosmira”, not a very interesting aria, is given new life in his hands…He conquers the impossible coloratura in “Fuirbondo spira il vento”, one of the most complicated of Handel’s, gets right to the heart in the desolate “Ma quai note di mesti lamenti”, and gives a tender rendition of “Ch’io parta? Si crudele” full of intense beauty”

(El arte de la fuga, January 2016)

“Zazzo (Arsace) sang with astounding expressivity…receiving a standing ovation from the audience.”

(Operaworld.es, January 2016)

“Athamas was portrayed by the American countertenor Lawrence Zazzo, singing his three arias with warm, gleaming tone.”

(Opera Magazine, December 2015)

“As the eponymous hero, Lawrence Zazzo was impressive. His sound – carefully varied – captured the edgy, tortured nature of the character, diminished by his mental state yet physically strong. Zazzo was also astute in husbanding his resources so that the long vocal stint that is his mad scene stood up as the high point of the opera.”

(Opera Magazine, December 2015)

“Lawrence Zazzo, that most manly and forthright of counter-tenors, as a handsome Orlando whose insanity was expressed with graphic and moving power.”

(The Telegraph, September 2015)

“Lawrence Zazzo’s Orlando cuts a striking figure. He projects his substantial but agile countertenor to good effect, often with touching expressiveness”

(The Guardian, September 2015)

“In the title role, Lawrence Zazzo’s rich countertenor turned from biting fury to melting beauty with ease…his portrayal of Orlando’s madness was one of enormous power.”

(The Times, September 2015)

“The stately beauty of Lawrence Zazzo’s Oberon is indisputable and he successfully interprets one of the strangest roles Britten wrote”

(Resmusica, July 2015)

“Lawrence Zazzo came, sang, and conquered.”

(Bachtrack.com, April 2015)

“Countertenor Lawrence Zazzo revealed a powerful, lithe voice as Semele’s rejected fiancé Athamas”

(NY Observer, March 2015)