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| Through the looking glass (of ML Hart)... |
| RICHARD LEECH in his ROLE DEBUT as DON JOSÉ |
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| Through the looking glass (of ML Hart)... |
| RICHARD LEECH in his ROLE DEBUT as DON JOSÉ |
| He waited for years. And then he felt it was time to do it - Don José, every tenor's dream role. In January 1997, at San Diego Opera. Martha Hart, photographer-in-residence, followed the rehearsals from day 1 and captured on film Richard Leech's creation of a role - from the first note to the final curtain... |
 Tuning up with Maestro Richard Bonynge... taking the cue from Director Jim de Blasis - with mezzo-soprano Adria Firestone (Carmen)... and Cynthia Clayton (Micaela),... playing at swordplay as Louis Otey (Escamillo) looks on. |
 Foreground: Warming up for red-hot passion... and red-hot rage. Background: Yes, he does a good job of doing his own (good guy/bad guy) make-up. |
 The real thing... from "intense flirtation", to impassioned confrontations, to a doubly tragic conclusion*. The happy verdict at curtain call: His first Don José is definitely NOT his last.** |
| *In this production,
Don José commits a murder-suicide which, expectedly, was not to everyone's
liking. ** A Post Script: Richard Leech will sing his second Don José with mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves at the Lyric Opera of Chicago at the close of the 1999-2000 season. NOTE: All photos are copyrighted © MLHart 1997. Some of the photos on this page appear in the book "The Art of Making Opera" by ML Hart; to preview and/or order click HERE. |
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