Stephen Costello Sings in Met Opera's Summer Recital Series; Heads to San Fran and UK

Richard Tucker Award-winning tenor Stephen Costello looks forward to singing opera arias and duets al fresco on both sides of the Atlantic this summer, with appearances in New York's Metropolitan Opera Summer Recital Series (tonight, July 16 & 19); with the San Francisco Opera Orchestra at the city's Stern Grove Festival (Aug 18); and at the inaugural Branscombe Festival on England's south-west coast (July 27). In both California and the UK, the tenor's partner will be his wife and frequent co-star, lyric soprano Ailyn Pérez; recently billed as "opera's hottest couple" at Los Angeles Opera, Vanity Fair says they are "a match made in verismo heaven."

At the Central Park SummerStage tonight, July 16, Costello will help launch the fifth season of the Metropolitan Opera's free Summer Recital Series, giving the first of two performances with soprano Erin Morley, described by the Wall Street Journal as "spectacular"; mezzoIsabel Leonard, who recently followed in the tenor's footsteps when she won the 2013 Richard Tucker Award; and pianist Bradley Moore, whose regular collaborators include Renée Fleming, Plácido Domingo, and Yo-Yo Ma. Costello will perform arias by Verdi, Gounod, and Donizetti, including such signature showstoppers as "Ah! mes amis" from La fille du régiment, in which his ability to hit each of the famous nine high Cs "exactly in the center of the note, holding the last one with seeming ease," was recently noted by Opera Today. Joined by Morley, Costello will close the concert's first half with "Sulla tomba che rinserra" from Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, in which he has just proved himself "an ideal Edgardo," blessed with "a glorious Italianate voice that throbs with passion" (Stage-Door) at the Canadian Opera Company. He and Leonard will duet in "Tu n'est pas beau, tu n'est pas riche" from Offenbach's La Périchole before concluding the evening with favorite numbers from Bernstein's West Side Story. On Friday, July 19, the four artists will reunite to reprise their program for a second free outdoor performance at Pier 1 in Brooklyn Bridge Park.

At San Francisco's 76th free Stern Grove Festival, Costello will help the San Francisco Opera celebrate this year's Verdi bicentennial with a program drawn from the great Italian composer's works on Sunday, August 18. Supported by the San Francisco Opera Orchestra, he will perform selected solo arias besides duetting with soprano Ailyn Pérez, who like her husband is a Tucker Award-winner. As the New York Times's Anthony Tommasini was moved to remark when the two appeared together at a recent Lincoln Center gala, Costello and Pérez "have performed together in some notable productions. That they displayed palpable chemistry in a tender duet...was no surprise. Mr. Costello was in his element, his voice virile and fresh, yet meltingly lyrical." The couple dubbed "America's fastest-rising husband-and-wife opera stars" (Associated Press) also looks forward to returning to San Francisco Opera for more Verdi in the summer of 2014, in the leading roles of the company's upcoming production of La traviata.

Meanwhile Costello and Pérez may also be heard together when they join forces to help launch England's inaugural Branscombe Festivalwith a recital of duets on Saturday, July 27. Taking place in an idyllic Devonshire village, the festival is the brainchild of Ian Rosenblatt, founder of the celebrated Rosenblatt Recital Series, in which Costello and Pérez have both already appeared at London's St. John's Smith Square. As they were there, they will be accompanied in Devonshire by Gramophone Award-winning pianist and radio broadcaster Iain Burnside, curator of the new festival.

Further details of Stephen Costello's summer engagements follow, and more information about the artist is available at the web sites listed below.

Stephen Costello: summer engagements:

July 16

New York, NY

Metropolitan Opera Summer Recital Series

Central Park SummerStage

Donizetti: "Sulla tomba che rinserra" from Lucia di Lammermoor (with Morley)

Donizetti: "Ah! mes amis" from La fille du régiment

Gounod: "Salut! demeure chaste et pure" from Faust

Gounod: "Ah! lève-toi, soleil!" from Roméo et Juliette

Offenbach: "Tu n'est pas beau, tu n'est pas riche" from La Périchole (with Leonard)

Verdi: "Questa o quella" from Rigoletto

Bernstein: "One Hand, One Heart" and "Tonight" from West Side Story (with Leonard)

(with Erin Morley, soprano; Isabel Leonard, mezzo-soprano; Bradley Moore, piano)

July 19

New York, NY

Metropolitan Opera Summer Recital Series

Brooklyn Bridge Park, Pier 1

Donizetti: "Sulla tomba che rinserra" from Lucia di Lammermoor (with Morley)

Donizetti: "Ah! mes amis" from La fille du régiment

Gounod: "Salut! demeure chaste et pure" from Faust

Gounod: "Ah! lève-toi, soleil!" from Roméo et Juliette

Offenbach: "Tu n'est pas beau, tu n'est pas riche" from La Périchole (with Leonard)

Verdi: "Questa o quella" from Rigoletto

Bernstein: "One Hand, One Heart" and "Tonight" from West Side Story (with Leonard)

(with Erin Morley, soprano; Isabel Leonard, mezzo-soprano; Bradley Moore, piano)

July 27

Devon, UK

Branscombe Festival

Opera arias and duets, TBA (with Ailyn Pérez, soprano)

Aug 18

San Francisco, CA

Stern Grove Festival

Verdi: arias and duets (with Ailyn Pérez, soprano)

San Francisco Opera Orchestra

For more information, visit www.stephencostellotenor.com, www.facebook.com/pages/Stephen-Costello and twitter.com/CostelloTenor.