{"id":16563,"date":"2018-04-04T00:00:48","date_gmt":"2018-04-04T04:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/operawire.wpengine.com\/?p=16563"},"modified":"2018-03-19T17:14:58","modified_gmt":"2018-03-19T21:14:58","slug":"fun-facts-about-sergei-leiferkus-met-opera-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/operawire.com\/fun-facts-about-sergei-leiferkus-met-opera-career\/","title":{"rendered":"Fun Facts About Sergei Leiferkus&#8217; Met Opera Career"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Russian Baritone Sergei Leiferkus, born on April 4, 1946, is recognized for his unique vocal quality. If you haven\u2019t heard him before, then you should, because he has one of the most individual sounds you\u2019ll ever hear.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, here\u2019s an excerpt from a role we will talk about in a bit.<br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/dpFI9icwdOQ\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>In any case, the baritone enjoyed a solid career in the world of Italian and Russian opera, performing all around the world at such houses as the Royal Opera, Vienna State Opera, San Francisco Opera, Salzburg Easter Festival, and Edinburgh Festival, among many other places.<\/p>\n<p>He also had a solid career at the Met Opera, appearing 86 times between 1992 and 2004, singing a select number of operas numerous times. Here\u2019s a look at his Met career in a nutshell.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Eugene Onegin<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The first opera the baritone took on at the Met was Tchaikovsky\u2019s seminal masterwork. He only sang the title role at Met on three occasions, all of them during his debut season. Interestingly, Leiferkus was not supposed to make his debut when he did and was simply a cover for Thomas Hampson. But when the American baritone fell ill, the Russian star got a chance to show off his talents and did so, earning the following comment from Martin Mayer of Opera Magazine: \u201cIn sound, musical substance, acting, and appearance he was simply an ideal Onegin.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Otello<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Next up for Leiferkus was a role he grew associated with, Iago in \u201cOtello.\u201d He performed it for the first time on March 25, 1994, and would go on to sing the role 12 times with the company.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Carmen<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This ranked second among the operas he sang most at the Met, taking on Escamillo 23 times over two seasons. He also took the role on tour with the company, his final Escamillo with the Met coming on June 5, 1997, in Tokyo.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Andrea Chenier<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Leiferkus only sang one performance of the role of Carlo G\u00e9rard on Oct. 3, 1996. Luciano Pavarotti and Maria Guleghina headlined that cast.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Boris Godunov<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>On Dec. 22, 1997, the baritone made his first Met appearance in Mussorgsky\u2019s masterwork. He took on the role of Rangoni, which he would later reprise in 2004 in his last set of performances with the company. His final showcase with the Met came on Valentine\u2019s Day in 2004.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Samson et Dalila<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This was the first time the baritone got to open a season, singing alongside Pl\u00e1cido Domingo and Olga Borodina in the famed Saint-Saens opera. He sang the opera 27 times overall, the most for any opera he took on at the Met.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Fidelio<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The last opera he added to his Met repertoire, Leiferkus appeared in the Beethoven masterwork as the villainous Don Pizarro six times over the course of his career.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Russian Baritone Sergei Leiferkus, born on April 4, 1946, is recognized for his unique vocal quality. If you haven\u2019t heard him before, then you should, because he has one of the most individual sounds you\u2019ll ever hear. In fact, here\u2019s an excerpt from a role we will talk about in a bit. In any case, the baritone enjoyed a solid&nbsp;{&hellip;}<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16564,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[479,6],"tags":[197,583,161,274,23,648,3423],"class_list":["post-16563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-on-this-day","category-high-notes","tag-andrea-chenier","tag-carmen","tag-eugene-onegin","tag-fidelio","tag-otello","tag-samson-et-dalila","tag-sergei-leiferkus"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Fun Facts About Sergei Leiferkus&#039; Met Opera Career - OperaWire<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/operawire.com\/fun-facts-about-sergei-leiferkus-met-opera-career\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fun Facts About Sergei Leiferkus&#039; Met Opera Career - OperaWire\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Russian Baritone Sergei Leiferkus, born on April 4, 1946, is recognized for his unique vocal quality. 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