A Tribute to Gilbert Duprez John Osborn, Kaunas City Symphony Orchestra & Constantine Orbelian

• Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901):
• 1 Jérusalem: Je veux encore entendre ta voix 05:28
• 2 Jérusalem: Ô mes amis, mes frères d'armes 04:33
• Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848):
• 3 La favorite: Ange si pur que dans un songe 05:26
• 4 Les martyrs: Oui, j'irai dans leur temple 03:08
• Hector Berlioz (1803-1869):
• 5 Benvenuto Cellini, Op. 23: La gloire était ma seule idole 06:26
• 6 Benvenuto Cellini, Op. 23: Sur les monts les plus sauvages 08:30
• Gaetano Donizetti:
• 7 Lucia di Lammermoor: Bientöt l'herbe des champs croîtra (Sung in French) 08:23
• 8 Dom Sébastien, roi de Portugal: Seul sur la terre 05:42
• Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868):
• 9 Guillaume Tell: Asile héréditaire 13:53
• Total Runtime 01:01:29

Info for A Tribute to Gilbert Duprez

Gilbert Duprez, a prominent Parisian tenor during the first half of the nineteenth century, is mostly unknown to today’s opera fans. But his profound influence upon operatic vocal style and practice has persisted up to the present day. His fellow tenors sang their highest notes using a delicate and fluty-sounding falsetto technique. But Duprez pioneered the novel technique of singing upper-range notes up to high C in a much more heroic-sounding chest voice — a practice soon adopted by tenors worldwide.

One of today’s most thrilling tenors, John Osborn is in constant demand on the world’s most prestigious opera stages. His gorgeous voice is particularly noted for its magnificent top end. Who better, then, to present an album devoted to Duprez’s seminal influence on vocal technique for tenors?

With the incomparable support of maestro Constantine Orbelian and his Kaunas City Symphony, Delos and Osborn proudly offer a beguiling album of selections from both well-known and more obscure French grand operas: bel canto arias that are sure to captivate listeners.

John Osborn, Kaunas City Symphony Orchestra
Kaunas State Choir
Constantine Orbelian,

John Osborn
US Tenor John Osborn is a retur­ning guest on the world’s most pre­sti­gious sta­ges, inclu­ding: the Metro­po­li­tan Opera in New York; Wie­ner Staa­tso­per; Lyric Opera of Chi­cago; Staa­tso­per Ber­lin; Opéra Natio­nal de Paris; San Fran­ci­sco Opera; Oper­n­haus Zürich; Thea­tre Royal de la Mon­naie in Brus­sels; Grand Théâ­tre de Geneve; and Salz­bur­ger Festspiele. He made a spec­ta­cu­lar stage debut at the Acca­de­mia di Santa Ceci­lia in Rome as Arnold in a con­cert ver­sion of Guil­laume Tell under the baton of Anto­nio Pap­pano in 2007.

In 2011, he made his debut at the Tea­tro alla Scala in Milan as Rodrigo di Dhu in Rossini’s La Donna del lago, fol­lo­wed by Don Otta­vio (Don Gio­vanni). He later per­for­med in a new pro­duc­tion of Rossini’s Otello oppo­site Ceci­lia Bar­toli in Zurich and in Il Bar­biere di Sivi­glia in San Diego.

Among the most impor­tant highlights of his career, the debut in Faust in Bru­xel­les, a new pro­duc­tion of Norma at Salz­burg Festi­val, and, again, Guil­laume Tell at Amster­dam Opera.

John Osborn star­ted sea­son 2010/11 with his stage debut at the Royal Opera House in Lon­don in Les Pêcheurs de Per­les con­duc­ted by Anto­nio Pap­pano, fol­lo­wed by Il Bar­biere di Sivi­glia. Fur­ther­more, he inter­pre­ted: Arnold (Guil­laume Tell) at the Acca­de­mia di Santa Ceci­lia in Rome again under Pap­pano; Rossini’s Otello in Lyon; La Cene­ren­tola (Don Ramiro) in Nice; Rossini’s Armida (Gof­fredo) at the Metro­po­li­tan Opera in New York; La Juive (Leo­pold) in Zurich; and Meyerbeer’s Gli Ugo­notti (Raoul de Nan­gis) in Brus­sels under the baton of Marc Min­ko­w­ski.

Highlights of his col­la­bo­ra­tions during sea­son 2009/10 were: La Juive and Guil­laume Tell (broa­d­cast live on Radio Vara) in Amster­dam; and L’Elisir d’Amore (Nemo­rino) for his stage debut at the Hou­ston Grand Opera.

In 2010, he inter­pre­ted the title role in Rossini’s Otello in Lau­sanne; Gof­fredo in Armida in New York oppo­site Renée Fle­ming; Arturo in I Puri­tani in Cagliari; and Donizetti’s Cate­rina Cor­naro in Amster­dam; Pol­lione in Norma oppo­site Ceci­lia Bar­toli in Dort­mund; and Des Grieux in Massenet’s Manon at the Tea­tro Colón in Bue­nos Aires. In 2008, he was: Ramiro in La Cene­ren­tola oppo­site Cecila Bar­toli in Zurich; Lin­doro in L’Italiana in Algeri at the Tea­tro Comu­nale in Flo­rence.

Mr. Osborn’s reper­tory inclu­des nume­rous Mozart’s roles, such as: Bel­monte in Die Ent­füh­rung aus dem Serail (Washing­ton, Atlanta, Orlando and Bor­deaux); Tamino in Die Zau­ber­flöte (Seat­tle, San Diego, Bal­ti­mora and New York City Opera); Fer­rando in Così fan tutte (Boston and San Diego); Don Otta­vio in Don Gio­vanni (Metro­po­li­tan Opera under James Levine, Por­tland Opera, Flo­rida Grand Opera and New York City Opera.)

He also enjoys a pro­li­fic and suc­ces­sful con­cert acti­vity inter­pre­ting, among others: Handel’s Mes­siah in Rich­mond, Vir­gi­nia; Lei­ce­ster in Donizetti’s Eli­sa­betta al castello di Kenil­worth and Elvino in La Son­nam­bula at the Cara­moor Festi­val; Bel­monte in a con­cert ver­sion of

Die Ent­füh­rung aus dem Serail with Yoel Levy in Atlanta; Rossini’s Sta­bat Mater with the WDR con­duc­ted by Semyon Bych­kov at the Köl­ner Phi­lhar­mo­nie in Colo­gne and broa­d­cast live on tele­vi­sion; Car­mina Burana in San Fran­ci­sco, Seat­tle, India­na­po­lis; Mil­wau­kee and Kan­sas City.

John Osborn gra­dua­ted in Voice at the Simp­son Col­lege in Sioux City, Iowa, his native town. He obtai­ned the Richard F. Gold Career Grant from the Sho­shana Foun­da­tion in 1994, won the Opera Index Award in 1995 and par­ti­ci­pa­ted in the pre­sti­gious Metro­po­li­tan Opera Young Artists Deve­lo­p­ment Pro­gram. He suc­ces­sfully par­ti­ci­pa­ted in nume­rous inter­na­tio­nal com­pe­ti­tions, inclu­ding the Metro­po­li­tan Opera Natio­nal Coun­cil in 1994 at age 21, and won the Con­cours Inter­na­tio­nal de Voix d’Opera-Placido Domingo Ope­ra­lia in 1996 in Bor­deaux.

Among his recent and future enga­ge­ments, Otello at Théa­tre des Champs-Elysèes in Paris and at Pfig­sten Festspiele in Salz­burg, Guil­laume Tell in Turin, Les con­tes d’Hoffmann in Lyon, Norma in Salz­burg and Zurich, Zel­mira in Paris, La donna del lago in New York, Rossini’s Otello at Thea­ter and der Wien in Wien, Ben­ve­nuto Cel­lini in Amster­dam and Rome, La Favo­rite in Venice.

Booklet for A Tribute to Gilbert Duprez