Eric Downs
Mustapha
Having already gained substantial experience on both the opera and concert stage and possessing a voice which matches beauty with size, bass-baritone Eric Downs is rising to the forefront of young professional artists with impressive alacrity.
In the 2010-11 season Eric Downs appears as soloist to perform Handel's Messiah with the Washignton National Cathedral, and Haydn's Paukenmesse at Carnegie Hall through MidAmerica Productions. His 2009-10 season included singing as soloist in a gala Victor Herbert 150th Birthday Celebration with Little Orchestra Society of New York and a return to the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra as Leporello in Don Giovanni. In 2008-09 he rejoined the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra to sing the title role in Le nozze di Figaro, and sang Don Alfonso in Così fan tutte for Boston Midsummer Opera. Recent highlights include Don Alfonso with Boston Youth Orchestra, Mendelssohn's Elijah with the Southern Finger Lakes Orchestra, and joining the roster of the Metropolitan Opera.
He has performed as Don Alfonso, Colline in La bohème, and as Kuligin in Janácek's Kát'a Kabanová with Yale Opera where the bass-baritone received his artist diploma. Also with Yale Opera and Orchestra Verdi Milano he has appeared as Sam in Trouble in Tahiti, Polifemo in Cimarosa's Le disavventure teatrali, Le Fauteuil and L'arbre in L'Enfant et les sortilèges, Presto in Les Mamelles de Tirésias, and as Peter Quince in A Midsummer Night's Dream. In the summer of 2007 Mr. Downs appeared in four productions with the Orchestra Verdi Milano in Italy: Shostakovich's Moska Cheryomushki, The Merry Widow, La Rondine, and Orphée aux enfers.
The bass-baritone's operatic repertoire also includes the roles of Leporello in Don Giovanni, Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro, Don Basilio in Il barbiere di Siviglia, and Lothario in Mignon. With the Thornton Opera Program at Pepperdine University, Eric Downs has performed the title role in Gianni Schicchi, Osmin in Abduction from the Seraglio, and Fiorello in Il barbiere di Siviglia. With the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano G. Verdi, he performed the role of Simone in Gianni Schicchi, as well as Talpa in Il tabarro. He has also participated in a number of scenes programs at Yale University in which he portrayed a variety of characters including Nick Shadow in Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress, the title role in The Mikado, and King Dodon in Rimsky-Korsakov's The Golden Cockerel.Mr. Downs' concert stage appearances include performances with the New Haven Oratorio Choir as soloist in Mozart's Requiem, Bach's Magnificat (also with Capella Cantorum in Essex), and Haydn's Lord Nelson Mass. He has performed as soloist in Duruflé's Requiem and Fauré's Requiem with the Westchester Concert Singers and in Haydn's Mass in Time of War, and the world premiere of Peyman Farzinpour's Ich habe genug with the St. Matthew's Chamber Orchestra in Los Angeles. Other concert performances include soloist in Brahms' Liebeslieder Walzer, Mozart's Coronation Mass and Vesperae solennes de confessore, Kodály's Te Deum, Piazzolla's El sueño de una noche de verano with the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano G. Verdi, and Beethoven's Mass in C.
