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A post-concert photo of Russell and Carolyn with the on-stage assemblage designed to set the mood for Die Winterreise in Burns Lake. |
2010.01.26
"We wanted to take a minute out of a busy day and busy week to let you know about Russell Braun's performance of Die Winterreise in Burns Lake, BC on Sunday afternoon, January 24th, 2010. In a word, 'Magnificent!'. We expected, of course, a performance of world-class calibre. We say 'of course', because we know of Mr. Braun's artistry by reputation, from CD's, and from CBC Radio Two. What these sources could not really have prepared us for was the power and the magic of Russell's live performance, and the wonderfully moving and sensitive piano accompaniment of Carolyn Maule. Russell promised, in his brief introduction to the recital, that the 80 minutes of the Schubert song cycle would pass surprisingly quickly. Most audience members seemed to agree. After a brief silence at the conclusion of the recital the audience was on its feet applauding, and cries of 'Bravo' were heard in the church. One of our audience members told us today that Russell's is "the greatest voice I have ever heard". A senior member of the audience, who has played piano for over 70 years, described Carolyn's playing as "exquisite". For many in Burns Lake the afternoon was a highlight not just of this season, but of our concert-going lives. Many audience members thanked the Arts Council for bringing artists of Russell and Carolyn's calibre to our small community. Which brings us to the second point. We are touched by and grateful for the considerable efforts both Russell and Carolyn made to come to this small, isolated, rural BC community. We know in a general way of the sacrifices all artists must make to pursue their craft. Spending 36 hours with these warm and generous people reminded us again of the commitment of touring artists. Making the time to come to our town, taking time from other professional and family commitments, spending long hours on crowded airplanes and in cramped cars, braving a flawed and daunting airline baggage system, winter roads, recalcitrant hotel heating systems, very late nights and early mornings, roadside cafes, -20 degree temperatures and an overly-bright piano with a sticky E-flat key, and still being able to present a recital of such a very high standard with grace and good humour - we can only say, with our audience: "Bravo".
Thank you all for the parts you played to make this event happen. We and our Arts Council and our audience are very grateful that you all helped provide us with this memorable event and once-in-a-lifetime experience. We are especially appreciative of the support of MusicFest Vancouver and of Windsor Plywood's Spectacular Music BC program. A concert like this one, in a town like ours, is what Spectacular Music BC is all about. "
- John and Sandra Barth for the Lakes District Arts Council, Burns Lake, BC
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"Among the highlights was an aria from the opera Faust, in which the singer's voice projected gloriously into the dull acoustics of Shorncliffe's main hall." (Coast Reporter, 27 November 2009)
Russell Braun gives a "heart-felt delivery that will be etched in memory" for the Canadian Opera Company's Diamond Anniversay Gala
COC Diamond Anniversary Gala Concert
(l. to r.) Tenor Ramon Vargas, baritone Russell Braun, tenor John Treleaven, conductor Johannes Debus"Baritone Russell Braun had the best innings of all, in a first-class performance of O du mein holder Abendstern, from Tannhauser. His feeling for the dramatic moment, and his variety of tone and phrasing, made for the most thorough acting job anyone could do while standing stock-still." (Globe and Mail, 9 November 2009)
"In a vivid testament to the quality of singers this country is producing, the finest of the trio was GTA-based Russell Braun. Braun is at the peak of his art, mixing a rich, flexible and powerful baritone with keen dramatic instincts. He was galvanizing in an aria from Gounod's Roméo et Juliette and brought a powerful intensity to his Ode to the Evening Star from Wagner's Tannhaüser. Braun was sincere in one of the evening's three encores, when he and Mexican tenor Ramón Vargas blew the full house off its posteriors in the famous duet by Georges Bizet, "Au fond du temple saint," from The Pearl Fishers." (Toronto Star, 9 November 2009)
"Russell Braun is of course a COC favourite. He sang Mercutio's aria with brio and elan. His warm and mellifluous baritone blended beautifully with Vargas' in the Bizet. Braun reserved his best for Wolfram's Ode to the Evening Star. Taken at a very slow tempo, his was a most poetic and heart-felt delivery that will be etched in memory." (La Scena Musicale, 8 November, 2009)
Russell Braun embodies the many guises of The Traveller in Death in Venice at the Theater an der Wien
"As the Traveller, Russell Braun, his curly dark locks tipped in devilish red, stole every scene in which he appeared, filling the house with his lustrous voice and over-the-top characterizations, which ranged from a ghastly over-rouged elderly fop to an ingratiating chatterbox barber." (Musical America, 15 October 2009)
"Russell Braun flowed as the perfidious death messenger between the most diverse roles, devious and provoking as a traveler, gondolier, hotel manager and so on. With his versatile baritone he acts as fate messenger for Aschenbach, luring and humiliating the writer, who finally succumbs to Cholera." (Oper in Wien, 19 September 2009)
"Superlative singing from Russell Braun in the six roles (from travelers to the God Dionysos)." (Kronen Zeitung, 19 September 2009)
"Russell Braun supplies concise character studies in the small roles of the hotel director, bartender, road musician and gondolier and sings these precisely articulated with his colorful baritone." (Klassik, 19 September 2009)
"Also excellent is Russell Braun as Aschenbach's Dionysian-diabolical travel companion." (Salzburger Nachrichten, 19 September 2009)
"Russell Braun...proves a great capacity to transform among the baritone episode rolls." (Die Presse, 18 September 2009)
"Russell Braun is convincing in the work's many small roles." (Financial Times, 28 September 2009)
World premiere of Peter Lieberson's "The World in Flower" with the New York Philharmonic and Alan Gilbert"Braun sang with a flexible, ruddy-colored baritone and showed a natural affinity for Lieberson's shapely melodic settings. His clarity went a long way toward making sense out of some of the denser texts." (Opera News, August 2009)
"Ms. DiDonato's luminous singing and Mr. Braun's earthy authority made them effective...excellent...soloists." (New York Times, 8 May 2009)
"Braun was at his best in the penultimate song, an excerpt from "Leaves of Grass", where he conveyed the profound sensuality of Whitman's lines with warmth and authority." (Classical Source, 9 May 2009)
A human Elijah with the Calgary Philharmonic"In the central role of Elijah, Russell Braun vocally fit the composer's own conception of a holy man who was "strong, zealous and, yes, even bad-tempered, angry and brooding . . . yet borne aloft as if on angels' wings"--and did so with consummate ease, imbuing the part with warmth and humanity." (Calgary Herald, 18 April 2009)
Russell Braun "beyond wonderful" as Eugene Onegin with Opera Lyra Ottawa"Baritone Russell Braun sang the role of the ne'er-do-well Onegin...he was convincing and effective and his singing was beyond wonderful. He used every part of his vocal range without any audible difficulty and this enabled him to convey effectively the character's several states of mind (all of them grim)." (Ottawa Citizen, 5 April 2009)
Russell Braun "Superb" "Golden" in his role debut in the Canadian Opera Company's production of War and Peace
"Baritone Russell Braun's Prince Andrei Bolkonsky is golden when he forgives his faithless fiancée Natasha. His singing has an exquisite dramatic soulfulness, even amid the ongoing destruction wreaked by Napoleon's armies." (National Post, 14 October 2008)
"...a breathtaking performance that is at once mighty and touchingly human. He is one of the few opera stars who can act as well as he sings." (Toronto Star, 13 October 2008)
"Braun, his voice conveying both strength and vulnerability, is an ideal Andrei, drawing us into his character's gradual love for Natasha and his resignation at losing her." (Eye Weekly, 13 October 2008)
"The role of Prince Andrei seems tailor-made for Russell Braun." (ConcertNet, 10 October 2008)
"Baritone Russell Braun, in his role debut, was an ideal Andrei. Braun's sensitive voice conveyed both strength and vulnerability from Andrei's first glimmerings of love to his heartbreaking death scene." (Opera News, 10 October 2008)
"Braun's rakish, quicksilver Mercutio" stands out in the Salzburg Festival's production of Romeo et Juliette"..an arresting and nimble voiced Mercutio." (Musical America, 22 August 2008)
"Dramatically, Braun took a supporting character with little depth, and brought out a multi-sided person--jovial, then hot-headed." (Jamilton, 2 August 2008)
"The raucous, swashbuckling fight scene staged by B.H. Barry offers edge-of-the-seat excitement and spills into the audience. Mercutio (Russell Braun), costumed as a refugee from "Pirates of the Caribbean," is an expert swordsman but falls to Tybalt (Juan Francisco Gatell) after being distracted when a huge white canopy is cut down." (Variety, August 2008)
Watch Russell perform "Mab, la reine des mensonges" on Youtube
Last Updated: July 26, 2010
© 2000 Moira Johnson Consulting, All Rights Reserved
