Eric Owens to host the Met: Live in HD Parsifal broadcast March 2

Eric Owens
(Photo Credit: Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera)

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Owens continues his 2012-13 season with appearances with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the Dallas Symphony and at the Metropolitan Opera.

On March 2, Owens will host the Met: Live in HD presentation of Wagner's Parsifal. The production stars Jonas Kaufmann, Katarina Dalayman, Peter Mattei, Evgeny Nikitin, Rúni Brattaberg, and René Pape. François Girard directs and Daniele Gatti will conduct. To watch the Parsifal trailer, click here. Selling more than 2.4 million tickets last year, the hugely successful Met: Live in HD presents Metropolitan Opera productions in more than 1,900 venues in 64 countries. Opera lovers outside of New York can experience Parsifal in their local movie theaters. As the host, Owens will introduce the production and give a behind-the-scenes view, including interviews during intermission. Owens has previously hosted the live broadcast of Philip Glass's Satyagraha and received popular and critical acclaim for his portrayal of Alberich in the Metropolitan Opera production of Der Ring des Nibelungen, which was broadcast in HD. New York audiences can look forward to Owens's return to the Metropolitan Opera for the complete Ring Cycle April 6 through May 11, 2013.

On March 8 and 9, 2013, Owens will appear with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO) as part of their "Classical Roots" concerts. Together they will perform Wagner's "Wotan's Farewell" from Die Walküre. The program also includes Wagner's "Die Frist its um" from The Flying Dutchman, and Brahm's Academic Festival Overture. The evening continues with a celebration of several African-American composers. The DSO, under the baton of Music Director Leonard Slatkin, will be joined by the Brazeal Dennard Chorale to perform Johnson's "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing", the world premiere of Sukkot Through Orion's Nebule by James Lee III, and Earthrise by Adolphus Hailstork.

Owens, a passionate lover of Bach, is delighted to join the New York Philharmonic with music director Alan Gilbert in their performance of Bach's Mass in B minor on March 13 through 16, 2013. Dorothea Röschmann, Anne Sofie von Otter and Steve Davislim are also featured as soloists, with the New York Choral Artists and their director, Joseph Flummerfelt. The concert is part of a four-part series entitled The Bach Variations: A Philharmonic Festival. Four orchestral programs, March 6 through April 6, are conducted by masters with different perspectives. Additional events, including those in collaboration with the 92nd Street Y, reveal additional dimensions in this wide-ranging celebration.

Owens ends his 2012-13 season with performances with Jaap van Zweden and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra on May 17 and 19. The program explores several of Wagner's most recognized masterworks: Prelude to Act 1 of Lohengrin, Prelude to Act 3 of Lohengrin, and Prelude to Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. Owens, along with Heidi Melton and Clifton Forbis, will join the orchestra to finish the evening with the first act of Die Walküre.

Acclaimed for his commanding stage presence and inventive artistry, American bass-baritone Eric Owens has carved a unique place in the opera world as both a champion of new music and a powerful interpreter of classic works. Called "consistently charismatic, theatrically and vocally" by New York Magazine and "absolutely remarkable" by the Philadelphia Inquirer, Owens is equally at home in concert, recital and opera performances, bringing his powerful poise, expansive voice and instinctive acting abilities to stages around the globe. Owens received great critical acclaim for portraying the title role in the world premiere of Elliot Goldenthal’s Grendel with the Los Angeles Opera, and again at the Lincoln Center Festival, in a production directed and designed by Julie Taymor. The New Yorker’s Alex Ross has raved, "Owens's portrayal [of Alberich in Das Rheingold] is so richly layered that it may become part of the history of the work." Owens also enjoys a close association with John Adams, and was featured on the September 2008 Nonesuch Records release of the composer's A Flowering Tree. He also performed the role of Leslie Groves in Adams's Doctor Atomic, at the San Francisco Opera world premiere and at the Metropolitan Opera, the recording of which won a Grammy.