Rockwell Blake (born January 10, 1951 in Plattsburgh, New York) is an American operatic tenor, particularly known for his roles in Rossini operas. He was the first winner of the Richard Tucker Award.

Biography

Blake studied music first at the State University of New York (Fredonia) and then at the Catholic University of America. On leaving Catholic University, he served for three years in the United States Navy as a member of the Sea Chanters male chorus and later as a soloist with the US Navy Band. During that time, he continued his voice training with Renata Carisio Booth, who had been his teacher since his school days in Plattsburgh.

He made his solo opera debut in 1976 at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. as Lindoro in Rossini's L'italiana in Algeri, and made his debut at the New York Metropolitan Opera House in 1981 in the same role, with Marilyn Horne as his Isabella. He went on to become one of the leading Rossini singers of his generation,^[1] singing regularly at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro since his debut there in 1983. He made his La Scala debut in 1992 as Giacomo in La donna del lago. It was La Scala's first production of the opera in 150 years and was staged to mark the bicentenary of Rossini's birth.

Although several critics have expressed reservations about the intrinsic timbre of his voice,^[2] his two-and-a-half octave range and mastery of florid vocal technique ^[3] have made him a successful interpreter not only of Rossini's tenor roles but also those in operas by Mozart, Donizetti, Bellini and Handel. Within that repertoire, Blake has sung in over 40 operas, including relative rarities such as Rossini's Zelmira, Mozart's' Zaide, Donizetti's Il Furioso all'Isola San Domingo, Haydn's L'Infedelta Delusa and Boieldieu's La Dame blanche. Blake has also been active in the orchestral and oratorio tenor repertoire, performing in works by Bach, Beethoven, Berlioz, Britten, Handel, Haydn, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Rossini, Saint-Saëns, and Stravinsky.

Since 2001 he has increasingly devoted himself to teaching and has given master classes at the Associazione Lirica Concertistica Italiana in Milan, the Conservatoire Nationale de Paris, the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, Duke University in North Carolina, the State University of New York, the Hamburg Staatsoper, and the Chicago Lyric Opera young artists program.

His last appearances on the opera stage were as Uberto in Rossini's La donna del lago (Lisbon, 2005) and as Libenskoff in Rossini's Il viaggio a Reims (Montecarlo, 2005)

Prizes and distinctions

• Richard Tucker Award 1978
• Cavaliere Ufficiale, Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana 1994
• Diapason d'Or de l'Aneé 1994
• Honorary Degree - Doctor of Music, State University of New York
• Victoire de la Musique 1997
• Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et Lettres de la République Française 2000
• Grand Prix du Palmares des Palmares 2004

Discography

Operas

• Boieldieu - La Dame blanche (CD Angel/EMI)
• Donizetti - Alina (CD Nuova Era)
• Donizetti - Marin Faliero (DVD Hardy Classic)
• Mozart - Mitridate Re di Ponto (DVD Euro Arts)
• Rossini - Il barbiere di Siviglia, Conductor: Bruno Campanella (CD Nuova Era)
• Rossini - La Donna del Lago, Conductor: Riccardo Muti (CD Philips)
• Rossini - La Donna del Lago, Conductor: Riccardo Muti (DVD La Scala Collection)
• Rossini - La Donna del Lago, Conductor: Claudio Scimone (CD Ponto)
• Rossini - Elisabetta Regina d'Inghilterra (DVD Hardy Classic)

Recitals

• Airs d'Opéras Français (CD EMI)
• Encore Rossini (CD Arabesque Recordings)
• The Mozart Tenor (CD Arabesque Recordings)
• Rossini Melodies (CD EMI)
• The Rossini Tenor (CD Arabesque)

Notes and references

• Duffie, B., January 13, 1991 and January 14, 1996, Interviews with Rockwell Blake, WNIB Radio. Accessed 31 July 2008.
• Rockwell Blake Performance Record, New York Metropolitan Opera Data Base. Accessed 31 July 2008.
• Holland, B., '''Apollo'' and ''Thamos'', A Pair of Mozart Rarities', The New York Times, August 13, 1989. Accessed 31 July 2008.
• Horwitz, S., 1991, 'Rockwell Blake', Opera Monthly.
• IMG Artists, Rockwell Blake Biography. Accessed 25 April 2007.
• Kozinn, A., 'A Headstrong Tenor Discusses Music and Critics', The New York Times, August 6, 1989. Accessed 31 July 2008.
• Kretschmer, J., 'Top of the Ranks', Opera News, February 1992.
• Law, J., 'La donna del lago (1819)', Opera Quarterly, 1993; 9: 228-232.
• Thea Dispeker Artists Management, 2002, Rockwell Blake Biography. Accessed 31 July 2008.
• The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, Oxford University Press.
• The Richard Tucker Music Foundation. (accessed 25 April 2007)

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