Stephen Costello Headlines Met's Free Summer Recital Series

Following a string of engagements in Russia and Armenia, Stephen Costello - star of back-to-back productions at the Metropolitan Opera earlier this year - returns New York to headline the company's free annual summer recital series in the city's parks. At Central Park SummerStage (June 12) and Brooklyn Bridge Park (June 14), the Tucker Award-winning tenor joins fellow Met stars soprano Susanna Phillips and mezzo-soprano Elizabeth DeShong for a program of favorite arias and duets, accompanied by pianist Dan Saunders. As Opera News noted in a recent "Spotlight" double-page spread, "the all-American tenor" is now "at the top of his game."

Earlier this month, Costello made his house role debut as Alfredo in Verdi's La traviata at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. It was after seeing him in this signature role at London's Royal Opera House, Covent Garden that the Daily Express observed: "Costello brought real depth to the part. This young American has risen rapidly to claim a place among the world's best tenors and recent performances show that he has the acting abilities to match his wonderfully smooth and powerful voice." With Pavel Klinichev on the Bolshoi podium, the tenor starred opposite the Violetta of Russian soprano Olga Peretyatko - his recent co-star in Verdi's Rigoletto at the Met - in Francesca Zambello's celebrated production. While in the Russian capital, he also took time out to record a new album of solo arias under the baton of Constantine Orbelian, for release next season. These Moscow engagements followed a high-profile appearance in the Armenian capital, where Costello headlined the opening concert of the Yerevan International Music Festival. Earlier this season he starred in a Met double header, giving his signature portrayal of the Duke of Mantua in the company's Rat-Pack themed Rigoletto and undertaking the title role of Roméo et Juliette, in which, as Opera magazine put it, he "made a stylish, vocally appealing Roméo, and a handsome one, too."

Costello rounds out the summer with two prominent European engagements, joining the Orchestre National de Lille for Verdi's Requiem at the Stade Pierre-Mauroy in Villeneuve, France (July 12), and reprising his Duke of Mantua opposite the Gilda of fellow Tucker Award-winner Nadine Sierra for a special televised, outdoor performance of Rigoletto in Hannover, Germany (July 22).

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