“What could be more exhilarating than a full-scale operatic triumph, joining musical splendor with sleek dramatic insight and an imaginative visual component? Well, how about one that points the way, at least in part, toward more of the same?

The San Francisco Opera's new production of Wagner's "Die Walküre," which opened Thursday night at the War Memorial Opera House, is just such a triumph, a magnificent reminder of what this company is capable of when all the stars are in alignment.

An astonishingly strong cast of singers, operating under the muscular and alert leadership of former Music Director Donald Runnicles, brought vocal allure to Wagner's score. Director Francesca Zambello's production, set in the early decades of the 20th century, uses the prism of American history to illuminate the interplay of power, fate and love in the drama, and the witty, evocative stage design offers a fine visual backdrop for the action.

…Valhalla in Act 2 is a corporate boardroom, looking down on a comic-book view of Metropolis as Wotan - now a middle-aged tycoon with a telling forelock of white hair - preens in his three-piece suit.
…
Mark Delevan's Wotan has grown in stature and assurance since "Rheingold," and he brought stirring insight to the long narrative of Act 2, as well as ferocious power to the showdown with Brünnhilde in Act 3.”

 -San Francisco Chronicle 6/12/2010

“Crucially, this production is blessed with a strong cast that can execute almost everything that the conductor, director, and composer ask of them. Of particular interest among the singers are Nina Stemme, making her role debut as Brünnhilde, and Mark Delavan as Wotan, because both return next year for the full cycle.
…
Delavan’s also a strong actor, and he was at his vocal best in the more intimate scenes of Acts 2 and 3. He has a sharp rhythmic sense that serves the text well. His Wotan was a god in decline, suffering and sometimes abject, as he yields to Fricka and sees the gods’ end coming. His interactions with Stemme’s Brünnhilde ranged from playful to dominant to touching.”

 -San Francisco Classical Voice 6/12/2010

“Those few seconds of expectant silence between the final chord and start of the applause could only have meant one thing: it was a triumph. Once the curtain fell for Die Walküre's first night, the audience at the War Memorial House needed a few moments to go back to reality and realize that what they experienced had been one of those rare near-perfect performances. Former San Francisco Opera music director Donald Runnicles was back on the podium, and together with a stellar cast, he filled the auditorium with four and a half hours of exceptional music.
…

The complexity of Wotan was masterfully rendered by Mark Delevan's interpretation. His timbre is rich and agile. He managed to exploit all the dimensions of this character: his heartfelt love and trust for Brünnhilde, his helplessness in political matters, his indecisiveness. … his Wotan was a deeply touching figure from beginning to the very end. The exceptional beauty of the score came to life in all its puissance in those scenes in which both Delevan and Stemme were on stage.”

 -musicalcriticism.com 6/12/2010

“…top deity Wotan, a pin-striped godfather operating from a penthouse office. Baritone Mark Delavan fills the suit with muscular grace, which gives physical tension to that long scene with his impetuous daughter Brunnhilde. Ground down by his nitpicking wife, Fricka, he orders Brunnhilde not to protect Siegmund and Sieglinde, who have begun an adulterous and incestuous relationship and incurred Fricka’s wrath.

Brunnhilde defies her father’s order, setting in motion events that will end with Siegmund’s death, Sieglinde’s rescue and a magnificent ring of fire in which the Valkyrie slumbers until awakened at the end of the next opera, ‘Siegfried.’”

 - Bloomberg News 6/24/2010

“Former Adler Fellow Mark Delavan was a youngish but completely persuasive Wotan. In the scene in which his haranguing wife Fricka (a striking debut by German mezzo Janina Baechle) demands that he do away with his son Siegmund and contrive a hellish punishment for Brunnhilde he was warm and displayed his comic skills, just as the final scene with his beloved Brunnhilde brought tears to the eyes. It is a marvel to have a fresh, pliant voice in the role.”

 - Bay City News/NBC Bay Area 6/22/2010

“The production (actually a co-production with Washington National Opera) is directed by Francesca Zambello and conducted by Donald Runnicles, the company's former music director, greeted as a returning war hero at Thursday's opening performance. Next season, these two will oversee Wagner's entire "Ring of the Nibelungen" at War Memorial, but right now this "Walküre" - part 2 of the 4-part Ring cycle - is something to really celebrate.

It dispenses with helmets and breastplates, keeps the famous sword and spear, dresses the cast in a mix of early- to mid-20th-century costumes, and moves the mythic battleground to the real world. Wotan is a business tycoon. (His role is sung by American baritone Delavan, who spits notes like steel bolts.) He's a deal-maker in a double-breasted suit and eye-patch, his Valhalla situated in an office suite overlooking Manhattan. It's his very own Windows on the World, his world, a place where hard choices just have to be made, even if they result in spilled blood, family blood.

When Wotan feuds with daughter Brünnhilde - "the smiling delight of my gaze," he calls her - and banishes her from the immortals at the saga's conclusion, the story takes a mythic or quasi-Biblical turn. We think of wanderers and outcasts, prodigal children. But we also see the searing breakup of one father and one daughter. It's personal - any parent or child in the audience will feel it. And that's because Delavan and Swedish soprano Nina Stemme, who plays Brünnhilde, are such gifted actors.

The cast is almost impossibly strong.

Stemme's performance as Brünnhilde, commander of the Valkyries, keeps transforming. She begins as daddy's girl, rambunctious and porcelain-voiced, and ends as Wotan's conscience, a world-weary woman. Opposing her is Delavan, his voice a brute force, perfectly burnished and barely contained.”

 - Richard Scheinin, San Jose Mercury News; Oakland Tribune; Contra Costa Times 6/11/2010

“The San Francisco Opera opened Die Walkure, the second installment of director Francesca Zambello's so-called ‘American Ring,’ last week to thunderous ovations, critical praise…
As the original CEG (Chief Executive God) Wotan, Mark Delavan built on his interpretation of the role in last year's Rheingold with a performance that exposed the complex motivations of a world leader and captain of industry caught up in his own politics.”

 -Bay Area Reporter 6/17/2010

“Musically, it's a top ensemble. Donald Runnicles, the former music director of the SF Opera, remains more than ever one of the top Wagner interpreters, and was in total control of the intricacies of the score. We have never heard better balance of the horns, the strings and the voices; he brought about a variety of textures and tempos which made the music fly by, despite the four hours of it. …

Vocally, the four principals in this episode, Wotan (Mark Delavan, with a bottomless voice), Brünhilde (Nina Stemme, with a full and round tone), Sieglinde (Eva-Marie Westbroek) and Siegmund (a broad shouldered and clarion voiced Christopher Ventris) were consistently excellent. Wotan's anger, Siegmund's lust, Brünhilde's prayers, the tenderness of the Wotan-Brünhilde's farewell, all were acted convincingly and touchingly. We have to command David Gockley for putting together such cast, and we can't wait until next year to see the whole Ring cycle, with all four operas performed over five nights.”

 -sfist.com 6/11/2010

“One of the payoffs to a well-executed shift of setting and locale is a higher level of humanity from your characters, as if the big medieval costumes have been keeping you from seeing the person - or god - inside. This is certainly true of SFO's "American" Ring cycle, which lends tremendous insights to the game of familial power inside Die Walkure.
…
The principal conflict, however, is father and daughter, and here the acting is superb. Baritone Mark Delevan plays Wotan as a god trapped by his own power. His burly voice plays well in the quiet, somber moments of Act III, as Wotan faces a common father's common dilemma: how to overcome tender paternal feelings in punishing a daughter. His farewell, "Leb wohl," is heartbreaking.”

 -Operaville, 6/23/2010

Lyric Opera of Chicago
Mascagni's and Leoncavallo's
Cavalleria Rusticana and I Pagliacci
February 14, 18, 22, 25, March 4, 9, 14, 17, 20, 23, 27, 2009
Renato Palumbo, conductor; Elijah Moshinsky, director;
Leslie Halla Grayson, stage director
(Selected Review Excerpts)

“Admirable, too, was the one singer appearing in both operas: baritone Mark Delavan, who sang both the avenging Alfio in "Cavalleria" and the spurned Tonio in "Pagliacci." … Delavan delivered a commanding prologue to begin "Pagliacci" and got to voice the opera's famous closing line (‘The comedy is over,' in English), a tag countless tenors since Caruso have appropriated, contrary to the composer's intentions.

 -Chicago Tribune, February 16, 2009

“Especially in the final moments, the Alfio of American baritone Mark Delavan has the casual authority of a Mafia don proud of his skill with a switchblade. …'Pagliacci' sizzles from the start. …Delavan's handsomely textured baritone takes on an appropriately cruel edge as the vengeful Tonio.”

-Chicago Sun-Times, February 16, 2009

“Delavan too is excellent as Alfio—and even better in Pagliacci, where he plays Tonio, a clown in a traveling theater troupe.”

-Chicago Reader, February 26, 2009

 “Pietro Mascagni's ‘Cavalleria Rusticana' (‘Rustic Chivalry') and Ruggero Leoncavallo's ‘Pagliacci' (‘Clowns'), which opened their 11-performance run Saturday night, are searing Italian verismo tales of lust, marital infidelity and revenge. Each runs a compact 70 minutes, having been linked as an operatic double bill for more than a century. If you've never been to an opera, you'll be carried away by the inherent drama and music of ‘Cav' and ‘Pag,' as they're commonly called. One of grand opera's landmark arias, the embittered Canio's ‘Vesti la giubba,' is the emotional high point of ‘Pagliacci,' while ‘Cavalleria Rusticana' features the well-known ‘Intermezz' and Easter chorus. Michael Yeargan's production design retains ‘Cavalleria Rusticana's' original late-19th century Italian village setting, while he advances ‘Pagliacci' about 50 years to post-World War II Italy.    The two casts are excellent from top to bottom. Special kudos should go to American baritone Mark Delavan, who portrays the two operas' bad guys: Alfio in ‘Cavalleria Rusticana' and Tonio (one of the clowns of the title) in ‘Pagliacci.' In the latter, he sets the opera's tone with the introductory Prologue (in front of the curtain), and following a lot of dramatic stuff in-between, he offers to the audience the tragic story's ironic epitaph: ‘The comedy is ended.'”

 -Daily Herald (IL), February 16, 2009

“Baritone Mark Delavan also stands out as the golden-voiced Tonio, the clown who utters the famous ‘The comedy is over' at the end of the play.”

-Southtown Star (IL), February 19, 2009

“Delavan, who in the past year delighted audiences in San Francisco and Los Angeles provided Chicagoans with another of his masterful portrayals.  (Additionally, he is the only member of the cast to appear in both operas of the double bill.) Strong, secure, his Alfio was a gripping portrait of offended machismo, determined on revenge. ‘Cavalleria Rusticana', once the central core of the Italian repertory, truly comes alive with a trio of great singers, Yang, Ventre and Delavan, in the lead roles, insightful stage direction developed by production conceptualizer Elijah Moshinsky and revival stage director Leslie Halla Grayson, and the beautiful sets and period costumes of Michael Yeargan.”

-operawarhorses.com, March 1, 2009

“As familiar as these  two verismo operas are to modern audiences, Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci remain good theater, especially in the effective productions found at Lyric Opera of Chicago. Staged in a realistic town square resembling nineteenth-century Calabria, Cavalleria Rusticana benefits from fine stage and musical direction as the work pitches from its opening at dawn on Easter Sunday to its tragic conclusion that afternoon. As the pivotal character Santuzza in the Mascagni, Guang Yang is moving as the scorned woman whose anger causes the murder of her erstwhile lover Turiddu, portrayed on opening night by Carlo Ventre. Yang's approach to the role is fully in the style of verismo from the start, and her aria “Voi lo sapete, o mamma” is appropriately moving and vocally impressive. Yet Yang is particularly effective on stage with Delavan, who brings his fine diction and stage presence to the role of Alfio, Lola's cuckolded husband. The duet “Oh! Il Signore vi manda” shows the two performers well, as they bring their characters' situations to the forefront persuasively. Delavan commands the stage as Alfio should, and his solid vocal presence allows him to be a fine foil for Turiddu. …Yet the production of Leoncavallo's Pagliacci stood out for several reasons, not the least being the successful updating of the staging to post-war France. The traveling band of players offered a fine contrast on the somewhat stark rural background, and this made the tragedy all the more realistic. As Tonio, Delavan gave an exemplary reading of the prelude to Pagliacci, a scene that has its parallel this season in Berg's evocation of it at the beginning of Lulu. With his keen sense of musical line and clear diction, Delavan brought some subtle, ironic twists to various passages, such that the audience was prepared for the tragic dénouement which keep Pagliacci on stage perennially.”

-Musicweb International, Seen And Heard International Opera Review,
February 15, 2009

“‘Pagliacci' was the first complete opera ever to be recorded; its signature aria made Enrico Caruso the first international recording star more than a century ago and was the first disc to sell over a million copies. Even today, the image of a crying clown singing his heart out epitomizes the very essence of opera in the popular imagination. Caruso brought his own approach to verismo which is still the gold standard, a more beautiful sound than was originally the case in a style that placed singing at the service of the drama. By that standard, Russian tenor Vladimir Galouzine is the ideal Canio in that his is not a beautiful sound, but the intensity of his jealousy is so genuinely hair-raising that you almost start to feel sorry for his cheating wife and boyfriend who feel his wrath. No less pivotal is baritone Mark Delavan as the lame clown Tonio who delivers the Prologue with punch and pathos and breaks your heart when he is spurned by Nedda (Ana Maria Martinez).”

-newcitystage.com, February 2009

“The performances of Guang Yang as Santuzza, the jilted girlfriend and Mark Delevan as Alfio, the cuckolded husband, were perfectly melodramatic yet believable.”

 -Chicago Critic.com, February 2009

San Francisco Opera
Wagner's
Das Rheingold (New Ring Cycle)
June 3, 6, 14, 19, 22, 28, 2008
Donald Runnicles, conductor; Francesca Zambello, director
(Selected Review Excerpts)

“Baritone Mark Delavan, who will sing his first career Wotan throughout the cycle, offered a rough first draft of what I'm convinced will eventually coalesce into an interpretation of major importance. His singing is robust and commanding, marked by power, effortless precision and excellent diction, and he made the audience feel Wotan's ethical struggles.”

-San Francisco Chronicle, June 5, 2008

“In San Francisco Opera's reimagined ‘Das Rheingold,' Richard Wagner goes to Hollywood. Purists who refuse to utter the names ‘Wagner' and ‘Lucas' in the same breath might not like that. But this production of ‘Rheingold' — the first opera of Wagner's epic, four-part Ring Cycle — is smartly spectacular.

To sit in War Memorial Opera House, where ‘Rheingold' opened Tuesday, as the three Rhinemaidens, guardians of gold, romp amid swirling mists and mushrooming video-graphic images of surging waterfalls, while the opera orchestra, conducted by Donald Runnicles, intones Wagner's long, primordial E-flat and then slowly builds a blooming wall of sound — this was a sensational and sensuous experience.

It would have been enough, this meeting of man, music and IMAX, but then there is the concept: The gods are now American tycoons, robber barons out of the Roaring '20s. Valhalla is a skyscraper, reaching to the heavens. Wagner's giants are construction workers, lumbering, exploited, at times touchingly gentle. The mythological transference, from Teutonic to American, works.

And the cast, which includes the noted baritone Mark Delavan in his debut as Wotan, the thieving and power-lusting chief of the gods, builder of Valhalla, is, with barely an exception, brilliant. Delavan is resounding, from his first words….

… this ‘Rheingold' — with sets by Michael Yeargan, lighting by Mark McCullough, ingenious projection design by Jan Hartley and costumes by Catherine Zuber — is true mythological storytelling. Fantastic. Ugly. Beautiful. Getting at the truths about human beings and what makes them tick.”

-Oakland Tribune/San Jose Mercury News/Contra Costa Times, June 4, 2008

“All eyes and ears were on Mark Delavan, in his role debut as Wotan, and he sang well - accurately, with beauty of tone and fine diction. Assured…this was a good debut, promising even better performances to come.”

-San Francisco Classical Voice, June 3, 2008

"Singing Wotan for the first time, baritone Mark Delavan has the vocal range and power that the role demands…. It will be interesting to watch him take on the more grueling tests of the next two operas, ‘Die Walkuere' and ‘Siegfried'."

-Associated Press, June 22, 2008

“Shine they did: we're looking forward to more Mark Delavan as Wotan, whose performance was very strong. He has the voice of a trombone, and sounds of burnished brass. He'll be back for more, and that's a strong casting…”

-SFist, June 12, 2008

“Dramatic baritone Mark Delavan is a promising Wotan…”

-Bay Area Reporter, June 12, 2008

“Although this has been labeled an "American Ring," the scenes of the gods in the first opera could have been located among any lounging, somewhat-jaded set of European upper-class folk circa 1915-25. Wotan came on in a macho outfit of riding breeches, leather boots, and blue double-breasted jacket and ascot (with eye patch); his fellow gods and goddesses, taking their ease on a terrace in the mountains, wore cream-colored, trim-fitting suits or ankle-length dresses. The prelude played to a compelling, stage-filling video of the creation of the universe, ending on the banks of the Rhine. (Alberich, lusting first after the Rhinemaidens, then after their gold, could conceivably have passed for a 49er, with his rough costume, gold pan and pick.)

…Mark Delavan sang and played a credible rich patriarch in distress; Jennifer Larmore was a bit more wheedling and seductive than most Frickas. But everyone here (even the giants) seemed more human than otherworldly, and I have a feeling that this is how the Zambello "Ring" is going to play itself out. We are clearly in a greedy, power-hungry world already in decay.

…I look forward to the episodes to come.”

-Wall Street Journal, July 8, 2008

“Richard Wagner's epic Ring Cycle is perhaps one of the most vaunted epic sequences in the history of opera. Smattered with a bold re-telling of Norse myths and an aesthetically brutal depiction of the lust for power and the human penchant for destruction, it's an overwhelmingly beautiful and colossal representation of morality, myth, and dissolution. Co-produced with the Washington National Opera, this version of the first tale in the cycle finds interesting corollaries between the original story and American history, from the gold rush through the Roaring Twenties.

...Donald Runnicles' musical direction is robust and vigorous, and stand-outs include tenor Stefan Margita as the fluid, eloquent trickster demigod Loge, and baritone Mark Delavan breathing vital life into his first Wotan. Keep an eye out for the entire Ring Cycle, to be performed in full during the summer of 2011.”

-SF Station, June 20, 2008 

Los Angeles Opera
Puccini's
Il Trittico
September 6, 11, 17, 21, 23, 26, 2008
Mark Delavan as Michele in Il Tabarro
James Conlon, conductor; William Friedkin, director
(Selected Review Excerpts)

“Il Tabarro, set on a dock in Paris, is a grim tale of a strong and sullen husband, Michele, who owns a barge that carries goods along the Seine. He is driven to a murderous rage when he realizes that his lovely wife, Giorgetta, who feels trapped and yearns for life in Paris, is having a desperate affair with his stevedore, Luigi.

…The soprano Anja Kampe brings her lustrous, warm and sizable voice to the role of Giorgetta. The baritone Mark Delavan sings the role of Michele with husky power and stylistic authority. Mr. Friedkin elicits nuanced portrayals from his three leads. You understand why Giorgetta wants to escape her depressed and volatile husband, who keeps bringing up their young son, who died as a boy. Puccini's haunting score uncannily taps into the subdued emotional turbulence of a couple coping with the grief and guilt of losing a child.”

-The New York Times, September 7, 2008

“Baritone Mark Delavan, the barge owner who is married to Giorgetta, dominated as Michele.”

-Associated Press, September 7, 2008

“Tabarro, a masterfully atmospheric and driving tale of a jealous murder, was dominated by Mark Delavan as Michele. …the voice was powerful, the phrasing sure, the dramatic instincts ditto.”

-Orange County Register, September 7, 2008

“… Puccini noir. A jealous Parisian barge owner stabs his wife's lover in a fit of passion. ...The performances by Mark Delavan as Michele, the barge's captain; Anja Kampe as Giorgetta, his torpid wife; and Salvatore Licitra, as her lover, are powerful vocally and dramatically. James Conlon, the company's music director and another star of the evening, creates from the pit a sense of engaging unease.”

-Los Angeles Times, September 8, 2008

“The singing, too, was praiseworthy. In ‘Tabarro,' baritone Mark Delavan's Michele was aptly stentorian and menacing.”

-MusicalAmerica, September 8, 2008

“Baritone Mark Delavan, the barge owner who is married to Giorgetta, dominated as Michele.”

-Variety, September 8, 2008

“Il Tabarro, a chunk of neo-realism avant la lettre, received a gripping treatment that attended to detail, like the barge that chugs into view in Santo Loquasto's evocative quayside Paris decor, while keeping the ill-fated love triangle in close-up. Baritone Mark Delavan brooded magnificently as the jealous barge owner Michele….”

-Financial Times, September 9, 2008

“The casts could scarcely be bettered anywhere. Mark Delavan, Anje Kamp and Salvatore Licitra kicked up a storm of jealous passion in Il tabarro.”

-Telegraph (UK), September 9, 2008

“Los Angeles Opera's long and ardent courtship of Hollywood produced the perfect match for Saturday's gala opening of the company's 2008-2009 season with Academy Award-winning film directors William Friedkin and Woody Allen dividing the task of staging Giacomo Puccini's tragic, sentimental, comic trilogy, "Il Trittico."

Productions of "Il Trittico" (which had its world premiere at the Metropolitan Opera in New York on Dec. 14, 1918) are few, mostly because Il Tabarro and Suor Angelica have never found wide acceptance. Only Gianni Schicchi has carved out a permanent niche for itself in the repertory. The success of L.A. Opera's current production may cause revitalized interest in the trilogy. It's a production that triumphs on all levels: musically, dramatically and visually. Like the three movements of a concerto, Trittico begins with a powerful opening statement cast in the "verismo" (bleeding slice of life) style. Set against the landscape of Paris and the hustling, bustling world of barge life on the Seine, the plot involves a love triangle that, as all verismo operas must, ends in tragedy and bloodshed. The first half is taken up with atmospherics. Then Puccini gets down to business, as Anja Kampe (as Giorgetta) plans an illicit tryst with her secret lover, Luigi (Salvatore Licitra), behind the back of her husband, the burly barge captain, Michele (Mark Delevan). The trio is well matched, with Delevan hulking, Kampe impassioned and distraught, while the bright tenor of Licitra proclaims his ardent yearning. It all, of course, ends badly, but not until after we discover why Giorgetta and Michele have drifted apart following the death of their young son.”

-The Daily Breeze and the LA Daily News, September 9, 2008

“Il Tabarro offers a remarkable portrait of a Parisian dockside: the barge of Michele and the gathering onshore. The orchestra projects a broad panorama; wonderful little dabs of color evoke the schemes of Monet and Debussy and remind us of the range of sympathy in Puccini's late years, when works like Pierrot Lunaire seized his awareness. Lovely moments occur; an organ grinder's instrument honks out a souvenir of La Bohème. As sunset turns to dusk, Puccini's orchestra makes this tangible; it's one of opera's great moments, and our company does it well. Mark Delevan is the murderous Michele; Anja Kampe is the wavering wife: a superb and superbly matched couple. Salvatore Licitra is the fly in their ointment, and he gets swatted.”

-LA Weekly, September 11, 2008

“In Il Tabarro (The Robe), Michele, magnificently sung by baritone Mark Delavan, is the brooding owner of a barge that docks gloomily along the quays of Paris - a moment of spectacular stagecraft from set designer Santo Loquasto. Michele is aware that something is wrong with his marriage, but he doesn't know that his unhappy wife, grippingly portrayed by soprano Anja Kampe, is two-timing him with a stevedore - in this case the gutsy tenor Salvatore Licitra. It's a short, gritty slice of life.”

-Downtown LA Scene, September 12, 2008
and Los Angeles Downtown News, September 15, 2008

“This new production is a compendium of international talent that begins with Il Tabarro, set on the river Seine and Santo Loquasto's stunning scenery that begins with a moving barge ready to dock on the water's banks while the stevedores chorally depict drudgery and support the strength of Mark Delavan's Michele. Perpetuating her operatic caliber from last year's Fidelio as Leonore is Anja Kampe in the role of Giorgetta, a tormented woman caught up in an illicit affair with famed tenor Salvatore Licitra who escalates enough enflamed passion to cause a seething Delavan to take his life while the curtain closes with Kampe's piercing screams witnessing her lover's fate. It is all too realistic with the added punch of brilliant lighting by Mark Jonathan and James Conlon's orchestral underpinning.”

-Concerto.net, September 7, 2008
and The Classical Music Network

“On 6 September 2008, Los Angeles Opera presented a new production of Giacomo Puccini's Il Trittico for its gala opening night. …The singing was excellent in all three operas. … Mark Delavan gave a vivid portrayal of Michele, the husband that Giorgetta no longer loves. He sang with ringing tones and his final revelation of Luigi's body under the cloak was thoroughly chilling.”

-Music & Vision, September 14, 2008

Los Angeles Opera's 2008 Production of Verdi's
Otello
February 16, 21, 24, 27, March 2, 5, 9, 2008
James Conlon, conductor; John Cox, director
(Selected Review Excerpts)

“Mark Delavan's edgy baritone lent magnificent menace to Iago…”

-FT.com (Financial Times, UK), February 19, 2008

“…Mark Delavan's coldblooded Iago. Apart from the standard issue evil goatee, Delavan, making his company debut, resists the easy answers. His multidimensional Iago is a luciferian black magician who can put on a genuinely amiable face. Shakespeare simply describes Iago as a villain. Boito, the librettist, assigns him an even worse perjorative: critic. Delavan gives him a nihilistic edge and goes about his plotting with smooth efficiency. For all the diabolical ranting, Delavan projected Saturday with little visible vocal strain. He negotiated his way elegantly, punched out some bristling top notes, spat out a few of his lines with an aggressive bite. More impressive, his was a voice that cut through the mix, regardless of what was happening on stage. A belting Verdian chorus with the orchestra at full blast? No problem. Clear and clean and focused. “Roderigo, beviam!” was brilliantly executed.”

-The Orange County Register, February 18, 2008

“A highly regarded American baritone, a fine singing actor…”

-Los Angeles Times, February 18, 2008

“In his long-overdue company debut in his signature role of Iago, American baritone Mark Delavan serves as dramatic focus, from his first, dark, poison-tipped tones onward and downward.”

-Daily Variety, February 19, 2008

“…American baritone Mark Delavan as Iago. …his singing was the evening's most robust, his crisp diction especially laudable.”

-Musical America, February 19, 2008

“One of the most evil roles in all of opera belongs to Iago, the master schemer who orchestrates the eventual demise of both Otello and Desdemona. Mark Delavan, too, makes his Company debut in Los Angeles and proves substantial in weaving his macabre magic…”

-ConcertoNet.com, The Classical Music Network, February 16, 2008

“Mark Delavan's Iago is an evil puppet master hiding behind his smooth, urbane vocalism. Iago is one of Verdi's few completely evil characters with no redeeming value whatsoever. Delavan revealed the evil of Iago in all its terrifying power. ‘Era la notte' was sung intimately, soto voce as written, with some insinuating inflexions of the text – this Iago is wholly in command of his evil purpose.”

-Classical Voice: Los Angeles Opera Notes, February 24, 2008

“For this performance, the opera might as well have been called Iago. Both vocally and histrionically, Mark Delavan was the strongest member of the cast. He was a full-blooded villain who sang with robust dark tones and appeared to glory in his wickedness.”

–Ensemble, March 2, 2008

“I was most impressed by Mark Delavan as Iago. Fearlessly determined to not be dominated by his illustrious counterparts, the brawny and muscular Delavan sang with a thrilling and robust baritone voice – ‘I am evil because I am man.' His virile presence reflected in both his charismatic acting and rich sound is what moved the production forward.”

–LA2DAY.COM & Daily Trojan (Student Newspaper of USC), February 2008

“…the LA Opera production of Verdi's Otello currently on stage through March 9 is worth seeing. …The one true vocal star of the evening was Mark Delavan who grabs the stage from all parties in his wake throughout and received the most admiration from the audience.”

-Out West Arts: Blog, February 27, 2008