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Montreal-born Bruno Roy fills all the requirements of a great career: commanding stage presence, a squillante, youthful, wide-ranging baritone and a great personality. Over the last few years the 2015 graduate of the Canadian Opera Company’s (COC) Ensemble Studio has been steadily gaining momentum.
At the COC, Roy appeared on the mainstage as Second Priest in The Magic Flute, the Jailer in Tosca, as Louis Schmidt and Dr. François Roy in Louis Riel, Lamoral in Arabella and Marullo in Rigoletto. He also appeared in The Nightingale and Other Short Fables.
The COC allowed him an unprecedented opportunity for growth. He had little rest: performing, in masterclasses or receiving voice lessons and coaching. Roy admits sometimes losing perspective, trying to follow the latest vocal trick. In the end, he had to trust his instinct as a singer while also assimilating and discerning the vocal advice that yielded the best results.
“I think that most teachers are essentially trying to teach you the same technique,” Roy says. “They just have different ways to describe it.”He remembers the solid basics taught by his former teacher, Winston Purdy, at McGill. Although some singers try to separate technique from repertoire, for Roy, working on roles has also been a great vessel for vocal discoveries. “I still have many years ahead singing lyric roles before moving into anything dramatic,” he says.
In 2019, Roy made his German debut with Oper Frankfurt in Capriccio in addition to Hansel and Gretel and La bohème, and in concert. His experience of the artist’s life and culture in Germany envisions a possible return.
Recently, he was District Winner of the 2021 Metropolitan Opera National Council auditions, an experience that he qualified as surreal since the auditions where held online because of the pandemic. “I was singing one of the most important auditions of my life to a computer,” he joked.
“My goal for the next few years is finding stability again in my performance schedule.” With his background and high baritone, Roy sees a lot of French roles in his future.
Bruno Roy will perform Zurga in Jeunesses Musicales du Canada’s production of Bizet’s Les pêcheurs de perles on Oct. 19, 8 pm. www.jmcanada.ca. He is also a semifinalist in the 2021 Concours OSM available online on Oct. 25.
www.concoursosm.ca
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