Corona Serenades: Q&A with Bruno Roy, Baritone (CANADA)

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Meet Bruno Roy, baritone for Corona Serenades

How has Covid-19 affected you?

Like many of my colleagues around the world it meant hitting pause on a few exciting projects and travel plans. It meant a lot of time at home, taking a break from the busy fall that I had and focusing on other avenues than classical singing.

Since my partner and I moved to Vancouver Island, I often bemoan the fact we live far away from our friends and colleagues in Montreal, Toronto and Frankfurt. Although we are in the midst of a public health crisis it was definitely a silver lining to reconnect with friends more regularly and have the time to catch up via phone calls and video hangouts.

While at home I have also started to study web design (HTML/JavaScript) in addition to discovering a fondness for socially distanced disc golfing.

What are your 5 favorite operas:

I have many favorites and I will have to admit that they can change from time to time, depending on what I am working on or my mood. I have always loved Verdi and his great baritone roles. So many good choices from his early Nabucco to his final opera Falstaff. For me Rigoletto is the go to: its opera’s greatest hits all rolled into one and is a story that is still very relevant in this day and age.

French opera also holds a special place in my heart and I hope to continue developing an affinity for this genre. Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande and Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette could not be any more different both also happen to be two of my favorite operas. Debussy’s dabbling in the operatic genre is groundbreaking to this day and Gounod’s Shakespeare inspired opera features gorgeous, lyrical melodies, some exciting stage combat and a huge involved chorus.

It would be hard for me not to include Mozart’s Da Ponte operas (Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni and Così fan tutte) which are absolute jewels of the operatic repertoire. I cannot wait to sink my teeth into Don Giovanni’s title role in Summer 2021.

One last one: La bohème….. Need I say more!?!

What are your dream roles?

This is always such a difficult question because there are so many operas that I have never heard (or even heard of) and there are also new ones written every year. Without a doubt roles such as Pelléas and Zurga(Pêcheurs de perles) are at the top of the list. I have found that roles often become favorites or “dream roles” once I have begun work on them or have performed them. For example, Marcello became a favorite of mine after I began work on it since it felt like a good fit vocally right away. Others grow on you like when I studied and performed the baryton-martin part in Claude Vivier’s Kopernikus, a modern opera notorious for its use of extended techniques.

My collaborators and mentors have been invaluable in helping me find the right repertoire and I couldn’t be more grateful for the moments where I’ve pushed into the unknown.

What movies, books, TV shows would you recommend?

For books I would recommend anything by Haruki Murakami. His trademark magical realism has always been a favorite of mine and I always look forward to his next book. I am reading There, There by Tommy Orange right now, a novel about the coming together of people from all different walks of life at the Oakland PowWow – it is a very interesting window into the modern life of the indigenous peoples of the American South West.

My partner and I have been watching the Studio Ghibli movies that have just arrived on Canadian Netflix; it’s been a treat to revisit some of these gorgeous animated masterpieces.

Why have you signed on to work with the Corona Serenades project?

When I was contacted by La Scena and heard about the project I felt compelled by the concept. I have been looking for a way to give back to my community in addition to finding something to act as a guide and placeholder for performance opportunities.

It’s a wonderful project that can bring a little lightness and music to an otherwise gloomy day and connects people together coast to coast while sharing our art with frontline workers and people affected by COVID-19.

Biography

A recent graduate of the Canadian Opera Company’s Ensemble studio program, Montreal-born baritone Bruno Roy received bachelor’s and master’s of music degrees from McGill University. During his time at the COC he 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, Marullo in Rigoletto and also appeared in The Nightingale and Other Short Stories.

Other recent credits include Marcello in La bohème (Highlands Opera Studio), Belcore in The Elixir of Love (Atelier lyrique de l’Opéra de Montréal and Opera McGill); John Brooke in Little Women and Count Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro (Opera McGill); Mercutio in Roméo et Juliette (Canadian Vocal Arts Institute) and L’Horloge/Le chat in L’enfant et les sortilèges (Opera on the Avalon).

This past season was marked by a german debut with Oper Frankfurt in Capriccio in addition to performing in many children’s operas (Hansel and Gretel, La bohème) and in concert with the company. In May 2019, he was the baritone soloist in Carmina Burana with the Ottawa Choral Society under the baton of Jean-Sébastien Vallée. Other recent credits include role debuts with Against the Grain Theatre, Baryton-Martin in Vivier’s Kopernikus and Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro.

Bruno is a Recipient of the 2019 Eva & Marc Stern Fellowship at SongFest.