Wes Discusses Video Game Music with MarcoMeatball

 
 

Wes recently appeared on MarcoMeatball’s YouTube Channel as part of his “Non-Gamer Reacts” series. They covered a range of topics from Resident Evil and Metal Gear Solid to programming video game music in the concert hall and changes in the American opera scene in the last several years. It’s a wonderful conversation between two old friends who first connected performing together performing in Previn’s A Streetcar Named Desire with Kentucky Opera. You can watch the whole episode here: Non-Gamer Hears Video Game Music: Robert Wesley Mason

Europeras 3 and 4 with Detroit Opera

Wes in rehearsal with Detroit Opera Gary L. Wasserman Artistic Director Yuval Sharon © Austin Richey

American Patriots

© Tom Lupton

Wes joins the workshop team as one of the soloists in a new theatrical song cycle developed by fellow University of Michigan alumna Samantha Williams, American Patriots. He will be performing the baritone track at the performances with Renegade Opera in October and Salina Symphony in January of 2024. Learn more at the American Patriots website.

”American Patriots is a theatrical song-cycle that captures the contemporary American zeitgeist from four vastly different perspectives: African-American, Native American, New American, and white Working-Class American. The show asks us to actively examine the way we think about race, class, and who this country is for; and to gain perspective into the lives of other Americans we may not have previously identified with. 

Featuring newly commissioned songs (texts taken from contemporary interviews of 50 Americans from across the Nation), American Patriots takes an unflinching look at the lived reality of American Ideals today. The five composers' unique styles create a dynamic auditory experience that reflects the diversity of this country: at times classical, jazzy, Broadway, funny, serious, and alarming, but always engaging and unexpected.

Touring in both a recital and chamber opera format, the minimalist production uses innovative staging, immersive aural design, and visual projections by local videographers to center an “intentional storytelling” process. The socially relevant content and representation of perspectives across disparate racial and socio-economic lines appeal to today’s audiences: a broad base of critical thinkers, activists, and adventurous consumers.”

Press Round Up for THE SHINING

 

© Corey Weaver

 

  • “Robert Wesley Mason was an articulate, explosive, first-rate Jack, with his dark, robust baritone and assured physicality.” -Opera News

  • “For Jack, here strongly sung and acted by baritone Robert Wesley Mason, Moravec provides music that becomes more jagged and discordant over the course of the opera, as Jack’s state of mind goes from hopeful to deranged.” -San Francisco Classical Voice

  • “Energetic baritone Robert Wesley Mason portrays Jack, and in addition to his passionate singing, he is tasked with acting a dramatic role that at first is a smiling, loving family man but that descends into rage.  He accomplishes the task.” -Berkshire Fine Arts

  • “In the leading roles, baritone Robert Wesley Mason and soprano Kearstin Piper Brown conveyed Jack and Wendy’s deepening plight with strong, shapely vocalism.” -San Francisco Chronicle

  • “Baritone Robert Wesley Mason as Jack Torrance has a powerful sound … and had impressive stamina for this marathon of a role; he was onstage for nearly all of the opera.” -The Opera Tattler

  • “Jack’s transformation from daddy to baddy was superbly and humanely characterized by Robert Wesley Mason.” -Aisle Seat Review

Wes to Debut as Jack Torrance in THE SHINING with Opera Parallèle

 

© Heather La Kor

 

“Opera Parallèle has announced a cast change for “The Shining.”

The company said that baritone Robert Wesley Mason will sing the role of Jack Torrance and bass-baritone Kevin Deas will sing the role of Dick Hallorann in the company’s upcoming West Coast premiere.

Mason will replace the previously announced singer Edward Parks, who, due to unforeseen changes in his performance schedule, has had to relinquish his participation in the production.

Deas will replace Aubrey Allicock who has regrettably bowed out due to a schedule conflict. The company also announced the spoken role of Danny Torrance will be shared by Bay Area child actors Tenzin Forder and Michael Thompson.

“The Shining” is based on Stephen King’s novel and will be presented in a new production. The opera will be performed three times on June 2, 3 and 4 at the Blue Shield of California Theater at Yerba Buena Center.” -Opera Wire

Wes Joins the 2022 American Song Institute as a Vocal Fellow with Artistic Director Thomas Hampson

“This four-day American Song Institute explores song by American composers through performance, research, and public engagement. Baritone Thomas Hampson serves as artistic director and clinician of the American Song Institute. A special focus will be the institute’s Fellows—a select group of eight young classical singers and two collaborative pianists (Vocal Fellows and Collaborative Piano Fellows). Each are current SMTD students at the University of Michigan. They will take part in an intensive and immersive experience of lessons, discussions, master classes, and a public performance with Mr. Hampson. An additional master class will feature eight undergraduate voice majors.”

You can listen to a recording of the fellow’s recital here on the Songs of American website. Wes’s selections included “Serenader” by Samuel Barber, “Night” by Florence Price, “Heavenly Grass” by Paul Bowles, and Clarence Cameron White’s “I’m So Glad Troubles Don’t Last Always.”

Music from Auschwitz

 
 

“Join the Museum of Jewish Heritage and the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance for Music From Auschwitz, a series of two evening concerts starting at 7 PM Eastern Time. The concerts will feature ten short musical pieces arranged by Polish political prisoners who were members of the men’s orchestra in the Auschwitz I camp. Using popular German hits of the 1930s and 40s, they arranged and orchestrated these tangos, waltzes, and foxtrots for a dance band that played Sunday concerts for the Auschwitz garrison near the camp commandant’s villa. The musical pieces were recently rediscovered in the archives of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Poland.

Led by conductor Oriol Sans, a University of Michigan student orchestra will perform the original musical pieces interspersed with lines, spoken by the singers, from testimonies and interviews with members of the Auschwitz I men’s orchestra after the war. Silent for more than seventy years, the voices and stirring melodies of those imprisoned at Auschwitz will be brought to life in the Museum’s Edmond J. Safra Hall.”

Wes Returns as Dax

 

Wes will be reprising the role of Dream Companions technician Dax, a role he debuted in the world premiere of Paterson and Cote’s Three Way with Nashville Opera, in Mostly Modern Projects & Cutting Edge Concerts New Music Festival. The festival will see the American Modern Ensemble in a program entitled “Kings, Giants and Robots,” with performances of Victoria Bond’s How Gulliver Returned Home in a Manner that was Not Very Direct, a new work by Hershel Garfein with words by Stanley Kunitz, and Robert Paterson’s The Companion, libretto by David Cote.

 

CAROUSEL with Pensacola Opera 2023

Having last appeared with Pensacola Opera as Hannah Before in As One in 2019, Wes will be returning to Florida for his third career run as Billy Bigelow in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel. “Closing our 40th Anniversary Season, this musical of operatic proportions comes to Pensacola in a visually stunning production from Virginia Opera and set designer Erhard Rom, directed by Broadway stage director Greg Ganakas. Richard Rodgers’s timeless score is full of favorite tunes, including “If I Loved You,” “June is Bustin’ Out All Over,” and “You’ll Never Walk Alone.” Carousel will be helmed by newly appointed Music Director Cody Martin, leading members of the Pensacola Symphony Orchestra and Pensacola Opera Chorus. Robert Wesley Mason and Katrina Galka star as Billy Bigelow and Julie Jordan, and 2021-22 Artist in Residence Imara Miles returns in the role of Nettie Fowler.” For more info click here.