"The Baron was Brian Alvarado, the quintessential self-adoring snob, with a highly attractive legato."
-Parterre Box
With Lyrica Classic Brian performed US-Premiere of the oratorio "Requiem for the Fallen" by Emmanuel Dubois on October 2, 2019 at Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall.
BIOGRAPHY
Singing with ‘a liquid baritone of great charm,’ a ‘highly attractive legato,’ and ‘precise patter elocution’ (Parterre Box), Brian J. Alvarado performs a wide variety of known, unknown, and new vocal repertoire throughout the Northeast. Recently reviewed as an 'appropriately sardonic' Leporello in Bronx Opera’s Don Giovanni (Indie Opera Podcast), he looks forward to his return to dell'Arte Opera Ensemble as Padre Antonio in the East Coast Premiere of Carla Lucero's Juana, role debuts as Le Dancaïre in Utopia Opera's Carmen, Seneca in L'incoronazione di Poppea with Killer Queen Opera, and a role reprisal as Sciarrone in Tosca with New Rochelle Opera. He has additionally appeared in concert this season as a soloist with Empire Opera, Restore the Arts, and in the ensembles of Teatro Grattacielo at the Gerald Lynch Center, Lyrica Classic at Carnegie Hall, and in a Juilliard and NY Philharmonic co-production of The Mother of Us All at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Also in 2020, he appears on film with Camerataworks in Whitney George and Lila Palmer’s operatic short, Julie, and as Ben in the VideOpera When Falling… Dive.
In the current and in previous seasons, he has appeared most frequently in canonical roles such as Leporello in Don Giovanni with hometown companies Bronx Opera and Lighthouse Opera, as both The Magic Flute’s Papageno with Opera Theatre of Montclair and the Speaker with Barn Opera, Schaunard in La bohéme with Amore Opera, Regina Opera, and Opera New York, Dandini in La Cenerentola with Opera Theatre of Montclair and Bay View Music Festival, and Sciarrone in Tosca with Long Island Lyric Opera, and Amore Opera.
Early Music and Baroque credits include Nettuno in La liberazione di Ruggiero with dell’Arte Opera Ensemble (for which Oberon’s Grove praised his ‘voice of power and warmth’), Melisso in Alcina with OperaRox Productions, the Adonis cover in Venus and Adonis with New Camerata Opera, Caronte in L'Orfeo with the New York City Guitar Orchestra, and bass solos in Keiser’s Markuspassion with Nahant Music Festival, and in BWV 147 with the St. Peter’s Bach Collegium.
Roles within the realm of Operetta and Musical Theatre include the title role in The Sorcerer and Ludwig in The Grand Duke with Utopia Opera, Pish-Tush in The Mikado with Bronx Opera, a 'sonorous' Baron de Pictordu in Cendrillon with dell’Arte Opera Ensemble (Limelight Magazine), Cascada in The Merry Widow with the Minuetto Music Festival, Lopez in El Barbero de Sevilla with New Camerata Opera, Magaldi in Evita with Bay View Music Festival, Lieutenant Barri in Passion and Bob the Saw in Threepenny Opera at Susquehanna University, and the title role in Sweeney Todd with City Island Theatre.
Additional and local supporting role assignments include Mercutio in Roméo et Juliette with West Side Opera, Vergil’s Ghost in Rachmaninoff’s Francesca da Rimini with Garden State Opera, the Badger/Parson in Příhody lišky Bystroušky with dell'Arte Opera Ensemble, Kuno and Ottokar in Der Freischütz, and Corporal Nym and George Page in Vaughan-WIlliams’ Sir John in Love with Bronx Opera, Fiorello in Il Barbiere di Siviglia and Silvano in Un Ballo in Maschera with Amore Opera, Truffaldin in Ariadne auf Naxos, the Sheriff in Martha, Jacob in The Ballad of Baby Doe, and the Captain/Zaretzky in Eugene Onegin with Utopia Opera, Alcade and Chirurgo in La forza del destino with New Amsterdam Opera, and all of the bass clef comprimarios in Macbeth with Empire Opera.
He has originated the roles of Donald Wilkinson in Francine Trester’s chamber opera Keepers of the Light at the Nahant Music Festival, Billy Eckstine in Richard Thompson’s Jazz opera Sassy with Trilogy Opera Company at the NJPAC, Mark Greene in the Mozart-influenced micro-opera Transportation Transformation at WQXR/Greene Space's 10-year anniversary celebration, Rey 3 in the American premiere of Jose Luis Gonzalez Moya’s nativity opera El Rey Nacio, and the Murdered Man in Kris McCormick’s chamber opera In a Grove with the Susquehanna New Music Ensemble. He has additionally workshopped multiple roles in Cecil Price Walden’s The Contract Player, Nick Scarim’s Sick!, and Alicia Lieu’s Unwrapping Fortune, and covered the 90th birthday premiere of Thea Musgrave’s baritone monodrama La Vida es Sueño.
In concert, he has sung the bass solos in Handel’s Messiah (Susquehanna University Orchestra; Church of the Intercession), Bach’s BWV 147 (St. Peter’s Bach Collegium), Keiser’s Markuspassion (Nahant Music Festival), Haydn’s Missa Sancti Nicolai (Musikapiphany), Mozart’s Vesperae solennes de confessore (Continuo Arts Symphonic Choir), Schubert's Mass in G (Susquehanna University Choir), and Gounod’s St. Cecillia Mass (Collegiate Singers).
Chorally, he has sung in the larger ensembles of Teatro Nuovo, Teatro Grattacielo, New Amsterdam Opera, Orchestra of the Bronx, Civic Chorale of NJ, Continuo Arts Symphonic Choir, Collegiate Singers, and the Susquehanna University Choir, and with chamber ensembles including the St. Peter’s Bach Collegium, The Nahant Music Festival, Musikapiphany, Sonaré, and both Susquehanna University’s Chamber Singers and New Music Ensemble (SUNME).
Mr. Alvarado has been an Apprentice Artist at Teatro Nuovo, a Young Artist with dell'Arte Opera Ensemble, a Vocal Apprentice at the Nahant Music Festival, a Student Artist at the Bay View Music Festival, an Emerging Artist at the Minuetto Music Festival, and has participated in outreach performances with Bronx Opera, Opera Theatre of Montclair, and Prelude Opera. He has previously studied with mezzo soprano Sahoko Sato-Timpone, and baritone Jonathan Hays.
RECORDINGS
Starbuck's Aria
Nahant Music Festival. June 2019.
"Frühlingsstimmen" ("Voices of Spring"), Op. 410, by Johann Strauss II
Madamina, il catalogo e questo, Don Giovanni. March 2020.