Opera Lafayette - Robert Breault

Robert Breault enjoys an international career that encompasses opera, oratorio, recital, and concert work. His warm and flexible tenor voice and dramatic acting skills account for his enthusiastic reception and re-engagements wherever he performs. The San Francisco Chronicle called his voice “a tenor of unwavering resonance.” The Washington Post noted, “Breault’s voice has a powerful character with a sturdy range.”

In the 2004-2005 season Mr. Breault makes his New York City Opera debut as Alfredo in La Traviata, a role he also sings with New Orleans Opera. In addition Mr. Breault performs the role of Steva in Jenufa with Utah Opera, Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor with Chautauqua Opera, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Tucson Symphony, Plump Jack with the Puerto Rico Symphony, Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with the Morman Tabernacle Choir, Roland in Esclarmonde with Washington Concert Opera, Creation with the Virginia Symphony and Messiah with the Jacksonville Symphony. In the 2005-2006 season Mr. Breault debuts as a soloist with the San Diego Symphony in Elijah, Beethoven Symphony No. 9 with the Delaware Symphony, Puccini’s Messa di Gloria with the Santa Fe Symphony, sings Don Jose in Carmen with New York City Opera and Arizona Opera and Alfredo in La Traviata with Fort Worth Opera. Mr. Breault will sing Almaviva in Il Barbiere di Siviglia with New Orleans Opera in 2006-2007.

Engagements in the 2003-2004 season included the leading tenor role of Célestin de Pontalba in the world premiere Thea Musgrave’s Pontalba: A Louisiana Legacy with New Orleans Opera, a return to Chautauqua Opera for a sixth consecutive season for the title role in Verdi’s Steffelio, his Opera Grand Rapids debut as the Count Almaviva in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Messiah with the St. Louis Symphony with Itzhak Perlman, David Daniels and Heidi Grant Murphy, Verdi’s Requiem at the Elora Festival and with the Tucson Symphony, Elijah with the Virginia Symphony and the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, Mount of Olives with the Florida Bach Festival, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Cleveland Orchestra.

In the 2002/2003 season, Mr. Breault performed Orff’s Carmina Burana with Conspirare (TX) and the Houston Masterwork Chorus; Handel’s Messiah with the Edmonton Symphony and with the Eugene Concert Choir; and Haydn’s Creation and Bach’s B Minor Mass with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. He also sang Creation with the Winter Park Bach Festival and Eugene Concert Choir. With Utah Symphony and Opera he performed Weill’s Seven Deadly Sins and with the Vancouver Bach Choir, Gounod’s Missa Solennelle. He also appeared as Tom Norman in Petitgirard’s Joseph Merrick dit “Elephant Man” with Opéra de Nice, as Count Almaviva in Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia with the Madison Opera and as Rodolfo in La Bohème with Chautauqua Opera.

His performance of Christ in Beethoven’s demanding Christus am Olberg with San Francisco’s Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra received unanimous critical acclaim. The San Francisco Chronicle called his, “a heroic Jesus, his clarion tenor registering with precision and emotional vigor”. Robert Commanday wrote: “Beethoven endowed Jesus with great humanity, a role as heroic and impassioned as Florestan, but much more varied, interesting and extensive — actually it’s bigger. That is how the exceptional tenor in this performance, Robert Breault, felt and sang it. Drawing on his voice’s unusual palette of color, range of tone and clarity, Breault launched the opening recitative, “Jehovah, du mein Vater!” with an insistency that kept growing to the climactic final outcry, “erbarm’ dich mein!” (“Have pity on me!”). His voice surged to a roaring fortissimo, a level he would match in the second recitative just before the assertion “not my will but Thine be done.” Then again, just before the concluding chorus, he cut loose, Jesus as heroic preacher thundering, “Defeated is the power of hell.”

Active as a recitalist, he performed the world premiere of Jeffrey Price’s Stundenbuchlieder (Rilke) along with Janacek’s Diary of One who Vanished in October. His performance with the Utah Symphony and Mormon Tabernacle Choir (Keith Lockhart conducting) in Vaughan Williams’ Hodie was broadcast nationally on most PBS stations.

Mr. Breault made his European Debut in Paris singing DeMars’ American Requiem and since then has performed in most of Europe's grand concert venues including London's Royal Albert Hall and St. Peter's in Rome. Mr. Breault has appeared with many of North America's finest orchestras including the San Francisco Symphony, Montreal Symphony, Washington's National Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Utah Symphony, Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Florida Philharmonic, Milwaukee Symphony, Utah Symphony, L' Orchestre Métropolitan du Grand Montréal, the Hamilton Philharmonic and the Toronto Symphony and Mendelssohn Choir. He has appeared with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra under Nicholas McGegan in performances of Handel's Messiah, Hercules, and Solomon. He sang the demanding role of Argirio in Rossini’s Tancredi with the Opera Orchestra of New York at Carnegie Hall 1997. Other concert appearances at Carnegie Hall include Rossini's Armida, and Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, Messiah, Mendelssohn’s Second Symphony, and Mozart’s Requiem.

Mr. Breault's opera engagements include numerous performances with the Atlanta Opera including Verdi's Macbeth, Nabucco, and La Traviata, Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier, Gershwin's Of Thee I Sing, and Puccini's Turandot. His many roles with Utah Opera include Britten's Turn of the Screw, Prodigal Son, and Verdi's Falstaff. Mr. Breault has appeared with Madison Opera, Michigan Opera Theatre, Canada's Opera Atelier, Hamilton Opera, Chautauqua Opera, and has toured with the San Francisco Opera Western Opera Theater.

Mr. Breault's recording credits include Laurent Petitgirard's World Premier recording of The Elephant Man with The Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, Haydn's Lord Nelson Mass with the Choeur St. Lawrence and Montreal Symphony, DeMars' American Requiem with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Berlioz Requiem with the Jerusalem Symphony and Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and three volumes of Pachelbel's Organ Works as the cantor with organist Marilyn Mason.