“The young and talented bass-baritone Douglas Williams” (Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times) with a “formidable stage presence” (Seattle Times) and “bass voice of splendid solidity” (Bernard Jacobson, Music Web International), which make him one of the most attractive singing actors of the new generation, will appear this weekend as soloist at the Christmas Gala, the last major event of the Festival Cultural Mazatlán 2023.
The Instituto Municipal de Cultura, Turismo y Arte de Mazatlán reserved the performance of Douglas Williams as a surprise for the Port’s public, special guest at the three performances of the Christmas Gala, on Friday and Saturday at 8 pm and Sunday at 6 pm at the Ángela Peralta Theater.
Douglas Williams has collaborated with leading conductors such as Helmut Rilling, Sir Neville Marriner, John Nelson and Christoph Rousset at such prestigious venues as Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, the Mozart-Saal in Stuttgart and the Alte Oper in Frankfurt.
In the long-awaited Christmas Gala produced by CULTURA, Williams will alternate with the Camerata Mazatlán, the Ángela Peralta Choir, the voices of the CMA Children’s Choir, under the baton of guest director Sergio Freeman; the Mazatlán Ballet Company, contemporary dance dancers from the EPDM and students from the Municipal School of Classical Ballet.
He trained at the New England Conservatory and the Yale School of Music. He has a repertoire that ranges from operas, concerts and musical theater. In this category he played Bobby Biberti in Manilow, the musical.
Bass-baritone Douglas Williams has made a name for himself in recent seasons in several starring roles, including Figaro in Figaro Night with Edo de Waart and the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra; Don Giovanni with Opera Atelier directed by David Fallis, and Nick Shadow in The Rake’s Progress with Barbara Hannigan and the Munich Philharmonic, all with great success. This season he continues his collaboration with Hannigan on Stravinsky’s Pulcinella, with Radio de France’s L’Orchestra Philharmonique, and a new production of Jonathan Dove’s mono-drama, The Other Eurydice.
In the 2011-2012 season, Douglas made his European stage debut at the Nice Opera singing the role of Orcone in Alessandro Scarlatti’s Tigrane; he reprized in New York a role he premiered as Tanglewood Fellow in Charles Wuorinen’s It Happens Like This; and he sang Compère in Virgil Thomson’s Four Saints in Three Acts with the Mark Morris Dance Group at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and Apollo in Purcell’s Apollo e Dafne for Pocket Opera.
Other recent appearances include Laurence in Gretry’s Le Magnifique with Opera Lafayette; Aeneas in Dido and Aeneas and Polyphemus in Handel’s Acis and Galatea, both with the Boston Early Music Festival; and his European debut at the Salle Pleyel in Paris in Purcell’s King Arthur, with Christophe Rousset and Les Talens Lyriques.
Douglas’ “magnificent sense of drama” (The New York Times) is as evident on the concert stage as it is in the opera. Highlights include Handel’s Messiah with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra; Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with the Cathedral Choral Society; Bach’s St. Matthew Passion for the Chicago Bach Project with John Nelson and Soli Deo Gloria and Bach’s St. John Passion with Les Talens Lyriques. He has appeared as a soloist with the Houston Symphony, the Biava String Quartet, the Carmel Bach Festival Orchestra.
Mr. Williams has also impressed in minor roles with major conductors, including Sciarrone in Tosca with Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic for the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, and Priest/Armed Man with Yannick Nézet-Séguin in Die Zauberflöte for Deutsche Grammophon with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.
Tickets are $350, $300, $250 and $200 pesos available at the box office. Tel. 669 982 4446 ext. 103.
