With John Adams’ “Nixon in China” slated for this year’s The Princeton Festival, it is with sadness and a bit of a shock that I learn of the death of baritone Sanford Sylvan. Sylvan created the role of Chou En-Lai. In fact, he was the champion of much new music, a very fine lieder singer, excelling in Schubert and Fauré, and a memorable participant in imaginative updatings of the Mozart-Da Ponte operas, directed by Peter Sellars, that were widely seen thanks to showings on PBS. He also sang in the world premiere of the Philip Glass-Robert Moran Grimm’s fairy tale collaboration, “The Juniper Tree.” Apparently he died of a respiratory ailment. Sylvan was only 66 years-old.
His obituary in the Boston Musical Intelligencer:
Sylvan sings Bach’s “Ich habe genug:”
As Figaro in Peter Sellars’ production, set in the Trump Tower!
In “Nixon in China” (Sylvan appears at around the 3 minute mark):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rVfZlNXwtU
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