L'Opera :

"Randal Turner was a majestic Pharaoh.”

Randal Turner made his American debut in 2010 as Don Giovanni with Michigan Opera Theater. He later joined New York City Opera covering A Quite Place and returns to NYCO in the 2011-12 season to sing Philippe in the American premiere of Rufus Wainwright’s Prima Donna. Other North American engagements in the 2010-11 season included recitals in New York and San Francisco, concerts with the Indianapolis Symphony under Raymond Leppard and Don Giovanni with the Opera de Puerto Rico. In addition to covering Placido Domingo as Oreste in Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride at the Washington National Opera he  has been invited by Lorin Maazel to sing Figaro in Il Barbiere di Siviglia at the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing, China.

Mr. Turner has performed in several of the European opera houses, including: Opernhaus Zurich, Stadttheater St. Gallen, Landestheater Linz, Kammeroper in Vienna, Opera de Monte-Carlo, Stadttheater Bielefeld, Staatstheater Darmstadt, Opera di Roma, Teatro Regio di Torino and the Manoel Theatre in Malta.

In 2002 Mr. Turner made his debut as Escamillo in Carmen in Sassari, and shortly thereafter he performed Stanley Kowalski in the Italian premiere of André Previn’s A Streetcar Named Desire with Teatro Regio di Torino. He was invited back to Torino to perform Redburn in Billy Budd and portrayed Bottom in Britten’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ for the opera houses in Pisa, Lucca, and Livorno.

In 2003 he sang Marcello in La Bohème for Teatro Petruzzelli, Bari. In 2004, he began touring with the Piccolo Teatro Milano as Guglielmo in Cosi fan Tutte. In this production, the last work of director Giorgio Strehler, he performed in Bari, Madrid, Lyon, Recanati and Istanbul. In the following two seasons he sang 4 world premières -- Cantio by Vykintas Balkatas with the Münchener Biennale; the title role of Federico II by Marco Tutino for the Teatro Pergolesi in Jesi; Alexandre in La ville morte by Nadia Boulanger at the Academia Chigiana in Siena and the role of the Faraone in the new critical edition of Rossini’s Mosè in Egito for the Teatro Verdi di Sassari and later for the Teatro Del Opera di Roma.

In 2005 he performed the role of Cosroe in Handel’s Siroe for the Oper der Zeit Festival in Voralberg Austria. He returned to Italy for the title role of Don Giovanni at the Teatro Verdi, Pisa, later singing the Duke de Rothsay in Bizet’s La Jolie fille de Perth at the castle of Hallwyl in Switzerland. In 2008 he began as a guest artist with Staatstheater Darmstadt including such roles as Billy Bigelow in Carousel and Konrad Nachtigall in Die Meistersinger von Nürenberg.  

Mr. Turner is also in demand as a concert and oratorio artist. For the Festival Wien Modern, he sang Dallapicola’s Iob, with the Tonhalle Orchester Zürich he interpreted Suter’s Le Laudi, Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with the Camerata Strumentale Prato, and Szymanowski’s Stabat Mater with the Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI. He sang the rediscovered oratorio La caduta di Gerico of Hasse with the Orchester Musica Rara Milano. His oratorio repertoire includes numerous works by composers including Händel, Haydn, Mozart, and Bach.

Randal Turner was born and raised on a farm near Crawfordsville, Indiana, and currently lives in Zurich. He began studying music and ballet at the Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan. He then studied voice at Oberlin under Richard Miller and subsequently at Indiana University with Dale Moore and Margaret Harshaw and is a former member the International Opera Studio in Zurich.

Randal Turner is a resident of Zurich, Switzerland

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