Biography
Argentinean baritone and Jette Parker Young Artist, Germán E. Alcántara made his Royal Opera debut in the 2018/19 Season as Dancaïro (Carmen) and has also sung Baron Douphol (La traviata), Wagner (Faust), Dumas (Andrea Chénier) and Moralès (Carmen) for the Company. In the 2019/20 Season he sings Wagner on tour to Japan, and, on the main stage, Baron Douphol, Steersman (Tristan und Isolde), Prince Yamadori (Madama Butterfly).
Alcántara studied at the School of Music in Misiones, the National University of Cuyo-Mendoza, the
Maîtrise de Notre-Dame de Paris (under Rosa Dominguez) and the Reina Sofía School of Music in
Madrid (with Ryland Davies). He is currently studying for a PhD in Music and Performance at the University of Aveiro; and following singing training with Gary Coward and Rosa Dominguez.
His awards include Laureat in Queen Elizabeth Competition 2018, First Prize in the Concurso Bach Joven in Paraguay, Second Prize in the Concurso para Jóvenes Estudiantes de Canto Lirico in Buenos Aires, First Prize in the Concours Lyrique International ad Alta Voce in Paris and the Priz Artifex Proart in the Concurso de Zarzuela de Valleseco.
His opera repertory includes Uberto (La serva padrona), Aeneas (Dido and Aeneas), Juan Pedro (La rosa del Azafrán), Blas Infante (Elegia Granadina) and Alférez Real (Fiesta de Corpus Christi) in Argentina, Milord (L’italiana in Londra) with Le Parlement de Musique, Marcello (La bohème) and Don Giovanni with Escales Lyriques and Hermann and Schlemil (Les Contes d’Hoffmann) for Opéra de Metz.Alcántara’s concert repertory includes Mozart’s Requiem and Great Mass in C minor, Schubert’s Mass in G, Handel’s Messiah and Buxtehude’s Membra Jesu Nostri in Argentina, Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle with the Philharmonie de Paris and Mozart’s Great Mass in C minor for Rheingau Music Festival. He has recorded Misa Palatina with the Chamber Choir of the National University of Misiones.
Doctoral Project
Title
Cantocando: desafios do autoacompanhamento
Advisor
Co-Advisor
Abstract
Cantocando is an artistic research project that seeks to generate unconventional performative proposals exploring the practice of self-accompaniment applied to the nineteenth-century repertoire of singing and piano. Problematizing the dyadic relationships that permeate our views on musical practice (piano-singing, solo-accompaniment, among others), we explore from the double practice of playing and singing, or "cantocar", the vicissitudes and characteristics of the repertoire and the possibilities that provide its performative realization.
It is intended not to result in an arbitrary proposal for interpretation, or in a reconstruction of a historically informed practice, but rather the use of “cantocar” to develop new resources and interpretative modes in addition to generating, for both the artist and the public, new experiences that evoke new scenarios, generate new spaces, programs and, perhaps, new musical material.
