Charles Rosekrans

Charles Rosekrans brings expertise to both longstanding staples and newer additions within the operatic canon, leading performances of pieces by Wagner, Saint-Saens, Puccini, Verdi, and Mozart for ensembles that include the Westchester Hudson Opera, Opera Carolina, and the Houston Grand Opera, an affiliation that lasted seventeen years. Beyond core repertoire, his interests reach toward contemporary and uncommon scores, encompassing the world premiere of Thomas Pastieri's The Seagull as well as the initial professional staging in America of Ralph Vaughan Williams' folk opera Hugh the Drover. Additional podium duties have taken him before a wide array of orchestras, and he established the Houston Chamber Orchestra. On disc, his catalog features many first recordings, among them Cilea's L'Arlesiana and Mascagni's Lodoletta, together with the inaugural complete account of every variant and edition of Puccini's Madame Butterfly, which restores the previously undocumented 1904 premiere text.