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Biography

When actor Mark Coles opens his mouth and starts singing 'Ol' Man River', I get goosebumps on my arms. The hairs on my neck rise. It's a song I've heard so many times, but never with the passion he gives it. Restored to its context, it's a protest song that is quite profoundly moving.
- Guardian, London

Mark Coles sang the role of "Joe" in Raymond Gubbay's production of Show Boat, the first fully staged musical ever to be performed in the Royal Albert Hall in London, in June, 2006 with Francesca Zambello as director and David Charles Abell conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

He began his professional career after winning the first prize in the Metropolitan Opera Auditions in San Francisco. Mark was then invited to join the San Francisco's 1985 Merola Opera Program, and for the San Francisco Opera Center sang Leporello in the Western Opera Theater tour of  Don Giovanni. Solo appearances on the stage of the San Francisco Opera have included Starek ( Jenufa 1986) and Hans Foltz ( Die Meistersinger 1986), and an appearance in the video production of La Boheme , 1988.

Mark returned to San Francisco Opera in Fall, 2003 to sing the Old Convict in Johannes Schaaf’s production of Lady Macbeth from Mtsensk conducted by Donald Runnikles after a successful debut as Sarastro ( The Magic Flute -Lacy/Supple) with Opera North in Leeds, England. San Francisco saw him again as the Sacristan ( Tosca ) in the Fall of 2004 and Nourabad ( Pearl Fishers ) in the Summer of 2005.

In January of 2004 in Lyon and Geneva he created the role of the Missionary in the world premiere of Les N è gres (Gean Genet) composed by Michael Levinas, conducted by Bernhard Kantarsky and directed by Norday Stanislas.

As a finalist of the Belvedere Opera Competition 1988 in Vienna, Mark was invited to make his European Opera Debut as Arnold in Hans-Werner Henza's The English Cat released on Wergo CD, followed by Bartolo in the Berliner Kammeroper's production of Paisiello's Il barbiere di Siviglia . A member of the  Stätische Bühnen Münster from 1990-1998,  he sang a wide range of roles including Daland ( Der fliegende Holländer ), Sparafucile ( Rigoletto ), Henry VIII ( Anna Bolena ), Bartolo ( Le nozze di Figaro ) and Don Pasquale , as well as Audry II in Little shop of Horrors , and the title role in Sweeney Todd . 

Engagements since 1998 include Banquo in Macbeth (Coburg and Passau), Sparafucile (Aachen, Mannheim, and Coburg) the bass soloist in Schostakovich’s 14th Symphony with Maestro Hiroshi Kodama . Mark returned to Münster as Zuniga in Carmen and as Charlie in Also Wolves have Heartattacks (a fusion of three Kurt Weil pieces: Mahagony, The Lindenburg Flight and the Berliner Requiem) directed by Lorenzo Fioroni, and Joe in Showboat (Copenhagen, Aarhus and Bern).

Repertoire

OPER	Role	Komponist
PDF Print
Der Fliegender Holländer	Daland	Wagner
Falstaff	Pistol	Verdi
Il Trovatore	Ferrando	Verdi
La traviata	Dr. Granvil	Verdi
Macbeth	Banco	Verdi
Rigoletto	Sparafucile	Verdi
Eugene Onegin	Gremin	Tchaikovsky
Lady Macbeth from Mzensk	Old Convict	Schostakowitsch
Il Barbiere di Siviglia	Basilio	Rossini
Salome	1.Nazarener / 1. Soldat	R. Strauss
M. Butterfly	Bonze	Puccini
Tosca	Sacristan	Puccini
Cosi fan tutte	Don Alfonso	Mozart
Don Giovanni	Leporello	Mozart
Die Zauberflöte	Sarastro	Mozart
Don Pasquale	Don Pasquale	Donizetti
Anna Bolena	Heinrich VIII	Donizetti
Don Pasquale	Don Pasquale	Donizetti
Der Leuchturm	Officer 1/ Arthur	Davis
Pearl Fishers	Nourabad	Bizet
Carmen	Zuniga	Bizet
	Musicals
Show Boat	Joe	Kern
Sweeney Todd	Sweeney Todd	Sondheim
Der kleine Horrorladen	Die Pflanze	Menken
Andere Rollen	Rolle	Ort
Jenufa	Starek	San Francisco Opera
Die Meistersinger	Hans Foltz	San Francisco Opera
Don Giovanni	Leporello	Western Opera Theater
Barbier von Seville (Pasiello)	Dr. Bartolo	Berliner Kammeroper
The English Cat (Henze)	Arnold	Hebbel Theater(Berlin)

PRESS

TOSCA...There were strong contributions in the smaller roles, especially by the formidable Adler Fellow Joshua Bloom, who brought vigor and vocal muscle to the part of Angelotti. Mark Coles was an avuncular Sacristan, playing the role more seriously than usual, and Anthony Laciura was a mustache-twirling Spoletta.
sfgate.com

TOSCA...Conductor Donald Runnicles opened the evening with a really crashing bang of those first few notes of the overture. I particularly liked the Sacristan of Mark Coles, not overdone as I've seen in other productions.
OPERA-L

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OLD CONVICT... "The rest of the cast was flawless, from Vsevolod Grivnov’s weasly Zinovy, Howard Haskin’s hilarious Shabby Peasant (who discovers the dead Zinovy after Katerina and Sergei have stowed the body in the cellar) and Mark Coles’ sonorous Old Convict to Jane Dutton’s slutty Sonyetka, who steals Sergei from Katerina."
Stephanie von Buchau, Alameda Times-Star,

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NOURABAD---Bass Mark Coles is impressive as Nourabad, the high priest who oversees Leïla
Opera Stanford Review

NOURABAD Bass Mark Coles, as the high Brahman priest who discovers the lovers in the clinch, projects a dignified dismay.
sfgate.com

NOURABAD Here are the people who get the credit for this voluptuous, eye pleasing production. Conductor Sebastian Lang-Lessing, Mark Coles (High Priest), Zandra Rhodes for her pop out costume colors), Ron Vodicka (Lighting design) - extremely effective, John Malashock (a Choreographer) for the new world and the engaging direction by Andrew Sinclair. Now, stand up and lets hear it for the profound chorus. Bravo, Bravo, Bravo!
BeyondChron

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Sarastro (The Magic Flute -Lacy/Supple) with Opera North in Leeds, England

Sarastro…and lending the opera's spiritual world a dignity for once tinged with realism, elegantly personified by Mark Coles's noble Sarastro. Anthony Holden - Sunday May 4, 2003 - The Observer

Sarastro - Equal plaudits to a strong supporting cast - Mark Coles as Sarasto is a commanding voice and physical presence
The Journal (Newcastle and north east) 22/5/2003

Sarastro…the sound-world it creates is simply sensational: Mark Coles has the magnificent, honeyed tones of an evangelical preacher…
Alfred Hickling – The Guardian - Saturday April 19, 2003

Sarastro - "The scenes of Sarastro's Brotherhood...were actually rather moving. This was mainly due to the translation which captured the right phraseology, and to the way the spoken dialogue was delivered by Mark Coles. He sang superbly..."
The Sunday Telegraph - Michael Kennedy

Sarastro...Supple alters the nature of Sarastro's cultish court by making its leadership black, as black as the villainous Monostatos, turning his followers into superannuated hippies, white men in suits who have dropped out of the rat-race in search of higher ethics. It's a clever conceit, defusing the racism which usually clouds Monostatos (Brian Green) and lending the opera's spiritual world a dignity for once tinged with realism, elegantly personified by Mark Coles's noble Sarastro.
The Guardian

Sarastro - Dark skin becomes representative of the forces of light, and the sound-world it creates is simply sensational: Mark Coles has the magnificent, honeyed tones of an evangelical preacher, while Keel Watson and Ronald Samm are exceptional as his two leading priests.
The Guardian

Mark Coles (Sarastro) was determined to take the maximum amount of time to deliver his smooth, smoky arias to full effect
By Anna Picard  The Independent 27 April 2003

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Joe in Showboat

Angela Renee Simpson makes a big impact as the warm-hearted Cotton Blossom's cook Queenie, especially in the doom-laden song Mis'ry's Comin' Aroun', and as her husband Joe, Mark Coles's dignified and moving delivery of 'Ol' Man River' brings the house down.
MusicOMH

The voices in this Raymond Gubbay extravaganza are mostly West End ones, but two are from the opera house. Mark Coles (Joe) starts "Ol' Man River" somewhere in the sub-basement, hauling up pity and terror with it, and Angela Renee Simpson (Queenie) is bewitching in the eerie "Mis'ry's Comin' Around", jolly and crispily articulate in her comic numbers. Under David Charles Abell, the Royal Philharmonic is powerful, subtle and lush.
The Independent

LINKS

Contact

• E-Mail
• Representation

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Opera Related

• Lyric Opera Studio in Weimar
• OperaStuff.com
• San Francisco Opera
• Opera North
• Stätische Bühnen Münster
• Hiroshi Kodama
• Musical Theater in Europe

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Web design

• Grafix Web Design
• CoffeeCup Software
• jQuery: the Write less, do More javascript library

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Essential Windows

• Annoyances.org
• Windows Startup Guide
• Troubleshooting WinXP
• Hoaxes and Truths

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• FAQ Farm

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