BrandonCedel

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Bass-Baritone
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News

  • 25 January 2024

    A quartet of debuts with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk

    Read full article

Press

  • Handel - Hercules

    Komische Oper Berlin
    Mar 2024

    • Hercules, American bass-baritone Brandon Cedel, was perfectly cast, with sheer vocal power, especially impressive in the last scene where Hercules pleads for death to end his agony.

    • The title character was portrayed by the American bass-baritone Brandon Cedel . Like John Tomlinson (in the epoch-making recording of the work with John Eliot Gardiner, the English Baroque Soloists and the Monteverdi Choir), the sheer vocal power is impressive in this visually powerful display

    • The bass Brandon Cedel didn't have to shy away from the comparison with the Hercules statues , as he could not only boast visually but also vocally with powerful yet supple vocal material.

  • Handel - Rodelinda

    The English Concert Tour
    Nov 2023 - Dec 2023

    • With a weighty sound and color, he had the prototypical operatic villain voice, and it was marvelous to hear him lope through “Tirannia gli diede il regno” with precise and quick vocal footwork. As with all the singing, his mastery of the difficulties meant one heard the character’s scheming anger.

    • ...Christine Rice (Eduige), and Brandon Cedel (Garibaldo) were all fluent Handelians with clear, accurate voices and stylishly eloquent manners

    • Brandon Cedel’s focused energy as villain Garibaldo brought another dimension to the line-up

    • Dramatically sung (with piratic rolled r’s) by bass-baritone Brandon Cedel, Garibaldo is predictably excluded from the happy ending...

    • The bass-baritone, Brandon Cedel, had that rare deep voice that could hit all the notes perfectly and boom out loudly (and he had a lovely semi-comic manner as well, which suited his role as the truth-telling bad guy in the plot).

    • Brandon Cedel’s booming bass-baritone made him a perfect heavy-duty villain

  • Britten - A Midsummer Night's Dream

    Glyndebourne
    Jul 2023

    • "Brandon Cedel’s Bottom has many faces. At times, he is soft-grained and suddenly poetic. In the great Act three soliloquy, he floated unearthly high notes. Other times he was bullish and bursting with baritonal excess, like in the casting scene. His manifesting of this mutability is so important to the opera’s inner alchemy and Cedel did it with aplomb."

    • 'Brandon Cedel is a forthright Bottom, supported by a vividly characterised troupe of amateur actors, every one a joy.'

    • 'And I’ve seldom seen the Mechanicals’ scenes delivered with such comic finesse. Much of this is thanks to baritone Brandon Cedel’s charismatic Bottom[...]'

    • 'As Bottom, Brandon Cedel also has both vocal and acting chops, coming into his own with a good-humoured but, mercifully, not over-played Pyramus in Britten’s masterly, spoof-ridden opera-within-an-opera.'

    • "And for once the mechanicals’ play within a play doesn’t fall embarrassingly flat, perhaps because — with Brandon Cedel as an unusually rounded Bottom (psychologically, I mean) — they resist the urge to ham it up."

    • "Brandon Cedel played Bottom pretty straight, none too pompous, his bass-baritone occasionally on the lighter side, but catching the humour gently"

  • Mozart - Don Giovanni

    Atlanta Opera

    • "Conductor Jan Latham-Koenig and stage director Kristine McIntyre led a nearly ideal cast, beginning with Brandon Cedel’s Giovanni, which was dashing—to say the least—as evidenced by the breadth of his vocalism and the physicality that permeated his interactions with every other character. Cedel amped up his singing little by little as the evening progressed, providing fluid recitative, a sotto voce rendition of “Deh vieni alla finestra,” eventually delivering brash, emboldened singing just before meeting his ultimate demise at the hand of Leporello, played by Milanese bass-baritone Giovanni Romeo."

      • Opera News
      • 29 January 2023

    • "Bass-baritone Brandon Cedel’s Don Giovanni is appropriately arrogant and cavalier and his vocal performance impeccable. Soprano Mané Galoyan has a silken vocal delivery as Don Giovanni’s violated conquest. Their chemistry is palpable and Cedel is masterful at commanding the stage with a presence that seems to dwarf all those around him."

  • Mozart - Le Nozze di Figaro

    Glyndebourne
    May 2022

    • "...Brandon Cedel's imposing Figaro...Cedel took an early scenery glitch in his stride and dominated the opening act with a mellifluous display of bass-baritonal urbanity..."

      • Opera
      • 02 July 2022

    • "American bass-baritone Brandon Cedel is a brilliantly funny Figaro... Vocally though he was excellent throughout"

    • "They are excellently cast here — and extravagantly bewigged, shaggy Seventies-style. Brandon Cedel's warmly sung Figaro has a nice touch of vulnerability to add to his imposing stature"

    • "...Figaro, sonorously sung by Brandon Cedel, in excellent voice. Cedel is a formidable figure and gave us a larger than life barber underscored by some winning singing: there’s a touch of sugar in the higher register that contrasts appealingly with his oaky lower notes."

  • Handel - Hercules

    Handel Festival Karlsruhe
    Feb 2022

    • Brandon Cedel, a former member of the Frankfurt ensemble, brings in a cool, distinctive black bass baritone for Hercules.

    • With frightening presence and pithy baritone: Brandon Cedel...

    • Brandon Cedel equips Hercules with a profound and virile bass-baritone that gives the hero great authority.

    • In terms of acting and singing, the homogeneous ensemble delivers a virtuoso brilliant performance. They are all perfect: Brendon Cedel as the mighty Hercules...

    • As Hercules, Brandon Cedel pleases with clear diction and a rich, melodious voice...

  • Rossini - Il barbiere di siviglia

    Canadian Opera Company
    Jan 2020

    • Brandon Cedel is a booming Don Basilio, likely an accidental nod to the unmistakable speaking voice of a professional voice teacher.

    • Returning to the COC after his fine Colline in La boheme last season, American bass-baritone Brandon Cedel was a vivid Basilio, his “La calunnia” a highlight of the evening.

    • American bass, Brandon Cedel was steller in the role of Basilio, the music teacher ready to serve whoever pays him the most.

    • As Rosina's singing teacher and the brunt of many jokes Basilio (Brandon Cedel), Cedel really leans into the ridiculousness of the character to make his scenes that much more hilarious.

    • ...when the mischievous music teacher Don Basilio (Brandon Cedel) sings about how the spreading of gossip can take down an innocent man, it’s captured with visual flair in a clown-like sequence on top of a piano. (Pay attention to that piano: it contains many surprises.) But as fun as this production is, any staging of the opera needs decent singers and musicians to work. And it’d be hard to imagine a better cast than the one the COC’s assembled.

  • Handel - Rinaldo

    Glyndebourne Festival Opera
    Aug 2019

    • (…) and Brandon Cedel is superb as Argante, Armida’s henchman, making a highlight of their premature “triumph” duet.

    • (…) Brandon Cedel sang the role of Argante with a robust strength.

    • The (welcome) variety of the bass register was given tremendous martial heft by Brandon Cedel’s Argante, who could also be lyrical and surprisingly gentle when the occasion demanded.

      • Roger Parker, Opera
      • 01 October 2019