Ken Scicluna
baritone
Ken Scicluna has been active in the visual and performing arts scene from an early age in radio, theatre, TV and Cinema and also scripted, produced and directed three short films. Due to his versatility and technique Scicluna is equally at home in a main role from the Operatic repertory theatre, newly composed productions, forgotten works from the past retrieved from archives and in Broadway, Movie or light songs. Ken was the first ever Maltese singer to have studied at the Rimsky-Korsakov State Conservatory in St. Petersburg, Russia accepted in the class of legendary Kirov/Maarinsky tenor, Yuri Marusin. He also attended master-classes by Cheryl Studer, Sergei Leiferkus, Fabio Mastrangelo and Jennifer Larmore amongst others and worked with Helmut Rilling in Germany. Apart for countless recitals Ken sang several central roles in Opera and Oratorio alongside singers such as Dessi, Armigliato, Maisuradze, Martinucci, Marton, Guelfi, De Grandis, Gauci, Gallo, Ferrer, Alonso Padin, Molin, Granados, Chulkova, Vitali, Shesaberize, Terranova and Interisano and stage directors such as Gandini, Stinchelli, Cheristich, Teperberg, Matheson, Moxham, Castiglione, Schembri Bonaci and Van Eyck these including Rigoletto, La Traviata, Madama Butterfly, Otello, Don Carlo, Don Giovanni, Nozze di Figaro, Carmen, Cosi fan Tutte, Elijah, Prima la Musica poi le Parole, Patience, Ahmal and the Night Visitors, Aida, Manon Lescaut and Turandot in theatres in Russia, Italy, France, Germany, Israel, Spain and Malta. In 2008 Ken premièred Mussorgsky’s song-cycle Bes Solntsa (Sunless) in Malta, in 2010 organised the Camerata Summer Academy for Chamber Music at Manoel Theatre whilst the following year launched a series of lunchtime recitals at St. Paul’s Anglican Pro-Cathedral, Valletta. Amongst highlights of 2016 and 2017 he has appeared in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv in Israel making his debut as the Conte in Mozart's Nozze di Figaro and Gugliemo in Cosi Fan Tutte, performed in a series of recitals and awarded the Special Jury Prize in the second edition of an International Voice Competition in Jerusalem, was invited to the Opera Sostenibile Festival in Madrid, whilst in Malta he appeared as Zuniga in Bizet's Carmen, and performed in a solo recital in the International Spring Festival. In late 2017 he made his debut as the Colonel in Gilbert and Sullivan’s Opera Patience and later in Mendelssohn's Elias in Germany. In 2018 he appeared in a concert dedicated to the Bernstein Centenary with the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Wayne Marshall. For the Valletta 18 festivities, Scicluna opened the music season at Teatru Manoel as Hugo Pratt's famed character Corto Maltese in the World Premier of the Opera Una Ballata del Mare Salato by Dutch composer Monique Krus written exclusively for his voice. The Opera Swar was the first collaboration with Maltese composer Reuben Pace where he featured as the revolutionary Monk in the Opera Trilogy City of Humanity also written for him by the composer and later stepped in last minute as the Page in Menotti's Ahmal and the Night Visitors at Manoel Theatre. This followed with the romantic figure of Andrea in the centenary of Carlo Diacono’s Opera L’Alpino, in concert version with Brian Schembri as conductor and pianist. In 2019 he appeared in Aida in Santiago de Compostela, Spain and a concert dedicated to Verdi in Trieste, Italy. Ken made significant debuts in 2020/21 including Sharpless in Madama Butterfly in Northern Spain, Rocco in Beethoven’s only Opera Fidelio and as the Kaiser in Der Kaiser von Atlantis by Victor Ullmann which was the closing opera for ISOF. 2022 saw him playing/singing the role of the Monk in the first Opera ever filmed in Malta for the big screen in Reuben Pace’s The Island Fortress where he was also Production Designer and later as Cox in Sullivan’s first forgotten operetta revival of Cox and Box for TS. In 2023 Ken has premiered never performed versions of Giuseppe Camilleri’s arias from the Opera Monna Bianca and a duet by Antonio Nani from I Cavalieri di Malta organised by MAVC and the Ministry of Education and Culture and conducted by Christopher Muscat. He has very recently stepped in last minute to sing one of the principal roles, that of Von Flacken in the centenary concert version of Paolino Vassallo’s opera Edith Cavell at Pjazza Teatru Rjal conducted by Dario Salvi. It also saw his return to Teatru Aurora as the Commissario Imperiale in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly. He also sang the Genio del Male in Paolino Vassallo’s Amor Fatal in concert version in its centenary performance since its premiere in Bulgaria. Scicluna has travelled extensively around the globe and is fluent in six languages
'' ...as was Ken Scicluna's thrusting baritone as the zealous monk .......''
Yehuda Shapiro
on the World Premiere of City of Humanity Opera Trilogy-
Opera Magazine
Ye
''Scicluna is enthusiastic, serious and earnest, and I thought it a pity that he was scheduled to sing just two pieces....The voice has a very pleasant, warm timbre, as was proved in what turned out to be the best offering. This was Stradella's Pieta' Signore; poignant, reverential and full of penitential fervour, as well as fear of fire and brimstone: true to style and manner.''
Albert Storace
The Sunday Times
''This came across in all its sober, grave solemnity, a mood well-projected later by baritone Ken Scicluna in his rendering of the aria It is Enough from Mendelssohn's Elijah....In a completely different idiom, Ken Scicluna concluded the concert with Irving Berlin's perennial Christmas favourite, I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas.''
Albert Storace
The Sunday Times
Von Allem- Der Kaiser von Atlantis - Victor Ullmann
If you want a receipt - Patience -
Gilbert & Sullivan
Strada Stretta Adaptation of Beethoven's Fidelio
- duett Rocco, Fidelio -
When I first put this uniform on
Patience - Gilbert & Sullivan
Carlo Diacono's Opera l'Alpino
http://lalpino.free.fr/various.html
Lunchtime Live Recital Series
https://www.facebook.com/groups/184047865007513/
Si pel ciel (exc.) Otello - Verdi -