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The American bass-baritone, David Govertsen, holds degrees from Northwestern University (Master of Music degree in Voice Performance and Literature, Program Honors: Class of 2011), Northern Illinois University (Bachelor of Music degree in Music Education, Summa Cum Laude: Class of 2002) and the College of DuPage (A.A. degree, Honors Scholar: Class of 1999). He is also an alumnus of both the Santa Fe Opera and Central City Opera apprentice programs.
David Govertsen made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2011 as the Herald in Otello with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Riccardo Muti. He stepped in on short notice at Lyric Opera of Chicago where he "handsomely replaced the ill Peter Rose as the producer La Roche" opposite Renée Fleming and Anne Sophie von Otter in Capriccio (October 2014). Ge also appeared on short notice as Arkel in Pelléas et Mélisande with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Esa-Pekka Salonen (May 2015) and as a soloist in James MacMillan's Quickening with the Grant Park Orchestra (June 2015). A former member of the Ryan Center at Lyric Opera of Chicago (2011-2013), his other mainstage assignments have included roles in W.A. Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, Boris Godunov, Werther, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Madama Butterfly, and Charles Gounod's Roméo et Juliette. He returned to Lyric Opera of Chicago in the 2016-2017 season as the Sprecher in Die Zauberflöte (November-December 2016) and Priam in Les Troyens (December 2016-January 2017).
David Govertsen created the roles of David/Bonobo in Matthew Aucoin's new opera Second Nature for Lyric Opera Unlimited (October 2015). Other operatic highlights of the past season include a reprise of La Roche in Capriccio, at Santa Fe Opera (2016), 2nd Soldier and 5th Jew in Salome with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, (June 2016, conducted by Leonard Slatkin) and the title character in Cimarosa's Il Maestro di Capella with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra (November 2015). On the concert stage in the 2015-2016 season he appeared with the Madison Symphony, Fort Wayne Philharmonic, Bach Week Festival, Battle Creek Symphony, and Champaign-Urbana Symphony Orchestra, among others.
Locally in Chicago David Govertsen has performed dozens of roles, among them the title roles in W.A. Mozart's Don Giovanni, W.A. Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro, Don Pasquale, and Gianni Schicchi, the Four Villains in Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte, Colline in La Bohème, Basilio and Bartolo in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Don Magnifico in La Cenerentola, Zaccaria in Nabucco, Sparafucile in Rigoletto, Padre Guardiano in La Forza del Destino, Nick Shadow in Igor Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress, and Friedrich Bhaer in Little Women.
David Govertsen also worked as General Music Teacher at Park Ridge-Niles District 64 (2002-2009). |
