SOUND BiTES: Mel Ulrich.(Brief Article)

MEL ULRICH, Fritz in this month's revival of Die Tote Stadt at New York City Opera, first tried singing that character's haunting serenade when he was "all of about twenty. I was studying with Frank Guarrera in Seattle then. He pulled this music out and said, `Could you just try this?' I did, and all I got out was, `O Mond, vernimm die screeeeeeeeech!' No high notes, no pianissimo, no nothing. Couldn't do it. But I knew how beautiful it was -- it gave me something to reach for. Now I [sing] that aria all the time, and I love it. You hear that thing in auditions everywhere. It's almost a lyric-baritone theme song!"

A former Adler Fellow at San Francisco Opera, Ulrich made his first big New York splash in the fall of 1998, when he replaced an indisposed colleague as Rossini's Figaro at NYCO and received excellent notices for his trim, elegant baritone and striking physical grace. Last season, Ulrich made his Met debut as Cascada in The Merry Widow, was named an ARIA award winner and created the mammoth title role in Minoru Miki's The Tale of Genji at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, an experience that ...