MOTTI KASTÓN, baritone, was born in
Tel- Aviv, Israel. After serving in the
Israeli army, he studied voice in the
Rubin Academy of Music, Tel-Aviv
with Raffaele Arié and at the
Manhattan School of Music with
Marlena Malas. In 1987, he was
chosen by James Levine for the
Met Young Artists Program,
where he worked for 3 years.
He became a member of the
principal ensemble, where he
sang roles in 'Barber of Seville',
'Andrea Chenier', 'Salome', as
well as Germont in 'La Traviata'.
In 1989 he gave the world premiere
of Leonard Bernstein's 'Arias and
Barcaroles', with Berstein himself
and Michael Tilson-Thomas at the piano.
He won first prize in the Pavarotti International
Vocal Competition, the Palm-Beach international vocal
competition, the Opera America London Sullivan Award
as well as a privat studies grant by Regina Resnik.
In 1991, he came to the Staatsoper Stuttgart, where he has established himself as a leading member of the ensemble. He has sung roles such as Wolfram, Rodrigo, Germont, Rossini's Figaro, Graf in 'Figaro's Hochzeit', Silvio, Ezio in 'Attila', Dandini, Roderick in Debussy's 'La Chute de la Maison Usher', Marcello, Ottone in 'Poppea', Donner, Camoens in 'Don Sebastiano', Sprecher in 'Die Zauberflote', and many more.
Guest engagements have taken him to the Montpellier Festival as Monteverdi's 'Orfeo' (under Ingo Metzmacher), Paris at the Opera Comique and the Theatre des Champs Elysees as Alphonse in 'La Favorite', Teatro la Fenice and Frankfurt Opera for Rossini's Figaro, The Houston Grand Opera for Enrico in 'Lucia', The Semper Oper Dresden for Marcello in 'La Bohème', the Metropolitan Opera for Wolfram in 'Tannhauser', and most recently Marcello at the Met in the Park series in June 1999. In his homeland, Israel, he has sung Dandini in the Del Monaco-Alberto Zedda production of 'La Cenerentola', and Ford in 'Falstaff' conducted by Maestro Gabriele Ferro, both with the New Israeli Opera. He has recently sung Ottone in 'Poppea' in Hannover for the Expo 2000.
His numerous concert engagements include,Britten's War Requiem with Musica Sacra of NY, the Bloch sacred service with the Staatskapelle of Berlin under Asher Fisch, Mendelssohn's 'Walpurgis Nacht' with the Berliner Symphoniker, Carmina Burana in Taormina with Gabriele Ferro and the Accademia Santa Cecilia, as well as in Lisbon, Berlioz 'Les Nuits d'Èté' with Stephen Sloane and the Bochumer Symphoniker. He has recorded Busoni's 'Goethe Lieder' with RSO Berlin for Radio Deutschland and sung numerous Lieder recitals with Eytan Pessen and Peter Schrottner as his main accompanists. Most recently, he has sung a programme of Zemlinsky, Mahler's 'Kindertotenlieder', and Brahms' 'Vier Ernste Gesaenge' at the Staatsoper Stuttgart in January 1999.
