West Bay Opera

Eric Coyne

Eric Coyne was featured last season with West Bay Opera as the patriarch Orgon in Kirke Mechem's Tartuffe, and has played key supporting roles with the company, including the Sacristan in Tosca, the magician Alidoro in Rossini's La Cenerentola, and both Crespel and Luther in Les contes d'Hoffmann. As a guest artist at Stanford University this April. Mr. Coyne was Sarastro in The Magic Flute. Last June, he created the roles of Aileen Wuornos' first victim and her judge in the world premiere of Carla Lucero's Wuornos, an opera based on the life of Aileen Wuornos, the serial killer still on death row in Florida, presented by the John Sims Center for the Arts at the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco.

In Europe, Mr Coyne has specialized in Mozart operas, appearing with Opera Piccola Bremen in Germany as Simone in La finta semplice, the twelve-year-old composer's very first opera buffa. In the Czech Republic he appeared as Leporello with both the City Opera of Ústí nad Labem and the Silesian State Opera of Opava, where he also played Samuel in Un ballo in maschera. He also sang Count Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro with the East Slovakian State Opera in Kosice.

Returning to the Bay Area, he appeared with Livermore Valley Opera as Sparafucile in Rigoletto and Dr. Bartolo in Rossini's The Barber of Seville, awith Bay Shore Lyric Opera Company in Capitola as Colline and as Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermoor and with the California Music Festival in Walnut Creek as Sarastro.

23 May 2002