West Bay Opera
William Neely
William Neely has been performing in the Bay Area since 1978,
appearing with West Bay Opera as Sharpless in Madama Butterfly,
Malatesta in Don Pasquale,
Scarpia in Tosca, Schaunard in La bohème,
Dr. Falke in Die Fledermaus, and Micha in
The Bartered Bride.
He has also appeared with Pocket Opera, Berkeley Opera,
Cinnabar Opera Theater, Berkeley Contemporary Opera, and
San Francisco Lyric Opera in such roles as
as Dr. Falke, Papageno, Escamillo, Germont,
the Marquis and the Jailer in Poulenc's Dialogues of the Carmelites,
Maurizio in Wolf-Ferrari's I Quatro Rusteghi,
Albert (Werther), Bartolo (Barber of Seville),
the Count (Marriage of Figaro),
the Traveler (7 roles) in Benjamin Britten's Death in Venice, and
Blazes in Peter Maxwell Davies' The Lighthouse.
He has sung over
thirty roles with the Lamplighters, performing most of the baritone leads
in the Gilbert and Sullivan repertoire as well as such roles as Danilo in
The Merry Widow, Bela in Czardas Princess, Agamemnon in
La Belle Hélène, and Sir Francis in
Where's Charley?
He has appeared as
soloist with the Midsummer Mozart Festival, Berkeley Symphony
(Manoury's 60th Parallel and Pfitzner's Palestrina),
San Francisco Bach Choir (Saint Matthew Passion),
the San José Symphonic Choir,
the Bay Area Lutheran Chorale (Bach's B minor Mass), and the
Valley Choral Society (Haydn's Creation),
and is a member of the San Francisco Lyric Quartet.
Mr. Neely holds a Master of Music degree from the University of
Colorado, and teaches voice at Napa Valley College and in his studio
in San Francisco.
18 Jan 2000
