Even among singers, this one’s pretty swift: Fox Island baritone Charles Robert Stephens, who was scheduled to be one of the four soloists for Tacoma Symphony’s annual performance of the “Messiah” Friday night, has bumped them at the last minute to fill in for an ailing Sanford Sylvan with Seattle Symphony. Tacoma baritone Barry Johnson has agreed to stand in for Stephens in Tacoma.

The soloist roles for the “Messiah,” Handel’s beloved oratorio telling the Christmas and Easter stories through aria and chorus, are vital to the success of a performance. Baritone arias include the famous earthquake recitative, the …

Read more »

Baritone Charles Robert Stephens is one of my favorite local singers: His rich yet clear voice is regularly heard around Puget Sound, and his Mahler “Songs of a Wayfarer” with Second City Chamber Series a few years ago was a thing of beauty. This Friday he performs love songs of Brahms and Schumann, as well as selections from Viennese operetta, for “Lieberabend,” a benefit concert for  Agnus Dei Lutheran Church in Gig Harbor.

Stephens, about whom I wrote two years ago, gave up a flourishing 20-year opera career in New York when the events of 9/11 caused him …

Read more »