Opera singer Estes plans recital

Opera star Simon Estes has scheduled a Wisconsin Union Theater recital Friday, Feb. 18, at 8 p.m., to perform the Madison premiere of Wisconsin-born composer Lee Hoiby’s “I Have a Dream.”

Set to the text of the historic Martin Luther King Jr. speech, the piece will be the cornerstone of the evening’s program. Estes will also sing Schubert’s “Four Songs from Schwanengesang,” Brahms’ “Vier ernste Gesange,” several Copland pieces and a group of traditional spirituals.

Bass-baritone Simon Estes enjoys the enthusiastic praise of music lovers around the globe. In high demand as a recitalist and orchestral soloist, he appears regularly with the Berlin Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, New York Philharmonic and the Vienna Philharmonic.

Of the nearly 100 roles in his repertoire, he is most often associated with King Philip in “Don Carlo,” Wotan in Wagner’s “Ring Cycle,” Amfortas in “Parsifal,” King Marke in “Tristan und Isolde,” the four villains in “Les Contes d’Hoffman,” Escamillo in “Carmen” and Porgy in “Porgy and Bess.”

He has performed several times at the White House, appeared at the Inaugural Concert of the Kennedy Center as a soloist, and sang at both the 25th anniversary of the United Nations and the opening of the Olympic Games in Munich.

Estes appears at the Wisconsin Union Theater under the sponsorship of the Wisconsin Union Directorate Performing Arts Committee.

Tickets: $27 ($26 for union members; $13 for UW–Madison students), Union Theater Box Office, Memorial Union, 262-2201.