Dutch Baritone Ralph Jaarsma feels himself at home in different musical styles. He has sung main roles in modern opera’s, like Ullmann’s Der Kaiser von Atlantis in a.o. der Hamburgische Staatsoper, Turnage’s Greek in Vilnius, Stravinsky’s The Rake Progress (Nick Shadow) in Gent, Ayodhya (world premier) in Bangkok, Janacek’s The Cunning little Vixen in Kaiserslautern and Weill’s Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny in Amsterdam.
Ralph has also sung main roles in the classical repertoire, like Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro (Conte) in München, Puccini’s Il Tabarro (Michele) and Gianni Schicchi (Gianni Schicchi) in Bayreuth and Kaiserslautern, Verdi’s Rigoletto (Rigoletto and Ceprano) in Kaiserslautern and Lehar’s Lustige Witwe in Amsterdam. But Ralph has also sung different main roles in historical opera’s, like Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas and The Fairy Queen, both in Utrecht, Monteverdi’s Orfeo in Utrecht and Caccini’s Euridice in Gent. Not only in opera, but also in Songrecitals and Oratoriumconcerts can Ralph be heard.
For the past years, he has worked with some of the finest teachers and performers including Montserrat Caballe, Kiri te Kanawa, Thomas Allen, Sergei Leiferkus, Edda Moser, José Cura, Michael Kraus, Ann Murray, Graham Johnson, and John Bröchler. After his Bachelor and Master diploma’s at the Utrecht Conservatory with Henny Diemer, Ralph has completed his studies at the Flemish Operastudio in Gent. At the Utrecht Conservatory Ralph was also a member of the Operaclass of Monique Wagemakers and at the Amsterdam Conservatory he was a member of Udo Reinemann’s International Songclass with international teachers like Helmut Deutsch, Rudolf Jansen, Edith Wiens, Sarah Walker and Jadwiga Rappé.
Momentarily Ralph is coached by Renée Morloc and Walter Donati. Ralph is married and father of two sons (born 2013 and 2015).
The young baritone Ralph Jaarsma has a beautiful voice, good singing technique, limberness and breath control and gave an emotional interpretation of this cycle with a good touch of drama. In technical hardest song of this cycle Rückblick, the young soloist showed his excellent vocal qualities. Brabants Dagblad, Winterreise, 2007.
© Ralph Jaarsma