Noah Stewart
Decca Records is thrilled to present the debut album from Harlem Tenor, Noah Stewart. It is hard to believe that only a few years ago Noah was a receptionist at New York’s Carnegie Hall, working to pay for his singing lessons.
He has of course, since then, performed on that stage and is now building a fine reputation as a fast-rising operatic tenor, equally accomplished in interpreting such core roles as Don Jose in Carmen or Rodolfo in La Boheme or pioneering new roles in contemporary opera.
But Noah also knows that there was a time when being an operatic tenor didn't just mean performing at the opera house, but could encompass all kinds of popular and traditional songs too. From Enrico Caruso to Luciano Pavarotti, history's classic tenors all had the popular touch.
"Mario Lanza was a huge idol of mine!" declares Noah, referring to the tenor who also became a Hollywood movie star and reached global audiences with a mix of music that included operatic arias, operetta, Neapolitan songs and popular standards.
"Lanza was really important because he was a legitimate singer who sang songs but also sang opera. He had tremendous vocal gifts, and he showed that in all kinds of music it's all about feeling and it's all about emotion."
How appropriate, then, that Noah should have recently won the Mario Lanza Competition for Tenors. And Lanza himself would surely have approved of the breadth of material that Noah has chosen to sing for his debut album for Decca, not least I'll Walk With God, which Lanza sang in the movie The Student Prince.
The disc includes fine renditions of the operatic arias Recondita armonia, from Puccini's Tosca, and Pourquoi me reveiller, from Massenet's Werther, as well as the enduringly popular Bach/Gounod version of Ave Maria. But it casts its net much wider too.
With inspirational input from producers and arrangers Steven Baker and Christian Seitz, the album also presents Noah's rich, resonant voice in the spiritual classic Deep River, and the traditional tunes Silent Night and Nearer My God To Thee.
When he was at high school, Noah gained some experience of the pop music industry when he sang backup for Mariah Carey at Madison Square Gardens and appeared on the David Letterman Show with rapper Coolio, so he had a feel for how to tackle pop standards like Nights In White Satin (with Italian lyrics) and Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah. There's also a visit to the movies with a stirring new arrangement of the theme from Exodus.
"When we were making the record it was at the time of the big uprising in Egypt, and sometimes you can pull inspiration from things like that going on around you.
"I remember writing 'Egypt' on my sheet music for Exodus because the impact was so profound. The arrangement is epic and exciting, and I got to pour everything into it." (Noah Stewart)