From a sample of YouTube comments posted beneath one of several videos that capture tenor Stephen Costello in ardent voice:
"Stephen is wonderful! Looking forward seeing his performance in Romeo et Juliette!"
"Romeo? Where? If at all possible, I want to get there!"
"I found it! Romeo ... Baltimore Opera ... 4 performances ... Tickets are available. I have a strong feeling that I'm going."
"Yes! I'm very excited to see him! Glad you found it!"
Just one little example of the buzz Costello is generating.
There's also a stack of raves from his season-opening Metropolitan Opera debut last September in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor. He was in a secondary role, but the press and music blogs singled him out.
"I can give you the musical highlights in one sentence," wrote Marion Lignana Rosenberg. "Stephen Costello as Arturo sang beautifully, with gleaming, compact tone and jaw-dropping confidence."
Met music director James Levine offered his vote of confidence by moving Costello into the principal tenor role of Edgardo in Lucia for a performance later in the production's run.
Local audiences will get their first earful of the handsome, slender tenor when he makes his Baltimore Opera Company debut this weekend. It's also his debut in the role of the male half of the most iconic star-crossed couple, Romeo and Juliet.
Respectfully adapted from Shakespeare's play, the 1867 opera Romeo et Juliette by French composer Charles Gounod provides a rich vehicle for singers, especially those who can convincingly portray romantic teenagers in Renaissance Verona.
"I'm getting married in September, and I'm also young," says Costello, "so I have an idea of what it's like for Romeo."
Dressed in elegant black and sporting a dynamic hairstyle, the 26-year-old, Philadelphia-born, -raised and -based tenor gently twists a woolen scarf as he talks about Romeo at Juliette. "It's a great opera," he says. "And the director, Bernard Uzan, really knows how to make it work."
For the tenor, the Tomb Scene is particularly rewarding, yet also challenging. "That's where you really get a chance to act," he says.
Costello, who has been singing a great deal of Italian opera lately, relishes the switch to French and is mindful of the tests posed by Gounod's score. "My job is to make it fit my voice. I don't want to get too dramatic and push, so it's hard to sing," the singer says.
It was back in high school that he started on a vocal path. "I played trumpet for 12 years, but I joined choir in high school and kind of got into it," he says. "Then I sang in a musical and figured I'd give that a shot. I auditioned for AVA [the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia] and got in. I always had a classical-style voice. It wasn't Broadway or jazz. I figured opera was my niche."
Costello has been guided by one of the most respected voice teachers in the country, Bill Schuman, whose students have ranged from pop star Michael Bolton to Italian tenor Marcello Giordani (who sang Edgardo in Lucia the night Costello made his debut at the Met).
Have singers of the past, preserved on recordings, also influenced Costello?
"Yeah, totally," he says. "Jussi Bjoerling is a definite. Giuseppe di Stefano, to hear how he uses the text. Franco Corelli, for the sheer enjoyment of the sound it. In his [recording of Romeo et Juliette], the French is all over the place, but, oh my God, it's so exciting."
Costello, who will be taking on several new roles next season, including Alfredo in Verdi's La Traviata, is mindful of vocal burnout cases among young singers. "It's all about pacing," the tenor says. "Every decision I make is with a team of people I have behind me."
Meanwhile, except for splitting a treasured new pair of pants rehearsing the sword fight scene ("That really made me mad"), Costello is having fun with Romeo et Juliette. And with Baltimore.
"It's an up-and-coming city, like Philadelphia," he says, "which is why it feels nice coming here."
tim.smith@baltsun.com
"Romeo et Juliette" will be performed at 8:15 p.m. Saturday and April 4, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, and 3 p.m. April 6 at the Lyric Opera House, 111 W. Mount Royal Ave. Tickets are $46-$132. Call 410-727-6000 or go to baltimoreopera.com.