Dr. Otto Nicolai Bonaventura von Lyric was born in Bratislava. His mother was a famous ornithologist and his father a distant descendant of Emile Zola. He attended the Richard Wagner kindergarten in Bremen for “overachieving youngsters under 3”, the Beethoven Hochschule in Marseilles and the Giuseppi Verdi University in Modena. He studied singing, musical criticism, and riot control before making his operatic debut in Parma as Hans Sachs at age 19. He’s sung at all of the minor opera companies in Europe and America in such roles as Mephistopheles, Wozzeck and Radames to mixed acclaim. He served for a short stint as the music critic of the Lincoln, Nebraska Times-Union. He lives in an elegant converted factory warehouse in Braintree, MA uneasily sharing the space with his aging Russian wolfhound Amadeus.
Dr. von Lyric, has since retired from the stage and the world of newspapers and devotes his time to collecting musical curiosities on video, a mixture of the charming, extravagant, off-kilter, and sometimes deeply serious. He has agreed to share his collection exclusively with Boston Lyric Opera online and says:
“I hope this will bring a constantly changing and ever amusing perspective on the rich diversity of musical expression that exists out there in cyberspace. I consider myself a kind of 21st century flaneur, in the mode of Baudelaire. But rather than roaming the streets of 19th century Paris looking for, and recording, the unusual and the curious, I wander down the streets and byways of the Internet, seeking out (and bringing back to you), the sights, sounds, and impressions that intrigue me and hopefully will do the same for you!” - Dr. von Lyric
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