VIDEO PODCAST: Slava Ukraini! - recorded on 24 February 2022, the day Europe woke up to the news that Vladimir Putin's Russian forces had invaded Ukraine. A fifty minute video which also features Caitríona O'Leary and Eric Fraad discussing their new film Island of Saints, and pays tribute to Joseph Horovitz, Malcolm Troup and Maria Nockin.
VIDEO PODCAST: James Ross and Eric Fraad discuss Streaming, Downloads and CDs with Maria Nockin, Mary Mogil, David Arditti, Gerald Fenech, John Daleiden, John Dante Prevedini, Lucas Ball and Stephen Francis Vasta in our hour-long May 2021 video.
Spanish baritone Francisco Kraus Trujillo was born in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria on 21 October 1926, the eldest child of Austrian-born Otto Kraus and a Spanish mother. He had a wide vocal range, and could sing up to a high B. His younger brother was the tenor Alfredo Kraus. Francisco and Alfredo studied initially with María Suárez Fiol, and later in Milan with soprano Mercedes Llopart.
Francisco Kraus made his debut in 1960 in Trieste, as Boyardo Chakloviti in Musorgsky's Khovantchina. He returned to Spain and spent four years singing Zarzuela.
He spent nine years in Venezuela (1978-1987), giving a series of concerts for radio and TV, and teaching vocal technique in Caracas. Then he continued to teach at the Gran Teatro del Liceu in Barcelona until he retired.
He returned to his hometown, and gave his last public performance there in 1996, and was awarded the city's gold medal.
He died on 27 February 2016, aged eighty-nine.