Arnold Rawls has delighted audiences with his unique combination of vocal and dramatic skills in performances ranging from art song to opera. He has been hailed for having a powerful, clarion-sounding tenor, a firm, pliant lyric tenor with ringing high notes, as well as a flair for acting.
Future engagements include a.o. Captain Ahab/Moby Dick at Polish National Opera in Warsaw in May 2017.
Recent engagements include Das Lied von der Erde with Hangzhou Symphony Orchestra in March 2016, his debuts with the Opera Company of Philadelphia as Verdi’s Otello and with Oper Franfurt in a double bill of L'Oracolo by Leoni and Le Villi by Puccini as well as Apollo in Strauss' Daphne. Mr. Rawls had return engagements with Seattle Opera as Foresto in Attila and Bacchus in Ariadne auf Naxos, Calaf in Turandot with Arizona Opera and he returned to Austria for the Bregenzer Festspiele as Radames in Aida as well as the title role in Andrea Chenier. In the summer 2014 Mr. Rawls performed Walther in Die Meistersinger in Seattle.
The 2009-2010 season found Mr. Rawls singing the role of Radames in Aida with Bregenzer Festpiele in Austria, Manrico in Il Trovatore with the Seattle Opera, Bacchus in Ariadne auf Naxos with the Indianapolis Opera, Turiddu and Canio in Cavalleria rusticana & Pagliacci with the Pensacola Opera, and Erik in Der fliegende Holländer with the Madison Opera.
In April 2011 he made his MET debut as Manrico in Il Trovatore substituting an indisposed Marcelo Alvarez, having huge success.
His repertoire also includes roles such as Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly, Cavaradossi, Riccardo in Un ballo di maschera, Sam in Susannah, Des Grieux in Manon Lescaut, Alfred in Die Fledermaus, Don Jose in Carmen, the Duca in Rigoletto and Dick Johnson in La fanciulla del West.
His concert repertoire includes Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Mozart's Requiem, Beethoven’s Missa solemnis, Handel's Messiah, Rossini's Stabat Mater, Schumann's Requiem, Verdi’s Requiem and Puccini's Messa di gloria.
