Born in Arkansas, he is a graduate of the Juilliard School. A highly regarded interpreter of Mozart and Handel, is a versatile artist whose repertoire ranges from Monteverdi and baroque music to German romantic and contemporary opera.
Following early debuts at the Metropolitan Opera and other American opera houses, he moved to Europe in 1995 and has performed with its leading opera companies and orchestras, including Paris National Opera, Royal Opera Covent Garden, Milan La Scala, Opernhaus Zurich, Berlin Staatsoper unter den Linden, English National Opera, Rossini Opera Festival, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Frankfurt Opera, Venice La Fenice, Barcelona Liceu, Madrid Teatro Real, Brussels La Monnaie, Geneva Grand Theatre, Munich Bavarian State Opera, Staatsoper Stuttgart, Prague National Theater, Les Musiciens du Louvre, and Les Arts Florissants.
In 1999 he made a critically acclaimed debut with the Salzburg Festival as Abaris in Rameau's Les Boreades under Sir Simon Rattle, and also debuted with the Berlin Philharmonic under Claudio Abbado, in Berlin and at the Salzburg Easter Festival, with Bach's B Minor Mass.
Recent highlights include performances in the role of Laca Klemeň in Jenufa and Alwa in Lulu (both at La Monnaie in Brussels), title role in Zemlinsky's The Dwarf (Paris Opera), Bajan/Finn in Ruslan and Ludmila at the official reopening of Moscow's Bolshoi Theatre, Bassani in the world premiere of The Merchant of Venice by André Tchaikovsky (Bregenzer Festspiele), Erik in The Flying Dutchman (Teatro Comunale in Bologna and Teatr Wielki – Polish National Opera), title roles in Pfitzner's Palestrina (Munich Bavarian State Opera), Tito in La Clemenza di Tito (La Monnaie in Brussels), Tempo in Handel's Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno (Staatsoper Stuttgart), Idomeneo (Paris Opera and Prague National Theater), Jupiter opposite Cecilia Bartoli's Semele (Vienna Theater an der Wien and Opernhaus Zurich), Silvio in Martin y Soler's L'Arbore di Diana (Barcelona Liceu), Don Ottavio (Santa Fe Opera), Acis in Acis and Galatea (Royal Opera Covent Garden), Poloin Tan Dun's Marco Polo (Netherlands Opera), and Flamand in Capriccio, Albert Gregor in The Makropulos Case, and the Prince in L'Amour des trois oranges (all for Paris Opera).
His recordings include Gluck's Armide, Mozart's Il sogno di Scipione, Bizet's La jolie fille de Perth, and Rossini's Moise et Pharaon, as well as DVDs of L'Arbore di Diana (Barcelona Liceu), Acis and Galatea (Royal Opera Covent Garden), Semele (Opernhaus Zurich), L'Amour des trois Oranges and Cardillac (Paris Opera), Marco Polo (Netherlands Opera), Arabella (Metropolitan Opera), and Rossini's La Gazzetta (Barcelona Liceu) and Tancredi (Trieste Teatro Verdi).
Photo: artist's archive
