American Paul Appleby is one of the most admired tenor voices of his generation, regularly appearing on the world’s great opera, concert and recital stages with Opera News hailing, “his tenor is limpid and focused, but with a range of color unusual in an instrument so essentially lyric… His singing is scrupulous and musical; the voice moves fluidly and accurately.”
Appleby’s 2022/23 season includes a début at Opéra de Lyon as Bernstein’s Candide in a new production by Daniel Fish, conducted by Wayne Marshall and a renewed collaboration with composer and conductor John Adams for the world-premiere of his Anthony and Cleopatra (Caesar) for San Francisco Opera under Music Director Eun Sun Kim. On the concert platform he returns to the role of Joe Cannon in Adams’ Girls of the Golden West with Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestras and joins Jaap van Zweden for St Matthew Passion with both the New York Philharmonic and Hong Kong Philharmonic orchestras.
A graduate of New York’s Juilliard School and the Lindemann Young Artist Program at the Metropolitan Opera, Paul Appleby has remained a regular guest on that stage most recently as David in Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg under Sir Antonio Pappano and as Grimoaldo in Handel’s Rodelinda under Harry Bicket. Other roles have included Hylas in Berlioz’s Les Troyens under Fabio Luisi, Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, Belmonte in Die Entführung aus dem Serail and in a “star-making performance” (New York Post) as the lead role of Brian in Nico Muhly’s Two Boys under the baton of David Robertson.
In recent seasons, Paul has appeared in Pelléas et Mélisande at the Metropolitan Opera, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin and at Dutch National Opera led by Stéphane Denève and as Stravinsky’s Tom Rakewell (The Rake’s Progress) at Oper Frankfurt, the Metropolitan Opera and in Simon McBurney’s new production at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence and Dutch National Opera, broadcast worldwide on ARTE. At Glyndebourne Festival Opera he has appeared as Jonathan in Barrie Kosky’s new production of Handel’s Saul under Ivor Bolton, revived at Houston Grand Opera, and as Bénédict in Berlioz’s Béatrice et Bénédict directed by Laurent Pelly and conducted by Antonello Manacorda, both subsequently released by Opus Arte. Appleby reprised the role of Bénédict in the 2021/22 season in a new production for Oper KöIn under François-Xavier Roth and as Tamino in Die Zauberflöte he has made debuts at Teatro Real Madrid, Washington National Opera and San Francisco Opera.
Enjoying a buoyant concert career, Appleby has performed Mozart’s Mass in C Minor with The Cleveland Orchestra and Franz Welser-Möst, Schubert’s Mass No.6 with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Riccardo Muti, Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius with both the Bamberger Symphoniker under David Zinman and Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra under Kirill Karabits and Mozart’s Requiem with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel. He marked his debut at the Edinburgh International Festival in Handel’s Samson with the Dunedin Consort, in Bernstein’s Songfest he performed at Carnegie Hall with The Juilliard Orchestra and Marin Alsop and with BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under Thomas Dausgaard and in Berlioz’s Roméo et Juliette with Deutsches Sinfonie-Orchester Berlin and Robin Ticciati. Concert performances of Bernstein’s Candide took Appleby to both Gran Teatro del Liceu and Carnegie Hall, of Berlioz’s Béatrice et Bénédict to Opéra National de Paris’s Palais Garnier under Philippe Jordan and of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte to the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra under Gustavo Dudamel.
Appleby is a passionate advocate of art song and has performed at New York’s Carnegie Hall and Park Avenue Armory, Washington’s Kennedy Center, London’s Wigmore Hall, the Aspen and Caramoor Festivals, The Schubert Club, Boston Celebrity Series and for the Marilyn Horne Foundation. Together with pianist Ken Noda, he performed Schumann’s Dichterliebe at Lincoln Center and has recorded works by Schubert and Britten as part of The Julliard Sessions Digital Debut series, released by EMI Classics. He made his Tanglewood debut in the 21/22 season in a performance of Janáček’s The Diary of One Who Vanished with Emanuel Ax, and with pianist Conor Hanick, Appleby gave a North American recital tour with concerts in New York City, Philadelphia, Berkeley, and Sacramento. In the current season he presents Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings alongside the Met Chamber Orchestra at Carnegie Hall and gives a recital at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival.
Stand: März 2023
