Jan Opalach

Mr. Opalach has won the prestigious Walter M. Naumburg Vocal Competition, Metropolitan Opera National Auditions, s’Hertogenbosch International Vocalisten Concours as well as a National Endowment for the Arts Soloist Recital Grant. He has been heard in recitals in Alice Tully Hall, Morgan Library, Concertgebouw (Amsterdam, Netherlands), Library of Congress, Ambassador Auditorium (Pasadena), Hudson River Museum, Isabella Stewart Gardiner Museum (Boston) and Harvard University. He has been an adjudicator for The W.M. Naumburg, Joy in Singing and the Concert Artist Guild competitions.

He has been a principal artist of the New York City Opera since 1980. Among the many roles he has performed with the company are the title role in Le nozze di Figaro, Dulcamara (L’elisir d’amore), Leporello (Don Giovanni), Bartolo (Il barbiere di Siviglia), Wesener (Alois Zimmerman’s Die Soldaten), the Forester (The Cunning Little Vixen), and the title role of G. Verdi’s Falstaff. He has appeared with the Metropolitan Opera (world premiere of Phillip Glass’ The Voyage, War and Peace), Opera Theater of St. Louis (Nixon in China), Santa Fe Opera (La Boheme), Seattle Opera (Cosi fan tutte), Washington Opera (Cendrillon), Canadian Opera Company (Il barbiere di Siviglia), Netherlands Opera (L’italiana in Algeri), Sweden’s Drottningholm Royal Court Theater (L. Rossi’s Orfeo) and English National Opera (British Isles premiere of Die Soldaten).

Among the many conductors with whom Mr. Opalach has collaborated are Marin Alsop, Daniel Barenboim, Herbert Blomstedt, Semyon Bychkov, James DePriest, Charles Dutoit, Gunter Herbig, Christopher Hogwood, Lorin Maazel, Kurt Masur, Roger Norrington, Sir Simon Rattle, Helmut Rilling, Robert Shaw, Leonard Slatkin, Edo de Waart, Hugh Wolff and David Zinman.

Mr. Opalach has made recordings for a number of labels including Argo, Bridge, CRI, Decca, Delos, EMI, Koch International, L’Oiseau-Lyre, Lyrichord, Nonesuch, Teldec, Telarc, and Vox Unique. Works recorded include Igor Stravinsky’s Renard/Pulcinella (St. Paul Chamber Orchestra; Hugh Wolff), J.S. Bach Solo Bass Cantatas 56, 82, 158 (Bach Ensemble; Joshua Rifkin), Stefan Wolpe’s Quintet with Voice, Elliot Carter’s Syringa (Speculum Musicae), Robert Beaser’s Seven Deadly Sins (Premiere Recording, American Composers Orchestra; Dennis Russell Davies), G.F. Handel’s Acis and Galatea (Seattle Symphony; Gerard Schwarz), Pulitzer Prize winner Aaron Kernis’ Mourning Song, selected lieder of Franz Schubert, and most recently, J. Haydn’s The Seasons, and two chamber opera’s by Paul Salerni, Caruso’s Final Broadcast and The Life and Love of Joe Coogan, a Karl Reiner authorized adaptation of a Dick van Dyke episode.