American tenor Roy Cornelius Smith has established himself among the ranks of the finest tenors of his generation through his voice of exceptional color and beauty, his compelling dramatic interpretations, and outstanding musicianship.
A past winner of the New York Metropolitan Opera Auditions, his international debut occurred in 1998 at the prestigious Salzburger Festspiele, where he sang Fatty, the Bookkeeper, in Kurt Weill's Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny. (Available on Kultur DVD/Video with Catherine Malfitano and Dame Gwyneth Jones, conducted by Dennis Russell Davies). Later that same season he reprised the role in English for the Lyric Opera of Chicago.
Mr. Smith hails from Big Stone Gap, Virginia, and received both Bachelor's and Master's degrees in music from the University of Tennessee and a Doctor of Musical Arts from the American Conservatory of Music and currently resides in Vienna Austria.
He has already been heard on some of the world's great operatic stages including the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Salzburger Festspiele, Norwegian National Opera, Royal Danish Opera, and the New Israeli Opera. He has also appeared with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Orchestra del Teatro Carlo Felice, Orchestre Métropolitain du Grand Montréal and the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, to name but a few.
As member of the ensemble at the Nationaltheater Mannheim, Mr. Smith has appeared as Calaf, Cavaradossi, Don Jose, Pinkerton, Turiddu, Canio and Otello with Krassimira Stoyanova conducted by Dan Ettinger. He has premiered numerous productions including Dick Johnson in Puccini’s La Fanciulla del West directed by Tilman Knabe, the title role in Don Carlo directed by Jens-Daniel Herzog, Max in Der Freischütz directed by Armin Holz, and Hagenbach in a new production of La Wally directed by Tilman Knabe.
The 2015-16 season includes three role debuts and two house debuts. In Mannheim, Mr. Smith sang Sigmund in Der Ring an einem Abend, Dionysus in The Bassarids by Henze, Eléazar in La Juive and Calaf in Turandot. In addition, he came back to the roster of the Metropolitan Opera as Des Grieux in Manon Lescaut and sang Faust in Boito's Mefistofele at the Teatro del Giglio di Lucca (revivals soon at the Teatro Sociale di Rovigo). He also came back to the Deutsche Oper Berlin for some performances of Calaf. In the next seasons he will take part in the productions of Aida and Tannhaeuser in Mannheim.
Recent performances include Florestan in a new production of Fidelio directed by Markus Bothe and conducted by Julia Jones; Canio in I Pagliacci with the Norwegian National Opera and Opera Las Palmas; his debut with the Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen where he sang Turiddu in Cavalleria Rusticana, directed by Kasper Holten and Canio in I Pagliacci, directed by Paul Curran under the baton of Stefano Ranzani; Dick Johnson in La Fanciulla del West with Lyric Opera of Chicago opposite Deborah Voigt, conducted by Sir Andrew Davis and at the Nashville Opera; the title role in Andrea Chenier at the Bregenzer Festspiele; Des Grieux in Puccini’s Manon Lescaut at Oper Graz; Calaf in Turandot with New Orleans Opera opposite Lise Lindstrom and Deutsche Oper Berlin opposite Maria Guleghina; Haman in Esther with New York City Opera; Radames in Aida with Opera Birmingham; Erik in Der fliegende Holländer with New Orleans Opera; Pollione in Norma at the Chautauqua Institution; Otello at the Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen.
August 2018