The 2023-2024 begins with Freddie returning to the role of Loge in Das Rheingold, this time with Seattle Opera. He continues the season as The Trainer in Jeanine Tesori’s highly anticipated new opera, Grounded, at Washington National Opera. He spends the remainder of the season at the Metropolitan Opera, performing Tybalt in Roméo and Juliette, and as Le Remendado in a new production of Bizet’s Carmen. He also performs in recital with his close friend and collaborator, Kunal Lahiry, in Berlin, Paris, and Bristol.
The 2022-2023 season brought two anticipated role debuts at English National Opera, as he sang George Bailey in Heggie/Scheer’s It’s a Wonderful Life, and Loge in Wagner’s Das Rhinegold. Elsewhere during the season, he made his debut with Opera Vlaanderen as Jack O’Brien & Toby Higgins in Kurt Weill’s Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny and his role debut as Sam in Carlisle Floyd’s Susannah with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. He also made his role debut with Atlanta Opera, in L’amant anonyme, by Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges.
In the 2021-2022 season, Freddie joined the Staatstheater Kassel for his role debut as the Drum Major in Wozzeck and returned to the Metropolitan Opera to reprise the role of Sportin’ Life in Porgy and Bess. He debuted the role of Nick in The Handmaid’s Tale at English National Opera, also appearing in concert with the company for Haydn’s Seven Last Words, and joined Cincinnati Opera for the rescheduled world premiere of Gregory Spears and Tracey K. Smith’s Castor and Patience. He also appeared in recital at The Kennedy Center in recognition of his Marian Anderson Award.
Mr. Ballentine’s scheduled engagements for the 2020-2021 season included his first performances of Rodolfo in La bohème with Opera Memphis (cancelled) and Florentine Opera (cancelled), Dr. Richardson in Breaking the Waves with Los Angeles Opera (cancelled), and Miles Zegner in Proving Up with Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Lyric Unlimited series (cancelled). Originally slated to sing Don José in Houston Grand Opera’s cancelled production of Carmen, he instead sang Herr Vogelsang in a digital production of Mozart’s The Impresario. He continued his work with Houston Grand Opera in recital with Lawrence Brownlee for their Giving Voice series, celebrating treasured Black artists, and appeared in a filmed recital from Seattle Opera’s Tagney Jones Hall.
Recent operatic engagements include Sportin’ Life in Porgy and Bess for his debuts with The Metropolitan Opera, English National Opera, and Dutch National Opera; Don José in Carmen and Charlie Parker in Charlie Parker’s Yardbird with Seattle Opera; the Steersman in Der fliegende Höllander with Cincinnati Opera; Reverend Parris in Robert Ward’s The Crucible at the Glimmerglass Festival, and returns to Los Angeles Opera to sing Monastatos in Barrie Kosky/1927’s production of Die Zauberflöte and Amon in Akhnaten.
In concert, Mr. Ballentine has appeared with the Los Angeles Philharmonic for Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy and Arvo Pärt’s Miserere, the New Jersey Symphony for Handel’s Messiah, as a featured soloist with the New York Choral Society for their Christmas Concert, with the Bard Music Festival, for selections from Kálmán’s Die Herzogin von Chicago, and with Naples Philharmonic and the Colburn School for Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.
Frederick Ballentine trained with the Wolf Trap Opera, Aspen Music Opera Center and The Opera Theatre of St. Louis, who awarded him the Thelma Steward Endowed Artist Alumni Award.
