In the 24/25 season, American bass-baritone Michael Sumuel, lauded as having “vocals that are smooth and ingratiating” (Daily Camera) will return to the Metropolitan Opera and debut with Opera Australia in Sydney to sing the title role in Le nozze di Figaro, sing his first performances of Porgy in Porgy and Bess with Washington National Opera, and Sharpless in Madama Butterfly with the Canadian Opera Company and LA Opera. An accomplished and in demand concert artist, Mr. Sumuel will make his debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, performing Mozart’s Coronation Mass, perform the Fauré Requiem with the San Francisco Symphony, Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with Music of the Baroque and Dame Jane Glover, Mozart’s Requiem with the Salzburg Camarata, again with Dame Jane Glover, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with North Carolina Symphony, and Handel’s Messiah with Jonathan Cohen and the Houston Symphony. Finally, Mr. Sumuel will present a recital and masterclass at his alumni, the Columbus State University Schwob School of Music in Georgia.
Operatic highlights include the Metropolitan Opera (Reginald in X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X and Belcore, L’Elisir d’Amore), San Francisco Opera (Figaro, Le nozze di Figaro; Escamillo, Carmen; Elviro, Xerxes), Lyric Opera of Chicago (Masetto, Don Giovanni), Houston Grand Opera (Belcore, Sharpless, Marcello, Papageno in Die Zauberflöte and Frank in Die Fledermaus), Glyndebourne Festival Opera (Sharpless, Junius in The Rape of Lucretia, Theseus in A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Norwegian National Opera (Alidoro in La cenerentola and Escamillo), Seattle Opera (Figaro; Leporello, Don Giovanni), Detroit Opera (Forester, The Cunning Little Vixen and Elviro), Santa Fe Opera (Escamillo), and LA Opera (Jesus in The St. Matthew Passion).
