With a “heroically shining tone of exceptional clarity and precision” (Opera Magazine) and “gorgeously burnished power” (The New York Times), American tenor Russell Thomas uses his signature elegance and intensity to create vivid character portrayals on the world’s most important stages.

This season Mr. Thomas returns to the Lyric Opera of Chicago for Canio in Pagliacci, to the Opéra National de Paris as Don José in Carmen and to the Canadia Opera Company in an exciting new role, Massenet’s Werther.  In concert he will appear in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Milwaukee Symphony and in Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with the Baltimore Symphony.  Future engagements include returns to the Metropolitan Opera, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Royal Ballet and Opera and the Washington National Opera, as well as to the Philadelphia Orchestra and the London Symphony Orchestra.

Last season, Mr. Thomas returned to the Lyric Opera of Chicago for Florestan in Fidelio, to the Metropolitan Opera for his first Kaiser in Die Frau ohne Schatten and to the Houston Grand Opera for his first Tannhäuser.  In concert he sang his first Enée in Les Troyens à Carthage at the Seattle Opera, appeared as Don José in Carmen for the Detroit Symphony and as Turiddu in Cavalleria Rusticana for the Canadian Opera Company.  Further concert and recital appearances included Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. with the San Francisco Opera, Mahler’s Das klagende Lied with the BBC Proms and a solo recital at La Sierra University. 

Prior to that, Mr. Thomas undertook his first Parsifal at Houston Grand Opera and returned to major stages around the world in signature Verdi and Puccini roles. He sang Radames in Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Aida, Cavaradossi in Royal Opera House’s Tosca, Calaf in Los Angeles Opera’s Turandot, and Alvaro in Den Norske Opera’s La forza del destino. He appeared in concert and recital with the Edinburgh International Festival, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, and Vocal Arts DC at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, before concluding his artistic residency at LA Opera with Fire and Blue Sky, a world premiere song cycle composed for him by Joel Thompson.

Acclaimed for his “voice of intrinsic warmth and refined sense of style” (Opera News), Mr. Thomas has enjoyed a string of operatic triumphs in key Verdi roles, including appearances as Otello at Canadian Opera Company and Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Ernani at Lyric Opera of Chicago, Manrico in Il trovatore at Bayerische Staatsoper, Radamès in Aida at Houston Grand Opera, Stiffelio at Oper Frankfurt, and Don Alvaro in La forza del destino at Deutsche Oper Berlin and Opéra national de Paris. An alumnus of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Program, Russell most recently returned to the Met as Don Carlo and Rodolfo in La bohème. Other important appearances include Cavaradossi at Lyric Opera of Chicago, Idomeneo at the Salzburg Festival, Roberto Devereux at San Francisco Opera, Radamès and Otello at Los Angeles Opera, Florestan in Fidelio at San Francisco Opera and Cincinnati Opera, and Calaf and Adorno in Simon Boccanegra at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden. Mr. Thomas created the role of Lazarus in the world premiere of The Gospel According to the Other Mary by John Adams and Peter Sellars, and his portrayal of Tito in the new Sellars production of La clemenza di Tito at the Salzburg Festival drew praise from The New Yorker, which noted, “Thomas’s penetrating tenor, which has lately acquired richness and heft, anchored the evening.”