John Relyea has appeared on many of the world’s great operatic stages, including the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera (where he is an alumnus of the Merola Opera Program and a former Adler Fellow), Lyric Opera of Chicago, Royal Opera House-Covent Garden, Paris Opera, Teatro alla Scala, Rome, Naples, Bayerische Staatsoper, Vienna State Opera, Dresden, Madrid, Barcelona, the Mariinsky Theater, and the Canadian Opera Company. His roles have spanned a vast range of repertoire, including the title roles of Attila, Don Quichotte, and Aleko; Figaro in Le Nozze di Figaro and Bluebeard in Bartok’s Bluebeard’s Castle.
Other roles include Zaccaria in Nabucco, Bertram in Meyerbeer’s Robert le Diable, Pagano in I Lombardi alla prima crociata, Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermoor, Colline in La Bohème, Don Alfonso in Lucrezia Borgia, Don Basilio in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Alidoro in La Cenerentola, Giorgio in I Puritani, Enrico in Anna Bolena, Banquo in Macbeth, Garibaldo in Rodelinda, Méphistopélès in both Faust and Le Damnation de Faust, the Four Villians in Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Marke in Tristan and Isolde, King Phillip in Don Carlo, Caspar in Der Freischütz, Nick Shadow in The Rake’s Progress, Collatinus in The Rape of Lucretia, The Water Sprite in Rusalka and King Renè in Iolanta.
In concert, he has performed with major orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, NDR, London Symphony, Chicago, Boston, Cleveland and Philadelphia orchestra, as well as Atlanta, Dallas, and San Francisco Symphony, Dallas Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, and the NDR. He has appeared at the Tanglewood, Ravinia, Salzburg, Edinburgh,Lucerne, and Mostly Mozart festivals, Glyndebourne and at the BBC Proms.
He returned to the Paris Opera for Bluebeard’s Castle, and to the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma as Claggart in Billy Budd, his debut at the Teatro di San Carlo as Fiesco in Simon Boccanegra, concerts with the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Orchestre de Paris, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, and Sydney Symphony.He was in Oslo for Billy Budd, Nabucco (concert version) with NTR in Amsterdam, concerts with Orchestra Sinfonica della Rai and Les Huguenots at the Semper Oper in Dresden.He also sang Don Carlos at MET, Veri Requiem at Teatro Regio di Parma and with Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana, Bluebeard’s Castle in concert form at the London Philarmonic Orchestra, new production of Hamlet by Australian composer Brett Dean at MET.
He recently sang Die Walkyrie at Teatro San Carlo, La Damnation de Faust in concert with St. Louis Symphony, Mefistofele and Il Flauto Magico at Teatro Dell’Opera di Roma, Il Castello di Barbablù at Teatro San Carlo, La Forza del destino at Gran Teatre del Liceu. He also made his role debut as The commander in The Handmaid’s Tale at the San Francisco Opera.
Future engagements: Kowantchina at Gran Theatre de Genève, Parsifal at Glyndebourne Festival.
His recordings include Verdi Requiem (LSO Live) Idomeneo and Clemenza di Tito with Sir Charles Mackerras and the Scottish Symphony Orchestra (EMI), Mahler Symphony 8 with Sir Simon Rattle and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (EMI), and the Metropolitan Opera’s DVD productions of Don Giovanni, I Puritani, Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg (Deutsche Grammophon) Macbeth and Rusalka(Metropolitan Opera HD Live Series).
Mr. Relyea is the winner of the 2009 Beverly Sills Award and the 2003 Richard Tucker Award.
Gianluca Macheda
ul. Grzybowska 43a, lok. 72 00-855
Warsaw Poland
gmacheda@gmartandmusic.com
Stefania Ramacciotti
Via Romana 578/B 55100 Lucca Italy
+39 3479762848
sramacciotti@gmartandmusic.com
“John Relyea, as Fiesco, drew a character of theatrical effectiveness. His timbre was very well suited in the dramatic second act, with the necessary warmth in tone and expressiveness.”
Bachtrack – Lorenzo Fiorito
“Relyea revealed a voice that’s grown in depth and darkness in recent years and is ideal for the role.”
Opera Critic – Steve Cohen
“John Relyea has one of those voices that seem to come from a couple of hundred metres underground. Speaking the Prologue to Bartók’s Bluebeard ́s Castle, Relyea had us gasping, so volcanic did it sound.”
Classical Source – Peter Hatfield