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Stuart Skelton

About this Artist

STUART SKELTON (Don José) has emerged as one of the finest heroic tenors of his generation with performances on leading concert and operatic stages spanning from his native Australia to Asia, Europe, and North America. His repertoire encompasses many of opera’s most challenging roles, from Wagner’s Parsifal, Lohengrin, Erik, and Siegmund to Strauss’ Kaiser, Beethoven’s Florestan, Saint-Saëns’ Samson, Dvo?rák’s Dimitrij, and Britten’s Peter Grimes. He is acclaimed for his beautiful voice, outstanding musicianship, and his intensely dramatic portrayals.

In the 2007/08 season, Stuart Skelton joined the roster of the Metropolitan Opera in its production of Die Walküre and debuted at the Bayerische Staatsoper as Max in Der Freischütz and at Palm Beach Opera as Florestan in Fidelio. He returned to the Deutsche Oper Berlin in the title role of Lohengrin, and he sang Mitch in André Previn’s A Streetcar Named Desire with Opera Australia in a new production by the acclaimed film director Bruce Beresford. His busy concert schedule included performances of Fidelio with David Robertson and the Saint Louis Symphony, Janá?cek’s Glagolitic Mass with Michael Tilson Thomas and the London Symphony Orchestra, Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra (recorded for future commercial release), as well as with Jonathan Nott and the Bamberger Symphoniker, John Foulds’ A World Requiem with Leon Botstein and the BBC Symphony Orchestra (recorded and released on the Chandos label), Zemlinsky’s König Kandaules at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with Jir?í B?elohlávek and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra.

Skelton made his English National Opera debut in the 2006/07 season as Laca in a David Alden production of Jenºufa and other appearances of the season included San Francisco Opera performances of Don José in Carmen, Max in Der Freischütz and the Kaiser in Die Frau ohne Schatten for the Staatsoper Hamburg under the baton of Simone Young, and his first Bacchus in Ariadne auf Naxos with Asher Fisch and the Israeli Opera. Concert appearances included the title role of Stravinsky’s Oedipus rex for the Orchéstre symphonique de Montréal, Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with Sir Charles Mackerras and the Philharmonia Orchestra at the Edinburgh Festival.

During the 2005/06 season Skelton debuted at the Opéra National de Paris with Ji?rí B?elohlávek as the Prince in Rusalka, bowed in the title role of Lohengrin at Baden-Baden with Kent Nagano, and returned to Oper Frankfurt as Parsifal and to the Deutsche Staatsoper unter den Linden Berlin in Der fliegende Holländer. On the concert stage he made an impressive Boston Symphony Orchestra debut in the title role of Oedipus rex under the baton of Christoph von Dohnányi, a part he also performed with Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. Skelton gave his first performances of the title role of Samson et Dalila in concert at the Perth International Arts Festival and joined David Robertson and the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra for Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde both in St. Louis and on tour at Carnegie Hall.

Other highlights from past operatic seasons have included Parsifal with Oper Frankfurt and Donald Runnicles and with the Nord Deutsche Rundfunk Orchester under the baton of Christoph Eschenbach, Fidelio at the Staatstheater Stuttgart and with Lorin Maazel at the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa, Rusalka and Oedipus rex at Opera North, Don José in Carmen at the Vienna Volksoper and at Opera Australia, Die Frau ohne Schatten and the title role of Peter Grimes at Oper Frankfurt, and King Arthur in Albeniz´ Merlin for the Teatro Real Madrid (available commercially on DVD). He has been acclaimed in performances of Lohengrin at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna with Daniele Gatti, at the Teatro Giuseppe Verdi, Trieste, and at the Deutsche Staatsoper unter den Linden Berlin under the baton of Daniel Barenboim, and has sung Der fliegende Holländer at the Deutsche Staatsoper unter den Linden Berlin with Daniel Barenboim, at the Vienna Staatsoper, and for a company debut at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. He received wide critical acclaim for performances of Siegmund in Die Walküre in a new production under the baton of Asher Fisch at the State Opera of South Australia. A commercial recording from this production has garnered rave reviews from the international press and is available on the Melba label.

Additional concert performances have included Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with Daniel Harding and the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius with the Bern Symphony, Dvo?rák’s Requiem with Mariss Jansons and the Bayerische Rundfunk Symphonieorchester, Weber’s Euryanthe with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and David Robertson, Stravinsky’s Pulcinella with the Sydney Symphony, Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 with the Orchestre Philharmonique du Strasbourg as well as at the Baden Baden Festspielhaus under Michael Gielen, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Tokyo National Orchestra and Kazushi Ono and with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra under Edo de Waart, and Rachmaninoff’s The Bells with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

Further information, and Skelton’s performance calendar, is available at www.stuartskelton.com.