Ryan Speedo Green
About this Artist
Named “the real showstopper” by The New York Times, two-time Grammy Award-winning bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green has quickly established himself as an artist of international demand at the world’s leading opera houses. His 2023/24 season sees a number of important role debuts including Heinrich der Vogler in Lohengrin, with both Deutsche Oper Berlin, conducted by James Conlon, and the Bayerische Staatsoper; the title role in Don Giovanni with Santa Fe Opera; Charles in Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones at the Metropolitan Opera; and Wotan in Das Rheingold with the LA Phil, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel. Green also returns to hosting The Met: Live in HD broadcast of Roméo et Juliette, which is being broadcast to cinemas around the world. Additional operatic appearances include Escamillo in Carmen at the Met and his house debut with Staatsoper Hamburg as Varlaam in Boris Godunov, conducted by Kent Nagano. Concert work includes his debut with the Chicago Philharmonic in a concert of arias and the Beethoven Symphony No. 9 with the Colorado Symphony. On the recital stage, Green appears with Austin Opera in a special recital that will be recorded and broadcast on PBS, a recital at the Ferguson Center in Virginia, and a continuation of his role as Artist-in-Residence with Florida State University for a series of master classes and a recital.
The 2022/23 season saw Green’s first leading role at the Metropolitan Opera starring as Emile Griffith in Terence Blanchard’s Champion, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin and directed by James Robinson. Green also made his house debut at Opéra National de Paris singing Kurwenal in Tristan und Isolde, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel, and his house debut at Bayerische Staatsoper as Varlaam in Boris Godunov. He also returned to Washington National Opera to sing Ferrando in a new production of Il trovatore and Orest in a new production of Elektra. Orchestral engagements included Kurwenal in Tristan und Isolde with the LA Phil, his debut with the New York Philharmonic in the world premiere of a work written for him by Courtney Bryan, Mussorgsky’s Songs and Dances of Death at Carnegie Hall with Daniele Rustioni and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, and excerpts from Blanchard’s Champion with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra Chamber Ensemble at Carnegie Hall, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin.
In the fall of 2016, Little, Brown published Sing For Your Life, by The New York Times journalist Daniel Bergner. The book tells the story of Green’s personal and artistic journey: from a trailer park in southeastern Virginia and from time spent in Virginia’s juvenile facility of last resort to the Met stage. The New York Times Book Review called the book “one of the most inspiring stories I’ve come across in a long time,” and the Washington Post called it a “vital, compelling, and highly recommended book.” Among other recognitions, Sing For Your Life was a New York Times Best Seller and New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice, a Washington Post Notable Book, and a Publishers Weekly Book of the Year.