American tenor William Burden has won an outstanding reputation in a wide-ranging repertoire throughout Europe and North America.
William Burden American tenor
He has appeared in many prestigious opera houses in the United States and Europe, including the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Los Angeles Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Seattle Opera, Opera Philadelphia, Santa Fe Opera, Cincinnati Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, New York City Opera, New Orleans Opera, Teatro alla Scala, Opéra National de Paris, Glyndebourne Opera Festival, Thèâtre du Châtelet, Bayerische Staatsoper, Berliner Staatsoper, Madrid’s Teatro Real, the Netherlands Opera, and the Saito Kinen Festival.
His many roles include the title roles of The Contes d’Hoffmann, Faust, Pelléas et Mélisande, The Rake’s Progress, Roméo et Juliette, Béatrice and Bénédict, Candide, and Acis and Galatea; Captain Vere in Billy Budd, Aschenbach in Death in Venice, Don Jose in Carmen, Pylade in Iphigénie en Tauride, Gerald in Lakmé, Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor, Nemorino in L’elisir d’amore, Nerone in L’incoronazione di Poppea, Ferrando in Cosí fan tutte,Narraboth in Salome, and Lensky in Eugene Onegin.
Also a supporter of new works, he appeared in the US premiere of Henze’s Phaedra at Opera Philadelphia, and created the roles of Peter in Mark Adamo’s The Gospel of Mary Magdalene and Dan Hill in Christopher Theofanidis’Heart of a Soldier at the San Francisco Opera, Frank Harris in Theodore Morrison’s Oscar at the Santa Fe Opera, Gilbert Griffiths in Tobias Picker’s An American Tragedy at the Metropolitan Opera, Dodge in Daron Hagen’s Amelia at the Seattle Opera, and Niklas Sprink in Kevin Puts’ Pulitzer Prize- winning Silent Night at the Minnesota Opera.
Conserts
In concert, Mr. Burden has appeared with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony, Houston Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic, BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Edinburgh Festival, and on tour with Les Arts Florissants at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Barcelona and Lyon.
Mr. Burden’s recordings include Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony (SFS Media), Barber’s Vanessa (Anatol) with the BBC Symphony Orchestra (Chandos) and Musique adorable: The Songs of Emmanuel Chabrier (Hyperion). He also appeared in the Metropolitan Opera’s live HD broadcast of Thomas Adès’ The Tempest.
The season Mr. Burden makes his role debut at the Washington National Opera as Loge in Das Rheingold, and returns to the Lyric Opera of Chicago for the world premiere of Jimmy López’ Bel Canto, and the San Francisco Opera as Laca in Jenufa.
Raised in Florida, Mr. Burden received his master’s degree in Vocal Performance at Indiana University. He was also a member of the Merola Program in San Francisco and at the Apprentice Artists Program at the Santa Fe Opera. As of the fall of 2015, Mr. Burden is also member of the faculty at the Mannes School of Music.
