About this Artist

CLIFTON FORBIS is a leading tenor with the Metropolitan Opera, Paris Opera, Vienna State Opera, and Teatro alla Scala. His 2004/2005 season begins with performances of Andrei Khovansky in Khovanshchina at the Teatro del Maggio Musicale in Florence, and he gives his first performances of Tristan in the Los Angeles Philharmonic's Tristan Project, a role he will repeat in a new production at the Grand Théâtre de Genève. Forbis also appears this season with Atlanta Opera, the Metropolitan Opera, the Boston Symphony, and his house debut at La Scala in the title role in Otello.

Forbis' career took a significant turn in season 2002/2003 with return engagements at the Metropolitan Opera to sing Don José and to the Vienna State Opera as Otello. He also made his Paris Opera debut in the title role of Wagner's Parsifal. Since that time he has sung leading roles with Venice's Teatro la Fenice, Vienna State Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and the opera companies of Marseille, Bilbao, Genoa, and Cincinnati, among others, under such conductors as James Conlon, Valery Gergiev, James Levine, and Simon Rattle.

A frequent soloist with many orchestras, including the Brooklyn Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony, Orchestre de Lyon, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and Minnesota Orchestra, Forbis' concert performances have included Haydn's Creation, Handel's Messiah, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, and Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde.

Forbis' numerous awards include grants from the Metropolitan Opera Guild and the Dallas Opera Guild Career Development Grant. He is a graduate of the Juilliard Opera Center and of Southern Methodist University.