About this Artist
Recognized internationally as one of the leading singing actors today, American bass-baritone ALAN HELD has appeared in major roles in the world's finest opera houses, including the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Seattle Opera, Washington National Opera, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Teatro alla Scala, Vienna State Opera, Paris Opera, Munich State Opera, Bavarian State Opera, Hamburg State Opera, Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, Teatro de la Maestranza in Seville, the Netherlands Opera, and Theatre Royal de la Monnaie. His many roles include Wotan in the Wagner's Ring Cycle, the title role in The Flying Dutchman, Kurwenal in Tristan und Isolde, Leporello in Don Giovanni, the Four Villains in Les Contes d'Hoffman, Jochanaan in Salome, Don Pizzaro in Fidelio, Orestes in Elektra, Balstrode in Peter Grimes and the title role in Wozzeck.
Equally at home on the concert stage, Mr. Held has performed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Berlin Philharmonic, Kirov Opera Orchestra, and Montreal Symphony. He has also appeared at the Salzburg and Tanglewood Festivals, and at the BBC Proms.
He has worked with many distinguished conductors including Sir Andrew Davis, Sir Colin Davis, Charles Dutoit, Christoph Eschenbach, Valery Gergiev, Bernard Haitink, Mariss Jansons, James Levine, Sir Charles Mackerras, Zubin Mehta, Franz Welser-Möst, Kent Nagano, Sir Simon Rattle, Donald Runnicles, Esa-Pekka Salonen, and Jeffrey Tate.
This past summer, Mr. Held returned to Salzburg Festival as the Watersprite in Rusalka, and appeared at the Munich Festival as Jochanaan. This season he returns to the Washington National Opera as both Balstrode and Wotan in Siegfried, and appears at the Paris Opera as Pizzaro and the Grand Théâtre de Genève as Jochanaan. He also returns to the Los Angeles Philharmonic for a performance of Mahler Symphony No. 8 at the Hollywood Bowl.
Mr. Held recently recorded the role Don Pizzaro with Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic for EMI Classics. He also appears as Donner on the DVD of the Met’s production of Das Rheingold, and as the title role in Cardillac in the DVD of the Paris Opera production.
A native of Washburn, Illinois, Mr. Held received his vocal training at Millikin University and Wichita State University. He is a recipient of numerous honors and awards including the Birgit Nilsson Prize, and is also a noted clinician who regularly gives master classes at Yale University.