Baritone Zachary Altman joins Theater Basel for seven productions in the 2014-15 season, including Tarquinius (The Rape of Lucretia), Schlemil/Hermann (Les contes d’Hoffmann), and Montano in a new production of Otello directed by Calixto Bieito. He will also be featured in concert with the Sinfonieorchester Basel and the Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra. Future engagements include a debut with West Edge Opera in Berkley, California as the Animal Trainer/Athlete in Lulu, and as Leontes in world premiere baroque pastiche of The Winter’s Tale, with Quantum Theatre and Chatham Baroque in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
From 2012-2014, Zachary was a Principal Resident Artist at Opera San Jose, performing as Zurga (The Pearl Fishers), Count Di Luna (Il Trovatore), Dr. Falke (Die Fledermaus), Ford (Falstaff), Sharpless (Madama Butterfly) and the title roles in Don Giovanni and Gianni Schicchi. In 2012 he debuted with Gotham Chamber Opera in a collaboration with MAYA and Company XIV called Orientale, and returned in 2013 for its production of Baden Baden 1927. In 2012 and 2013 Mr. Altman sang with the Caramoor Festival, as Vaudemont in Verdi’s Les Vêpres Siciliennes, Marullo in Rigoletto, and Astolfo in Lucrezia Borgia.
He recently made his Los Angeles Philharmonic debut at the Hollywood Bowl as Herman Augustus and Second Inquisitor in Bernstein’s Candide, conducted by Bramwell Tovey. Zach spent three years as a fellow at the Music Academy of the West, where he sang the title role in Don Giovanni, Dr. Miracle in The Tales of Hoffmann, and Breedley in Bolcom’s A Wedding.
Other career highlights for Mr. Altman include Nimming Ned (The Beggar’s Opera) under the baton of Lorin Maazel with the Castleton Festival; John Proctor (The Crucible), Guglielmo (Così fan tutte), and Arnalta (L’incoronazione di Poppea) with the Chautauqua Institute; and the world premiere of Simon Sargon’s Out of the Depths with Voices of Change in Dallas, TX, a piece expressly written for Mr. Altman. He has also been a young artist with both Fort Worth Opera andSarasota Opera, and received awards from the Marilyn Horne Foundation and the Metropolitan Opera National Council District Auditions.
He received both his graduate and undergraduate degrees from Manhattan School of Music, where he sang his first Dr. Falke in Die Fledermaus, Tarquinius in The Rape of Lucretia, and Joe Harland in John Musto’s Later the Same Evening, which was recorded and released on Albany Records.
