About
Brooklyn-born bass Oren Gradus is rising in recognition and critical acclaim throughout North America and Europe as a brilliant basso cantante. Most recently he was seen at the Metropolitan Opera as Basilio in Il Barbiere di Siviglia and Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermoor. Since his debut at the Met during the 2002-2003 season, Mr. Gradus has sung well over one hundred performances with the company. His many roles there include Giorgio in I Puritani, Timur in Turandot, the Old Hebrew in Samson et Dalila, the King in Aida, and Garibaldo in Rodelinda opposite Renée Fleming. He has also starred in six productions of “The Met: Live in HD series”: as Colline in La Boheme (twice), Douglas in La Donna del Lago, Publio in La Clemenza di Tito, Wallace in La Fanciulla del West, and Le Duc de Vérone in Roméo et Juliette.
In the past few seasons Mr. Gradus made several important steps: his house debut with Washington National Opera and Semperoper Dresden as Henry VIII in Anna Bolena; his house and role debuts with Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona as the four villains in Les Contes d’Hoffmann; his house debut with Canadian Opera Company Toronto as Raimondo; his house and role debuts with Opéra d’Avenches in Switzerland as Zaccaria in Nabucco; and his house and role debut with Opéra de Lausanne as Oroveso in Norma.
Among his many distinguished performances with some of the leading opera companies in the U.S. and in Europe, he has sung the roles of Leporello in Don Giovanni (San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Opéra de Marseille); Figaro in Le Nozze di Figaro (Houston Grand Opera, Opéra de Marseille, Seattle Opera, Pittsburgh Opera); Raimondo (San Francisco Opera, Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Houston Grand Opera, Teatro Municipal de Santiago); Enrico VIII (Dallas Opera); Zaccaria (Lyric Opera Baltimore); Mephistopheles in Faust (Pittsburgh Opera); Ramfis in Aida (Terme di Caracalla in Rome, Pittsburgh Opera); Timur in Turandot (Houston Grand Opera); Escamillo in Carmen (New Orleans Opera); Ferrando in Il Trovatore (ABAO de Bilbao, Atlanta Opera); Il Re di Scozia in Ariodante (Houston Grand Opera); and Prince Gremin in Eugene Onegin (Houston Grand Opera, Pittsburgh Opera and Opera Theater of St. Louis).
During the 2015-2016 season Mr. Gradus had the opportunity to perform with Boston's critically acclaimed Odyssey Opera in two rarely heard works: as Don Diègue in Massenet's Le Cid and the title role in Ralph Vaughn Williams' Sir John in Love. For the latter he was nominated for Boston's Best Male Operatic Performance of the Year (Arts Impulse Magazine). During the same season he returned to Pittsburgh Opera as Zaccaria and made his Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra debut as the Pater Profundus in Mahler's 8th Symphony.
Mr. Gradus studied music at the Oberlin Conservatory and then joined the Pittsburgh Opera Center. He subsequently became a member of the Houston Grand Opera Studio during which time he sang and recorded the role of El Capitán in Daniel Catán’s Florencia en el Amazonas. He later returned to Houston Grand Opera for the world premiere of Catán’s Salsipuedes as Capitan Magallanes.
Among the forthcoming projects, apart from the collaboration with the Metropolitan Opera that will go on, Oren Gradus will be Zaccaria in Nabucco at the Opéra National de Montpellier.