James Creswell Bass

Born in Seattle, James Creswell made his professional debut in Los Angeles and San Francisco before joining the Berlin Komische Oper troup where he performed roles such as Sarastro (The Magic Flute), Prince Gremin (Eugene Onegin) or Figaro (Le Nozze di Figaro). 

Recent roles include the Dutchman (The Flying Dutchman), Il Commendatore (Don Giovanni), Nourabad (The Pearl Fishers), Count Walter (Luisa Miller) at the English National Opera, Daland (The Flying Dutchman) and Publio (La clemenza di Tito) at Los Angeles Opera, Count des Grieux (Manon), Brother Laurent (Romeo and Juliet), Bartolo (Le Nozze di Figaro) at San Francisco Opera, Fasolt (Das Rheingold), Hunding (Die Walküre), Oroveso (Norma), Mephistopheles (Faust), Dr Kolenaty (The Makropulos Affair), Seneca (L'incoronazione di Poppea), Kecal (The Bartered Bride), Grandfather Frost (The Snow Maiden) at Opéra North, Ashby (The Girl of the Golden West) at Metropolitan Opera, New York, the Marquis of Calatrava (La Forza del destino) and Phorbas (Œdipe) at the Dutch National Opera, Il Cieco (Mascagni’s Iris) at the Scottish Opera. 

He also performs in concerts (King Marke in Tristan und Isolde with the Bremer Philharmoniker, Dvořák’s Saint Ludmila and Schönberg’s Gurre-Lieder with Hallé Orchestra and Sir Mark Elder, The St Matthew Passion at the May Festival Cincinnati under James Conlon, leVerdi’s Requiem with Vasily Petrenko, The St John Passion with Kent Nagano, A Child of our Time by Sir Michael Tippet and Rocco in Fidelio at the BBC Proms…). 

Recent projects include Antonio (Le Nozze di Figaro) and Prince Gremin at Santa Fe Opera, Rocco in San Francisco, Bartolo (Le Nozze di Figaro) at Paris Opera, Truelove (The Rake’s Progress) at Metropolitan Opera, New York.