John Relyea Bass

Season 23/24 Artist – Season 24/25 Artist

John Relyea is singing on the leading international stages, including Metropolitan Opera New York, San Francisco Opera (where he took part in the Merola Opera Program and Adler Fellow), Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Paris Opera, Teatro alla Scala Milan, Staatsoper Wien, in Dresden, Madrid, Barcelona, et the Canadian Opera Company.

His vast repertoire cover major roles, including the title roles in Attila, Don Quixote and Aleko, Figaro (Le nozze di Figaro), Zaccaria (Nabucco), Bertram (Robert the Devil), Colline (La Bohème), Don Basilio (The Barber of Seville), Alidoro (La Cenerentola), Giorgio (I Puritani), Enrico (Anna Bolena), Banquo (Macbeth), Garibaldo (Rodelinda), Marke (Tristan und Isolde), Philippe II (Don Carlo), Nick Shadow (The Rake's Progress).

As a concert singer, he has sung with the Philharmonic Orchestras of Berlin, New York and Vienna, the Chicago, Boston, Cleveland and Philadelphia orchestras, as well as the Symphony Orchestras of Atlanta, Dallas and San Francisco.

Recently, he returned to the Rome Opera, in the role of Claggart (Billy Budd) and made his stage debut at Teatro di San Carlo in Naples in the role of Fiesco (Simon Boccanegra). He also went to Oslo for Billy Budd, gave concerts with the Rai Symphony Orchestra, and sang in Les Huguenots in Dresden. He also sang Don Carlos at Metropolitan Opera New York, Verdi’s Requiem at Teatro Regio in Parma, Le Château de Barbe-Bleue in concert with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and took part in the new production of Brett Dean’s Hamlet at Metropolitan Opera New York.

His recordings include Verdi’s Requiem, Idomeneo and La clemenza di Tito, Mahler’s Symphony N. 8. Many of his productions can be found on DVDs.

At the Paris Opera: Carmen (Escamillo), 2002; Bluebeard’s Castle (Duke Bluebeard), 2015, 2018