Michael Wade Lee
Tenor
Continuing to thrill audiences worldwide with his powerful voice and amazing performances, critics have hailed American tenor Michael Wade Lee as “that rarity among operatic tenors, a really good-looking, virile, well-built and gifted thespian with a wide-ranging voice to match.”
Recent roles include Calaf in Turandot and Riccardo in Un Ballo in Maschera or the Aalto-Theater Essen; Don José in Carmen for the Estonian National Opera, Greek National Opera, San Antonio Opera, Staatstheater Mainz and Chautauqua Opera; Radames in Aida with Estonian National Opera, Lyric Opera Productions in Dublin and Annapolis Opera; Il Duca in Rigoletto with the Pittsburgh Opera, Estonian National Opera, San Antonio Opera, Wichita Grand Opera and Opera Birmingham (U.S.) and Festival Of The Aegean; Cassio in Otello with Opera North (U.K.); the title-role in Stiffelio for Theater Krefeld/Mönchengladbach and Theater Mannheim; Don José in Carmen and Gabriele Adorno in Simon Boccanegra for Theater Osnabrück; Alfredo in La Traviata for the Boston Lyric Opera; Manrico in Il Trovatore for the Wichita Grand Opera and Lyric Opera Productions in Dublin; Turiddu in Cavalleria Rusticana at Theater Krefeld/Mönchengladbach, Chelsea Opera, and the Kentucky Opera; and a return to Aalto-Theater Essen as Calaf in Turandot.
Other roles include Rodolfo in La Bohéme, Alfredo in La Traviata for the Estonian National Opera.; Luigi in Il Tabarro for the Bard Music Festival; Nemorino in L’Elisir d’Amore for the Glyndebourne Festival, Ireland; Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly with Musica Viva (Hong Kong) and Midland Opera; the Prince (cover) in Rusalka, twice with the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and twice with the Glyndebourne Festival Opera.
Concert appearances include Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with RTÉ Broadcast Orchestra Dublin, the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, The Raylynmor Tsunami Relief benefit and The Greater Bridgeport Symphony; the Verdi Requiem with the Kalamazoo Symphony and in Poland with Pilska Orkiestra Klasyczna. Other concert appearances include the First Guest in Dargomyzhsky The Stone Guest and the tenor solo in the North American Premier of Scherbachyov Symphony Blokovskaya with Leon Botstein and the American Symphony Orchestra. The New York Times said, “[Mr Lee] sang with attractive tone and stamina in the final movement, a lurid Dantean fantasy…”
He also sang the tenor solo in the Mozart Requiem and Jenkins in The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace, at Carnegie Hall and has appeared in concert with the San Francisco Opera Orchestra and on the stage at Avery Fisher Hall, Alice Tully Hall and Merkin Hall in New York City. Mr. Lee was consistently a yearly finalist in the Texoma region’s NATS competition in the early 1990’s and won the Metropolitan Opera National Council encouragement award in Indiana in 2000. Additional awards include a prestigious Merola Career Grant and the Pacific Opera Career Grant.