Michael McCown
tenor
© Barbara Aumüller
The American tenor Michael McCown, a popular member of the ensemble at Oper Frankfurt since 2001, has built up a repertoire of more than 90 roles during his career. During the 2024/25 season he repeats his wonderful portrayals of Leonard (Nielsen's Masquerade), Paisi (Tchaikovsky's Sorceress - get the DVD!), Borsa (Rigoletto), Happy Prisoner / Sapkin (Janáček's From the House of the Dead) and Valzacchi (Rosenkavalier) and sings Basilio / Don Curzio in last season's new Le nozze di Figaro. He enjoyed great success last season as the White Minister & Domino in new productions of Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre & Offenbach's The Bandits, Monostatos in Die Zauberflöte and the Doge in Rossini's 5 tenor Otello and, the season before, in new productions of Britten's The Prodigal Son (Abbot / Tempter) & The Burning Fiery Furnace (Nebuchadnezzar). Other recent roles for the company have included Spoletta (Tosca), Schoolmaster / Mosquito (The Cunning Little Vixen), the Witch (Hänsel und Gretel), Triquet (Eugene Onegin) and Yamadori (Madama Butterfly), 2nd Jew in Salome, Rouvel in Giordano's Fedora, Antonio in Rossini's La gazza ladra / Thieving Magpie, Yamadori in a new production of Madama Butterfly, and Tinca in Puccini's Il tabarro. He also enjoyed great success here with Captain Vere in Billy Budd, Mime in Das Rheingold, Don Alvar in a new production of Meyerbeer's L’Africaine (get the CD! Oehmsclassics). Other roles in former seasons have included Johnny Inkslinger (Paul Bunyan), the Witch (Hänsel and Gretel), a Dancing Master (Ariadne auf Naxos), Fedotik (Eötvös’ Tri sestri / Three Sisters), Prior Walter (Angels in America), Antonio (The Tempest), the Duke of Cornwall (Reimann's Lear - get the CD! OehmsClassics), Mastro Trabuco in La forza del destino, Fürst Hérisson de Porc-Epic (Chabrier's L’Étoile) and Monostatos (Die Zauberflöte). This tenor, who trained in Boston, appeared at Oper Frankfurt as a guest before joining the ensemble. Recent engagements have included appearances at the Festwochen in Vienna, the Aldeburgh Festival, the Aalto Theater in Essen, the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, the Darmstadt, Nürnberg and Wiesbaden state theatres and Schauspielfrankfurt.