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 100 roles during his career. During the 2026/27 season roles include a Judge in a new production of Un ballo in maschera, Mime in Das Rheingold and he repeats his portrayal of Emperor Altoum in last season's new production of Turandot. Last season he enjoyed great success with Horace Adams in Peter Grimes, the Holy Fool & 3rd Angel / John in new productions of Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov and Benjamin's Written on Skin, Domino in Offenbach's The Bandits and the Bogus Assistant in Weill's The Tsar wants his Photograph Taken. These were preceded by 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), Valzacchi (Rosenkavalier) and Basilio / Don Curzio in the new Le nozze di Figaro. He also enjoyed great success with Captain Vere in Billy Budd, Don Alvar in a new production of Meyerbeer's L’Africaine (get the CD! Oehmsclassics) and roles including The Abbot / Tempter & Tempter / Nebuchadnezzar (new Prodigal Son / Burning Fiery Furnace double bill), Goro & Yamadori (Madame Butterfly), the White Minister (new Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre), Monostatos (Die Zauberflöte), Witch (Hänsel und Gretel), Doge (Rossini's 5 tenor Otello), Triquet (Eugene Onegin) , 2nd Jew (Salome), Rouvel (Giordano's Fedora) and Antonio (Rossini's Thieving Magpie). Roles in earlier seasons included Johnny Inkslinger (Paul Bunyan), Dancing Master (Ariadne auf Naxos), Fedotik (Eötvös’ Tri sestri / Three Sisters - get the CD!), Prior Walter (Angels in America), Antonio (The Tempest), the Duke of Cornwall (Reimann's Lear - get the CD!), Mastro Trabuco in La forza del destino and Fürst Hérisson de Porc-Epic (Chabrier's L’Étoile). He trained in Boston and appeared in Frankfurt as a guest before joining the ensemble. Other recent engagements 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.