American tenor, Russell Thomas is one of today’s most admired and stylistically versatile artists on the world’s most important stages. His 2019/20 season included role debuts as Don Alvaro in La forza del destino (Deutsche Oper Berlin, new production), Radames in Aida (Houston Grand Opera, new production – Thomas later reprised the role at Canadian Opera Company), and his return to the title role of Otello (Washington National Opera). Last season Thomas sang his first staged Otello performances (Canadian Opera Company, then Deutsche Oper Berlin). He also starred in Il trovatore (Bayerische Staatsoper, Lyric Opera of Chicago), Idomeneo (Salzburg Festival, new Peter Sellars production), his first Roberto Devereux (San Francisco Opera), and La clemenza di Tito (LA Opera). Thomas has previously enjoyed great successes as Beethoven’s Florestan (Cincinnati); Bellini’s Pollione (Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Toronto, Valencia); Verdi’s Stiffelio (Frankfurt), Don Carlo (Washington, Berlin), and Gabriele Adorno (London); and Puccini’s Rodolfo (Met), among many other roles. He has also been featured with such ensembles as the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, and Boston Symphony Orchestra. Thomas created the role of Lazarus in John Adams and Peter Sellars’s The Gospel According to the Other Mary, and has performed that work at English National Opera, the Ravinia Festival, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, which commissioned it. Thomas is an alumnus of the Metropolitan Opera, Seattle Opera, Florida Grand Opera, and Opera Theatre of St. Louis young-artist programs. In 2010, he swept the Grand Prize, Audience Prize, and Tenor Prize of the Francisco Viñas Competition in Barcelona, Spain.