Bass
Oren Gradus is a recent graduate of the Houston Grand Opera Studio.
While in Houston, the Brooklyn native performed numerous roles on the
company’s main stage, including Gremin in Eugene Onegin,
Sparafucile in Rigoletto, Don Alfonso in Così fan
tutte, the Capitán in Daniel Catán’s Florencia
en el Amazonas, Seneca in L’incoronazione di Poppea,
Zuniga in Carmen, and the King in Aida. Other recent
engagements included Mr. Gradus’ Wolf Trap Opera debut as Figaro
in Le nozze di Figaro and Peter Quince in A Midsummer Night’s
Dream (summer 2001), as well as Colline in Glimmerglass Opera’s
production of La bohème (summer 2000).
After graduating from the Oberlin Conservatory with a Bachelor of Music
in Vocal Performance and from Oberlin College with a B.A. in English,
Mr. Gradus joined the Pittsburgh Opera Center. As a member of that company
during the 1997-98 and 1998-99 seasons, he appeared as Raimondo in Lucia
di Lammermoor, Prince Gremin in Eugene Onegin, Don Alfonso
in Così fan tutte, and Capellio in Bellini’s I
Capuleti ed I Montecchi. He also performed on that company’s
main stage as Colline in La bohème. Other credits include
the roles of the Commendatore in Don Giovanni and Haly in L’Italiana
in Algeri with San Francisco Opera’s Merola Program, and
Pistola in Falstaff and Ulysses S. Grant in The Mother
of Us All for Glimmerglass Opera. Mr. Gradus has also attended
the Ezio Pinza Council for American Singers of Opera program in Italy
and the Israel Vocal Arts Institute in Tel Aviv. He has worked with
such noted conductors as Patrick Summers, Robert Spano, John Fiore,
Stewart Robertson, Roberto Abbado, Alain Lombard, George Manahan and
Jane Glover.
Mr. Gradus received a 2002 Richard Tucker Career Grant, won first prize
at the 2001 MacAllister Awards for Opera Singers, was awarded a 1999
Sullivan Foundation Career Grant Award and won first prize in the Collegiate
Division at the 1998 MacAllister Awards.
Recent engagements in the summer of 2002 included the Old Hebrew in
HGO’s production of Samson et Dalila, his debut with
Opera Theatre of Saint Louis as Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte,
and a return to Wolf Trap Opera, where he sang Frank Maurrant in Street
Scene and Ariodate in Xerxes.
During the 2002-2003 season he sings Colline in La bohème
and the King of Scotland in Handel’s Ariodante, both
with the Houston Grand Opera, and makes his Metropolitan Opera debut
as Masetto in Don Giovanni followed by the Guardian of Orestes
in Elektra. Immediately thereafter, Mr. Gradus sings Masetto
in the Dallas Opera’s Don Giovanni and then makes his
European opera debut in the title role in Le nozze di Figaro
with the Opéra de Marseille.
