Teddy Tahu Rhodes (Baritone)
New Zealand baritone Teddy Tahu Rhodes studied with Mary Adams Taylor, winning,
at the age of twenty, the Dame Sister Mary Leo Scholarship as New
Zealand’s most promising singer. In 1991, he was awarded the Mobil
Song Quest, enabling him to continue his studies at the Guildhall
School of Music and Drama in London and subsequently with David
Harper. Whilst resident in the UK, Teddy Tahu Rhodes was a finalist
in the Kathleen Ferrier Award, and performed in recital as part
of the Young Songmakers Almanac Concert Series, directed by Graham
Johnson.
In 1998, he made his debut as Dandini
(La Cenerentola) with Opera Australia and in 1999 sang
Sharpless (Madama Butterfly) with Canterbury Opera, Marcello
(La Boheme) and Silvio (I Pagliacci) for Opera New
Zealand. He represented New Zealand in the 1999 Cardiff Singer
of the World competition. His 2000 engagements included his return
to Opera Australia as Count Almaviva in The Marriage
of Figaro and Demetrius in A Midsummer Night’s Dream,
and his debuts with the Sydney Symphony and Queensland Symphony Orchestras.
In September 2000, he made a highly successful American debut
with San Francisco Opera as Joe in the world premiere of Jake
Heggie‘s Dead Man Walking. His many recordings include Faure’s Requiem,
Handel’s Messiah and a recital of Mozart arias. He filmed
The Little Prince for BBC television, and from the Metropolitan
Opera, he appears on the DVDs of Peter Grimes (EMI) and Carmen
(Deutsche Grammophon).
In 2001, he joined Opera Australia
as a resident principal artist, performing the roles of Guglielmo
(Cosi fan tutte), Belcore (L’elisir d’amore), Demetrius and
Harlekin (Ariadne auf Naxos). His engagements include Belcore
in Philadelphia; Stanley (A Streetcar Named Desire) with Austin
Lyric Opera, Washington Opera and the Theater an der Wien; Escamillo
(Carmen), Dandini, Don Giovanni, Stanley, Figaro and Lescaut for Opera
Australia; Dead Man Walking for State Opera of South Australia; Marcello
and Escamillo in Dallas; the Pilot (Rachel Portman’s The Little
Prince), Bendrix (Jake Heggie’s The End of the Affair), Count
Almaviva and Lescaut (Manon Lescaut) for Houston Grand Opera; Don
Giovanni, Count Almaviva and Guglielmo for Cincinnati Opera; Count Almaviva
in Washington; Papageno for Welsh National Opera; Escamillo and Henze’s
L’Upupa for Hamburg Opera; Escamillo for the Chatelet, Paris and
in Munich; and Lescaut in Leipzig. He made his debuts at the
Metropolitan Opera in Peter Grimes (returning for Escamillo),
at the Santa Fe Opera with his first Billy Budd, and for the New York
City Opera as Antony in concert performances of Barber’s
Antony and Cleopatra. Teddy sang his first Scarpia in Tosca for the
West Australian Opera.
Future engagements include South Pacific
for Opera Australia, Showboat for the Washington Opera, Stanley for the
Lyric Opera of Chicago and Escamillo for the Metropolitan Opera.
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