Filipino-American tenor RODELL ROSEL was recently heard singing Altoum/Turandot, Second Jew/Salome, Ruiz/Il trovatore and Benvolio/Roméo et Juliette with Lyric Opera of Chicago. He debuted at Lyric Opera on opening night of the 2005-2006 season as Remendado/Carmen, and has since appeared as the First Priest/Magic Flute, Borsa/Rigoletto and Faninal’s Major-domo/Der Rosenkavalier.
An alumnus of the Ryan Opera Center (formerly Lyric Opera Center for American Artists), the Manila native studied at the University of California in Los Angeles, where he sang the title role in Britten’s Albert Herring and leading roles in Mozart, Rossini and Ravel, also appearing as tenor soloist in The Creation, Messiah and the Mozart Requiem. Other roles he has sung include Basilio/Le nozze di Figaro, Tinca/Il tabarro and Kaspar/Amahl and the Night Visitors.
Mr. Rosel was a 2005 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions Grand Finals Winner, a third-place winner at the Palm Beach Opera Vocal Competition, a second-place winner at the Lotte Lenya Vocal Competition, and a Loren Zachary National Vocal Competition finalist. He has received scholarships from, among others, The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.
He returns to Lyric Opera of Chicago in 2008 for Falstaff as Bardolfo, and he will be making his opera/role debut as Goro in Madama Butterfly with Pittsburgh Opera in fall 2007, and as Squeak in Billy Budd with Houston Grand Opera in spring 2008.
He is currently with Wolf Trap Opera Company, in scheduled performances of John Musto's Volpone (as Cornaccio), and Mozart's Magic Flute (as Monostatos).