Matthew Worth
Hailed by The New York Times for a voice that is “fully powered and persuasively expressive”, Matthew Worth is quickly becoming the baritone of choice for innovative productions and contemporary works on the operatic leading edge. In 2013 he created the role of Father Flynn in the world premiere of Doubt at Minnesota Opera. The Pioneer Press raved, “Matthew Worth matches her [soprano Christine Brewer as Sister Aloysius] with a note-perfect performance as Father Flynn. A baritone asked to traverse a tremendous expanse in this role, both musically and in characterization, Worth makes him complex and fascinating, charismatic and conflicted.” He returns to Minnesota Opera in the 2014–2015 season as Sergeant Raymond Shaw in the world premiere of The Manchurian Candidate, the second opera from Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Kevin Puts and librettist Mark Campbell, and makes his Chautauqua Opera debut in summer of 2015 as the title role in Eugene Onegin.
The European premiere of that duo’s Silent Night features Matthew as Lieutenant Audebert in his European debut with Wexford Festival Opera in Ireland. The current season also includes a world premiere song cycle by Gregg Kallor, Zurga in The Pearl Fishers with Dayton Opera, and Carmina burana with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Louis Langrée. This fall, Matthew will join composer David T. Little and librettist Royce Vavrek for a first look at JFK, the eagerly anticipated new opera slated to premiere at Fort Worth Opera in 2016. Future seasons also include Naga, a world premiere with Beth Morrison Projects.
In the 2013–2014 season, Matthew debuted as Starbuck in the East Coast premiere of Moby-Dick with Washington National Opera, as Sam in Trouble in Tahiti with the Festival del Sole, and joined the Boston Symphony Orchestra for Candide at Tanglewood. He also returned to Pittsburgh Opera as the title character in Philip Glass’s Orphée, a role he debuted at Virginia Opera, with Opera News writing, “Matthew Worth enacted the title part to the hilt. Tall, rangy and virile, he emerged fully worthy of his adoring fans.”
Also lauded for his work in the standard operatic repertoire, Matthew’s Guglielmo (Così fan tutte) was deemed “vocally impeccable … open and incisive” by the Boston Classical Review. Other notable roles include Figaro (Il barbiere di Siviglia), Mercutio (Roméo et Juliette), Valentin (Faust), Harlequin (Ariadne auf Naxos), and Tarquinius (The Rape of Lucretia). He has performed leading roles at Santa Fe Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Castleton Festival, Tanglewood Festival, Boston Lyric Opera and Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, under such luminary conductors as James Levine, Lorin Maazel, and Sir Andrew Davis.
Matthew is a committed recitalist and active concert soloist. In 2013, he performed Schumann’s Dichterliebe and Mahler’s Songs of a Wayfarer with the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, and was praised by the New York Times as “simply superb, singing with exquisite sensitivity”. His ongoing collaboration with pianist Tyson Deaton includes a program of American classics. Matthew made his Carnegie Hall debut as a soloist in Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem under James DePriest while still a student at the Juilliard Opera Center. He made his Alice Tully Hall debut with the Richmond Choral Society in Carmina Burana, a piece he also performed under Robert Spano with the Atlanta Symphony. Matthew has been featured in concerts with the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Boston Pops Orchestra, and has performed with conductors Donald Runnicles and James Conlon.
