{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"Returning to the stage with Ryan McKinny","description":"Recognized by Opera News as \u201cone of the finest singers of his generation,\u201d American bass-baritone Ryan McKinny has earned his reputation as an artist with something to say. His relentless curiosity informs riveting character portrayals and beautifully crafted performances, reminding audiences of their shared humanity with characters on stage and screen. This season, McKinny brings his agile stage presence and comedic skill to performances of Mozart\u2019s Le nozze di Figaro on both U.S. coasts. He first appears as the titular Figaro in a Richard Eyre production at New York City\u2019s Metropolitan Opera, with an all-star cast that includes Golda Schultz, Lucy Crowe, Isabel Leonard, and Adam Plachetka. He then makes his Seattle Opera debut reprising the role in a Peter Kazaras production, under the baton of Alevtina Ioffe. In between productions \u2013 and coasts \u2013 McKinny joins collaborative pianist Kathleen Kelly for a recital at the Lied Center of Kansas, featuring works by Schumann, Debussy, Mahler, and Kurt Weill. In summer 2022, he joins the Boston Symphony at Tanglewood as the title character in Don Giovanni, with Andris Nelsons on the podium. He concludes the season with the Philadelphia Orchestra at Saratoga Performing Arts Center, appearing as soloist in Beethoven\u2019s Ninth Symphony with conductor Yannick N\u00e9zet-S\u00e9guin. Offstage, McKinny continues to adapt the beauty of his art form to the film screen, collaborating on a documentary with Jamie Barton and Stephanie Blythe. Through his work with Helio Arts, he commissions artists to write, direct, and film original stories, leveraging his personal power to help elevate new voices and visions in the classical performing arts world. During the pandemic, he has partnered with artists like J\u2019Nai Bridges, Russell Thomas, John Holiday, and Julia Bullock to create stunning and innovative performances for streaming audiences at Dallas Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, On Site Opera, and the Glimmerglass Festival. McKinny\u2019s recent debut as Joseph De Rocher in Jake Heggie and Terrence McNally\u2019s Dead Man Walking at Lyric Opera of Chicago was hailed by the Chicago Tribune as an \u201can indelible performance...an acting tour de force buttressed by a warmly inviting voice.\u201d He has also appeared as the title character in Don Giovanni (Washington National Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera), Escamillo in Carmen (Semperoper Dresden, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Staatsoper Hamburg, Houston Grand Opera), and Mozart\u2019s Figaro (Washington National Opera, Wolf Trap Opera, Houston Grand Opera). McKinny made a critically acclaimed Bayreuth Festival debut as Amfortas in Parsifal, a role he has performed around the world, including appearances at Argentina\u2019s Teatro C\u00f3lon, Deutsche Oper am Rhein, and Dutch National Opera. Other Wagnerian roles include Kurwenal in Tristan und Isolde (Deutsche Oper Berlin, Houston Grand Opera, Canadian Opera Company), Biterolf in Tannh\u00e4user and Kothner in Die Meistersinger von N\u00fcrnberg, both at the Metropolitan Opera, Wotan in Op\u00e9ra de Montr\u00e9al\u2019s Das Rheingold, Donner\/Gunther in Wagner\u2019s Ring cycle (Washington National Opera, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Houston Grand Opera), and the titular Dutchman in Der fliegende Holl\u00e4nder (Staatsoper Hamburg, Milwaukee Symphony, Glimmerglass Festival, Hawaii Opera Theater). McKinny is a frequent guest artist at Los Angeles Opera, where he has sung Count Alamaviva in Le nozze di Figaro, Don Basilio in Il barbiere di Siviglia, and Stanley Kowalski in Previn\u2019s A Streetcar Named Desire, opposite Ren\u00e9e Fleming as Blanche DuBois, and at Santa Fe Opera, where he has appeared as Jochanaan in Salome and Oppenheimer in Doctor Atomic. An alumnus of the Houston Grand Opera Studio, Mr. McKinny has made a number of important role debuts on the HGO mainstage, including the iconic title roles of Don Giovanni and Rigoletto. McKinny is a long-time artistic collaborator of composer John Adams and director Peter Sellars, having appeared in Sellars productions of Adams\u2019 Girls of the Golden West (San Francisco Opera, Dutch National Opera) and Doctor Atomic (Santa Fe Opera), in addition to Adams\u2019 Nixon in China with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He has also performed under Sellars\u2019 direction in Stravinsky\u2019s Oedipus Rex (Sydney Festival), Tristan und Isolde (Canadian Opera Company), and Shostakovich\u2019s Orango with the London Philharmonia and Los Angeles Philharmonic, the latter comprising Esa-Pekka Salonen\u2019s final concerts as music director. Other recent orchestral engagements include Beethoven\u2019s Symphony No. 9 and a double bill of Michael Tilson Thomas\u2019 Rilke Songs and Mahler\u2019s Des Knaben Wunderhorn with San Francisco Symphony, Mahler\u2019s Symphony No. 8 and Bernstein\u2019s Mass with Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Beethoven\u2019s Symphony No. 9 with Cleveland Orchestra and National Symphony, Rossini\u2019s Stabat Mater at Grant Park Music Festival, Britten\u2019s War Requiem with Marin Alsop and Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and Oedipus Rex with Chicago Symphony. McKinny benefited from early educational opportunities at the Aspen Music Festival, where he sang his first performance of Winterreise accompanied on the piano by Richard Bado, and at the Wolf Trap Opera Company, where he sang Barone di Kelbar in Verdi\u2019s Un giorno di regno, Le Gouverneur in Rossini\u2019s Le comte Ory and Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro. McKinny made his Carnegie Hall debut in Handel\u2019s Messiah with the Musica Sacra Orchestra while still a student at the Juilliard School. The first recipient of Operalia\u2019s Birgit Nilsson Prize for singing Wagner, McKinny has also received the prestigious George London-Kirsten Flagstad Award, presented by the George London Foundation to a singer undertaking a significant Wagnerian career. McKinny represented the United States in the 2007 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition, where he was a finalist in the Rosenblatt Recital Song Prize, and he was a Grand Finalist in the 2007 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, captured in the film The Audition. ","author_name":"Opera Uprising","author_url":"https:\/\/www.OperaUprising.com","html":"