Morgan Smith is represented by Rayfield Allied worldwide.

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Morgan Smith

Baritone

  • The fine baritone, Morgan Smith, impressed as Marcello
    Kyle MacMillan, The Denver Post
  • American baritone Morgan Smith makes a welcome return to the SFO as Starbuck, singing with power and conviction as the crewman who comes to admire his captain despite his alarming personal demons.
    Philip Campbell, The Bay Area Reporter
  • The real star of the cast was baritone Morgan Smith, whose Starbuck joined vocal splendor, moral authority and deep empathy in a phenomenal combination.
    Joshua Kosman, SFGate
  • Morgan Smith was simply terrific as the first mate, Starbuck.
    Lawrence A. Johnson, The Classical Review
  • The performance, by baritone Morgan Smith...was beyond praise, and the ovation that followed was rewarded with an immediate encore — a rare treat at the premiere of a substantial piece of new music.
    Bernard Jacobson, The Seattle Times
  • The poignancy of his acting, the agony in his big voice, had the audience riveted as he brought to life Scheer’s beautiful lyrics drawn from Lewin’s diary with Heggie’s music.
    Philippa Kiraly, The Sun Break

  • American baritone, Morgan Smith, begins the 2012-13 Season with his return to San Francisco Opera for his revival of the role of Starbuck in Jake Heggie’s highly successful new American opera, Moby-Dick.  He travels to Oper Leipzig (where he became a member of the ensemble in 2009) for the role of Figaro Il Barbiere di Siviglia, and remains to sing Billy The Rise and Fall of the city of Mahagonny, Papageno Die Zauberflote, Marcello La Boheme and Guglielmo Cosi fan tutte.  A frequent collaborator with the composer, Jake Heggie’s work takes center stage again when Mr Smith revives Manfred For a Look or a Touch in Kansas City with the Heartland Men’s Chorus.  He closes the season at Glyndebourne Festival as cover for Figaro Le Nozze di Figaro.

    Morgan Smith has established himself as one of the most exciting baritones in opera today.  A graduate of Columbia College and Mannes College of Music in New York City, he became a member of the Seattle Opera young artist program in 2001 where he remained for two seasons, during which time he made his professional debut as Donald Billy Budd, and where he sang roles such as the title role Don Giovanni, Silvio I Pagliacci, Riccardo I Puritani, and Peter Niles Mourning becomes Electra.

    Recent successes include his company debut at San Diego Opera as Starbuck Moby-Dick, a role he inaugurated in the world premiere at Dallas Opera in 2010.  The artist made his Opera Colorado debut as Marcello, and at Oper Leipzig he appeared as Whitelaw Savory One Touch of Venus.  Mr Smith considers the opportunity to collaborate with composer Jake Heggie on the world premiere and recording (NAXOS) of his dramatic chamber work, For a Look or a Touch, among his most rewarding personal and artistic experiences.  This one-act opera for baritone, actor, piano quintet, percussion, and 200-strong male voice choir (premiered in Seattle in April, 2011) will have a multi-city European tour in June, 2014.

    Morgan Smith made his European debut in the 2009-2010 Season at Berlin Staatsoper as Marcello, and at Oper Leipzig as Rossini’s Figaro, Papageno, Marcello and Leandre The Love for Three Oranges. In the 2008-2009 Season, audiences heard him as Escamillo Carmen at Fort Worth Opera and Morales and Zuniga at Los Angeles Opera. At Portland Opera, he appeared as Dandini La Cenerentola.

    Adept in all kinds of contemporary repertoire, Morgan Smith created the role of Ted Steinert in Thomas Pasatieri’s Frau Margot in the world premiere at Fort Worth Opera and on the recording (Albany Records). He inaugurated the role of “Harry or Larry” in the New York premiere of Elliot Carter’s What Next? at The Miller Theater; he covered Gerald Finley as Robert Oppenheimer in the world premiere of John Adams’ Dr. Atomic, commissioned by San Francisco Opera; he sang the world premiere of Richard Cumming’s Aspects of Hippolytus with Hartford Symphony, and created the title role in the Tony Kushner/Maurice Sendak adaptation of Hans Krasa’s children’s opera, Brundibar (recorded by NAXOS). 

    Other roles in the artist’s repertoire include Don Alvaro Il Viaggio a Reims, Slook La Cambiale di Matrimonio, Top The Tenderland, and Belcore L’elisir d’amore. Roles in preparation include Count Almaviva Le Nozze di Figaro, Joseph DeRocher Dead Man Walking, Malatesta Don Pasquale, title role Billy Budd, Sharpless Madama Butterfly, Wolfram Tannhaueser, Zurga Les Pecheurs de Perles, and Rodrigo Don Carlo.

    A regular on the concert stage, Mr Smith recently made his Dallas Symphony debut in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, and debuted with the San Antonio Symphony for the North American premiere of Vier Präludien und Ernste Gesänge, Detlef Glanert’s orchestral adaptation of the beloved cycle by Brahms. Other concert repertoire includes Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, the Requiems of Brahms, Faure, Mozart and Durufle; the Mass in C Minor of both Mozart and Vaughan Williams, Bach’s B Minor Mass and numerous Cantatas, Weihnacht’s Oratorium, Handel’s Messiah and L’allegro Spirituoso, Haydn’s The Creation and Lord Nelson Mass. Conductors who have joined him on the podium include Jaap van Zweden, Patrick Summers, Donald Runnicles, Gerard Schwarz, Eduardo Mueller,  Ulf Schirmer, Sebastian Lang-Lessing, George Manahan, Richard Buckley, Vyekeslav Sutej, Christopher Larkin, Joseph Colaneri, Richard Cummings, Jack Everly, William Lacey, Dean Williamson and Ken Masur.

    Future engagements include Tadeusz The Passenger in the North American premiere at Houston Grand Opera and the Lincoln Center Festival, Fritz Die Tote Stadt at Dallas Opera, Don Giovanni at Austin Lyric Opera, and as Marcello at San Diego Opera.

    Morgan Smith is represented worldwide by Deborah Sanders at Rayfield Allied.
    This biography is for information only and should not be reproduced.

    • Moby Dick, San Francisco Opera
      Oct 2012

      Morgan Smith was simply terrific as the first mate, Starbuck. […] Smith brought dramatic authority to the conflicted Christian first mate and sang with a burnished baritone and stern power while also bringing a nostalgic yearning to his moments of homesickness for his wife and family.
      Lawrence A. Johnson, The Classical Review
      American baritone Morgan Smith makes a welcome return to the SFO as Starbuck, singing with power and conviction as the crewman who comes to admire his captain despite his alarming personal demons.
      Philip Campbell, The Bay Area Reporter
      The real star of the cast was baritone Morgan Smith, whose Starbuck joined vocal splendor, moral authority and deep empathy in a phenomenal combination.
      Joshua Kosman, SFGate
      One sets a tender conversation between Greenhorn and Starbuck, the principled first mate, who becomes lost in a reverie, recalling his wife Mary and young son back in Nantucket. Baritone Morgan Smith, as Starbuck, has a strapping voice, sturdy as a mahogany beam, but here he sings with lovely, cooing sweetness.
      Richard Scheinin, Mercury News

    • La Bohème, Opera Colorado
      Sept 2010

      The fine baritone, Morgan Smith, impressed as Marcello.
      Kyle MacMillan, The Denver Post

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