American Bass-baritone Brandon Cedel is a graduate of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, and was an ensemble member of Oper Frankfurt from 2016-2019.
Highlights in his 2025/26 season include Masetto Don Giovanni at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the title role in Le nozze di Figaro for the Atlanta Opera, and Father Palmer Silent Night in his debut for the Houston Grand Opera.
Recent appearances include Dulcamara L’elisir d’amore in his debut for the English National Opera; Garibaldo Rodelinda in his debut for Garsington Opera; the title role in Le nozze di Figaro; Bottom A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Leporello Don Giovanni and Argante Rinaldo for the Glyndebourne Festival; the title role in Hercules for the Karlsruhe Handel Festival and the Komische Oper, Berlin; the title role in Don Giovanni for the Atlanta Opera; Dan Brown in the world premiere of The Hours with the Philadelphia Orchestra/Yannick Nézet-Séguin and subsequently at the Metropolitan Opera; Masetto Don Giovanni for the Lyric Opera of Chicago; Collatinus The Rape of Lucretia and Magnifico La Cenerentola for the Boston Lyric Opera; the title role in Le nozze di Figaro for Opera Philadelphia and the Stuttgart Staatsoper; Goulaud Pelléas et Mélisande for Des Moines Metro Opera and Colline La bohème and Basilio Il barbiere di Siviglia for the Canadian Opera Company.
His many roles for Oper Frankfurt include Masetto, Sprecher Die Zauberflöte, Lieutenant Ratcliffe Billy Budd, Argante, Ariodate Serse, Cesare Angelotti Tosca, Brander La damnation de Faust and Achior in Mozart’s La Betulia Liberata.
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DONIZETTI L'elisir d'amore (Dulcamara)
English National Opera, Nov 2024
"Cedel has great fun as Dulcamara, his patter wonderfully clear, the mockery, humour and flashes of venality all superbly realised."
The Guardian
"Cedel, meanwhile, cheerfully runs away with the show – a big sunny transatlantic presence who never let his patter get out of control and was barely cynical at all. Vocally, he clicked particularly nicely with Lois’s flame-headed, Mitford-adjacent heiress[…]"
Spectator
"Garrulous and shameless, there was never a dull moment with Cedel on stage."
London Unattached
HANDEL Hercules (Hercules)
Komische Oper Berlin, Mar 2024
"Hercules, American bass-baritone Brandon Cedel, was perfectly cast, with sheer vocal power, especially impressive in the last scene where Hercules pleads for death to end his agony."
Zenaida des Aubris, Bachtrack
"The title character was portrayed by the American bass-baritone Brandon Cedel...the sheer vocal power is impressive in this visually powerful display."
Dr. Ingobert Waltenberger, Online Merker
HANDEL Rodelinda (Garibaldo)
The English Concert Tour, Nov-Dec 2023
"Brandon Cedel’s focused energy as villain Garibaldo brought another dimension to the line-up."
The Arts Desk
"With a weighty sound and color, he had the prototypical operatic villain voice, and it was marvelous to hear him lope through “Tirannia gli diede il regno” with precise and quick vocal footwork. As with all the singing, his mastery of the difficulties meant one heard the character’s scheming anger."
New York Classical Review
"The bass-baritone, Brandon Cedel, had that rare deep voice that could hit all the notes perfectly and boom out loudly (and he had a lovely semi-comic manner as well, which suited his role as the truth-telling bad guy in the plot)."
Threepenny Review
BRITTEN A Midsummer Night's Dream (Bottom)
Glyndebourne Festival, Jul 2023
"As Bottom, Brandon Cedel also has both vocal and acting chops, coming into his own with a good-humoured but, mercifully, not over-played Pyramus in Britten’s masterly, spoof-ridden opera-within-an-opera."
The Stage
"Brandon Cedel is a forthright Bottom, supported by a vividly characterised troupe of amateur actors, every one a joy."
Financial Times
"Brandon Cedel’s Bottom has many faces. At times, he is soft-grained and suddenly poetic. In the great Act three soliloquy, he floated unearthly high notes. Other times he was bullish and bursting with baritonal excess, like in the casting scene. His manifesting of this mutability is so important to the opera’s inner alchemy and Cedel did it with aplomb."
OperaWire
MOZART Le nozze di Figaro (Figaro)
Glyndebourne Festival, May 2022
"...Figaro, sonorously sung by Brandon Cedel, in excellent voice. Cedel is a formidable figure and gave us a larger than life barber underscored by some winning singing: there’s a touch of sugar in the higher register that contrasts appealingly with his oaky lower notes."
Bachtrack
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