Born in Clinton, Iowa, the American bass-baritone Kyle Ketelsen studied at the Universities of Iowa and Indiana. He won the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and was awarded the Richard Tucker Career Grant. His interpretations of the roles of Escamillo from Bizet’s Carmen, which he has performed at the Met and in San Francisco, Madrid, and Amsterdam, and of Leporello from Mozart’s Don Giovanni, which has been seen at Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera, and the Bavarian Staatsoper, as well as in Aix-en-Provence, are especially acclaimed. Other significant credits include Golaud from Debussy’s Pelléas and Méphistophélès from Gounod’s Faust at Zurich Opera, Mozart’s Figaro at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, and Nick Shadow from Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress at the Royal Opera House in London. In the 2019-20 season, he will appear in the title role of Messiaen’s St. François d’Assise at the Grand Théâtre de Genève.
August 2019