Daniel Belcher
Encyclopedia
Daniel Belcher is an American
opera
tic baritone
who has sung at many of the world's leading opera house
s. He notably portrayed the role of John Brooke in the world premiere of Mark Adamo
's Little Women
and played the role of Andy Warhol
in the premiere of Michael Daugherty
's Jackie O
, both with the Houston Grand Opera
(HGO). He is particularly admired for his portrayal of Rossini heroes with Dandini in La Cenerentola
and Figaro in The Barber of Seville
being two of his signature roles.
, where he graduated with a degree in voice in 1992. He then pursued graduate voice studies at the Juilliard School
from 1992–1996. While attending Juilliard, he spent his summers as a member of Central City Opera
's Young Artist Program (1993–1995), singing only as a member of the opera chorus.
From 1997–1999 Belcher was a member of the Houston Grand Opera
's Young Artist Program. He made his professional opera debut with the company as Andy Warhol in the world premiere of Michael Daugherty
's Jackie O
on March 14, 1997. He sang several more roles with the company during this time, including Count Dominik in Richard Strauss
's Arabella
(1998) with Renée Fleming
in the title role. and Mr. Lindquist in Stephen Sondheim
's A Little Night Music
(1999) He also sang in two more world premieres with the company, portraying the role of John Brooke in Mark Adamo
's Little Women
(1998) and the roles of Baklashov, Prison Inspector, and Prisoner #2 in Tod Machover
's Resurrection (1999). He reprised the role of John Brooke with the HGO in a 2001 performance that was recorded live for broadcast on PBS's Great Performances
and for commercial release on DVD and CD. He has since performed the role of John Brooke numerous times, including productions with the Central City Opera
(2001) and New York City Opera
(2003).
In 2002 Belcher made his debut with the San Francisco Opera
as Harlequin in Ariadne auf Naxos
. He has since returned to the company to portray Dandini in La Cenerentola (2003) and Papageno in The Magic Flute
(2008).
In the 2008–2009 season, Belcher performed Marcello in La bohème
with the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Taddeo in L'italiana in Algeri
with the Opera Company of Philadelphia
, and Ned Keene in Peter Grimes
at the Grand Théâtre de Genève
.
On February 13, 2011, Daniel Belcher won his first Grammy Award in the category of Best Opera Recording for his work on "Saariaho: L'Amour de Loin", alongside of conductor Kent Nagano, Ekaterina Lekhina & Marie-Ange Todorovitch, and producer Martin Sauer.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
tic baritone
Baritone
Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or...
who has sung at many of the world's leading opera house
Opera house
An opera house is a theatre building used for opera performances that consists of a stage, an orchestra pit, audience seating, and backstage facilities for costumes and set building...
s. He notably portrayed the role of John Brooke in the world premiere of Mark Adamo
Mark Adamo
Mark Adamo is an Italian American composer and librettist born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. While he has composed the symphonic cantata "Late Victorians, "Four Angels: Concerto for Harp and Orchestra," and six substantial choral works, the composer’s principal work has been for the opera house:...
's Little Women
Little Women (opera)
Little Women is the first opera composed by American composer Mark Adamo to his own libretto after Louisa May Alcott's tale of growing up in New England after the American Civil War, Little Women. The opera also includes text by John Bunyan , Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Little Women (1998) is the...
and played the role of Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol
Andrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
in the premiere of Michael Daugherty
Michael Daugherty
Michael Kevin Daugherty is an American composer, pianist, and teacher. Influenced by popular culture, Romanticism, and Postmodernism, Daugherty is one of the most colorful and widely performed American concert music composers of his generation...
's Jackie O
Jackie O (opera)
Jackie O is a chamber opera in two acts composed by Michael Daugherty to a libretto by Wayne Koestenbaum. The 90 minute work, commissioned by Houston Grand Opera in 1995 and premiered in 1997, is inspired by American musical and popular culture of the late 1960s and episodes in the life of...
, both with the Houston Grand Opera
Houston Grand Opera
Houston Grand Opera Houston Grand Opera was founded in 1955 through the joint efforts of Maestro Walter Herbert and cultural leaders Mrs. Louis G. Lobit, Edward Bing and Charles Cockrell...
(HGO). He is particularly admired for his portrayal of Rossini heroes with Dandini in La Cenerentola
La Cenerentola
La Cenerentola, ossia La bontà in trionfo is an operatic dramma giocoso in two acts by Gioachino Rossini. The libretto was written by Jacopo Ferretti, based on the fairy tale Cinderella...
and Figaro in The Barber of Seville
The Barber of Seville
The Barber of Seville, or The Futile Precaution is an opera buffa in two acts by Gioachino Rossini with a libretto by Cesare Sterbini. The libretto was based on Pierre Beaumarchais's comedy Le Barbier de Séville , which was originally an opéra comique, or a mixture of spoken play with music...
being two of his signature roles.
Biography
Belcher grew up in St. Joseph, Missouri and attended William Jewell CollegeWilliam Jewell College
William Jewell College is a private, four-year liberal arts college of 1,100 undergraduate students located in Liberty, Missouri, U.S. It was founded in 1849 by members of the Missouri Baptist Convention and other civic leaders, including Robert S. James, a Baptist minister and father of the...
, where he graduated with a degree in voice in 1992. He then pursued graduate voice studies at the Juilliard School
Juilliard School
The Juilliard School, located at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City, United States, is a performing arts conservatory which was established in 1905...
from 1992–1996. While attending Juilliard, he spent his summers as a member of Central City Opera
Central City Opera
Central City Opera is the fifth-oldest opera company in the United States, founded in 1932. Each festival is presented in the 550-seat historic Central City Opera House built in 1878 in the gold mining era town of Central City, Colorado. Pelham G...
's Young Artist Program (1993–1995), singing only as a member of the opera chorus.
From 1997–1999 Belcher was a member of the Houston Grand Opera
Houston Grand Opera
Houston Grand Opera Houston Grand Opera was founded in 1955 through the joint efforts of Maestro Walter Herbert and cultural leaders Mrs. Louis G. Lobit, Edward Bing and Charles Cockrell...
's Young Artist Program. He made his professional opera debut with the company as Andy Warhol in the world premiere of Michael Daugherty
Michael Daugherty
Michael Kevin Daugherty is an American composer, pianist, and teacher. Influenced by popular culture, Romanticism, and Postmodernism, Daugherty is one of the most colorful and widely performed American concert music composers of his generation...
's Jackie O
Jackie O (opera)
Jackie O is a chamber opera in two acts composed by Michael Daugherty to a libretto by Wayne Koestenbaum. The 90 minute work, commissioned by Houston Grand Opera in 1995 and premiered in 1997, is inspired by American musical and popular culture of the late 1960s and episodes in the life of...
on March 14, 1997. He sang several more roles with the company during this time, including Count Dominik in Richard Strauss
Richard Strauss
Richard Georg Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which include Der Rosenkavalier and Salome; his Lieder, especially his Four Last Songs; and his tone poems and orchestral works, such as Death and Transfiguration, Till...
's Arabella
Arabella
Arabella is a lyric comedy or opera in 3 acts by Richard Strauss to a German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal, their sixth and last operatic collaboration. It was first performed on 1 July 1933, at the Dresden Sächsisches Staatstheater....
(1998) with Renée Fleming
Renée Fleming
Renée Fleming is an American soprano specializing in opera and lieder. Fleming has a full lyric soprano voice.Fleming has performed coloratura, lyric, and lighter spinto soprano repertoires. She has sung roles in Italian, German, French, Czech, and Russian, aside from her native English. She also...
in the title role. and Mr. Lindquist in Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Joshua Sondheim is an American composer and lyricist for stage and film. He is the winner of an Academy Award, multiple Tony Awards including the Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre, multiple Grammy Awards, a Pulitzer Prize and the Laurence Olivier Award...
's A Little Night Music
A Little Night Music
A Little Night Music is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by Hugh Wheeler. Inspired by the Ingmar Bergman film Smiles of a Summer Night, it involves the romantic lives of several couples. Its title is a literal English translation of the German name for Mozart's Serenade...
(1999) He also sang in two more world premieres with the company, portraying the role of John Brooke in Mark Adamo
Mark Adamo
Mark Adamo is an Italian American composer and librettist born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. While he has composed the symphonic cantata "Late Victorians, "Four Angels: Concerto for Harp and Orchestra," and six substantial choral works, the composer’s principal work has been for the opera house:...
's Little Women
Little Women (opera)
Little Women is the first opera composed by American composer Mark Adamo to his own libretto after Louisa May Alcott's tale of growing up in New England after the American Civil War, Little Women. The opera also includes text by John Bunyan , Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Little Women (1998) is the...
(1998) and the roles of Baklashov, Prison Inspector, and Prisoner #2 in Tod Machover
Tod Machover
Tod Machover , is a composer and an innovator in the application of technology in music. He is the son of Wilma Machover, a pianist and Carl Machover, a computer scientist....
's Resurrection (1999). He reprised the role of John Brooke with the HGO in a 2001 performance that was recorded live for broadcast on PBS's Great Performances
Great Performances
Great Performances, a television series devoted to the performing arts, has been telecast on Public Broadcasting Service public television since 1972...
and for commercial release on DVD and CD. He has since performed the role of John Brooke numerous times, including productions with the Central City Opera
Central City Opera
Central City Opera is the fifth-oldest opera company in the United States, founded in 1932. Each festival is presented in the 550-seat historic Central City Opera House built in 1878 in the gold mining era town of Central City, Colorado. Pelham G...
(2001) and New York City Opera
New York City Opera
The New York City Opera is an American opera company located in New York City.The company, called "the people's opera" by New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, was founded in 1943 with the aim of making opera financially accessible to a wide audience, producing an innovative choice of repertory, and...
(2003).
In 2002 Belcher made his debut with the San Francisco Opera
San Francisco Opera
San Francisco Opera is an American opera company, based in San Francisco, California.It was founded in 1923 by Gaetano Merola and is the second largest opera company in North America...
as Harlequin in Ariadne auf Naxos
Ariadne auf Naxos
Ariadne auf Naxos is an opera by Richard Strauss with a German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Bringing together slapstick comedy and consuming beautiful music, the opera's theme is the competition between high and low art for the public's attention.- First version :The opera was originally...
. He has since returned to the company to portray Dandini in La Cenerentola (2003) and Papageno in The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute is an opera in two acts composed in 1791 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a Singspiel, a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue....
(2008).
In the 2008–2009 season, Belcher performed Marcello in La bohème
La bohème
La bohème is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions quadro, a tableau or "image", rather than atto . by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on Scènes de la vie de bohème by Henri Murger...
with the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Taddeo in L'italiana in Algeri
L'italiana in Algeri
L'italiana in Algeri is an operatic dramma giocoso in two acts by Gioachino Rossini to an Italian libretto by Angelo Anelli, based on his earlier text set by Luigi Mosca...
with the Opera Company of Philadelphia
Opera Company of Philadelphia
The Opera Company of Philadelphia is an American opera company in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and is the city's only company producing grand opera. The organization produces four fully staged opera productions annually, encompassing works from the seventeenth through the 21st century...
, and Ned Keene in Peter Grimes
Peter Grimes
Peter Grimes is an opera by Benjamin Britten, with a libretto adapted by Montagu Slater from the Peter Grimes section of George Crabbe's poem The Borough...
at the Grand Théâtre de Genève
Grand Théâtre de Genève
Grand Théâtre de Genève is an opera house in Geneva, Switzerland.As with many other opera houses, the Grand Théâtre de Genève is both a venue and an institution. The venue is a majestic building, towering over Place Neuve, officially opened in 1876, partly destroyed by fire in 1951 and reopened in...
.
On February 13, 2011, Daniel Belcher won his first Grammy Award in the category of Best Opera Recording for his work on "Saariaho: L'Amour de Loin", alongside of conductor Kent Nagano, Ekaterina Lekhina & Marie-Ange Todorovitch, and producer Martin Sauer.