Baritone Nathan Matticks has rapidly emerged as one of opera’s most exciting young talents. The 2023/2024 season concluded with Matticks placing among the winners at the prestigious Loren L. Zachary Competition Grand Finals in Los Angeles. Highlights of the season included an evening of French Grand Opera with Knoxville Symphony Chamber Orchestra in excerpts from Guillaume Tell, Le Pecheurs de Perles, Hamlet and Faust, as well as a return to his acclaimed portrayal of Verdi’s Rigoletto with Houston’s Opera in the Heights. His account of the role was hailed by The Houston Press as “a thunderous, yet sympathetic jester, whose vengeful wrath is heartfelt and terrifyingly portrayed.” The 2024/2025 season will include a reprise of Marcello in La Bohème for Charleston Opera Theater and a return to Charleston Symphony Orchestra for Handel’s Messiah.
The young baritone has been particularly admired in some of opera’s most difficult assignments. Of his performance in Verdi’s Il Trovatore The Houston Press gushed, “dressed in sharkskin, [he] turns di Luna into a fiery furnace, tearing through Verdi's impassioned lines without a sweat. He has power to spare, impeccable diction, and proud stage presence. He can boom with the best... Matticks is also fun to watch.” Opera Wire added, “Nathan Matticks as the Count, served as a “strong pillar on which the drama could rest.” Excelling in the difficult repertoire of Verdi, Puccini, Leoncavallo, Donizetti, and Rossini among others, several national media outlets have praised his “powerful baritone” (Opera World), “sonorous, full-voiced” quality of his singing (Parterre) and “suave baritone” (Broadway World).
The COVID-shortened 2019/2020 season began with Matticks achieving National Semi-Finalist honors at the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. He was a Regional Finals winner out of the New York City District. Carnegie Hall debuts in Ralph Vaughan Williams Dona Nobis Pacem and the John Rutter Mass of the Children for MidAmerica Productions were followed by a tenure with Florida Grand Opera which included title role assignments in Don Giovanni (Cover), Rigoletto (Cover), as well as Sharpless in Madama Butterfly (Cover) and a principal role debut as Count Robinson in Cimorsa’s Il Matrimonio Segreto. A return to Florida Grand Opera was slated for 2020 as Valentin in Gounod’s Faust but ultimately was canceled due to the COVID19 global pandemic.
Previous seasons have heard the baritone as Il Conte in Il Trovatore with Opera in the Heights for a live-streamed performance, Figaro in Il Barbiere Di Siviglia with Opera New Hampshire and Palmetto Opera, Sharpless in Madama Butterfly for a tour with Teatro Lirico d’Europa, Madama Butterfly and Kiss Me Kate with Opera North, La Bohème for Opera Connecticut, Rigoletto with Teatro Lirico d’Europa, Renato in Un Ballo In Maschera and Faust for Taconic Opera as well as notable New York City performances of Don Giovanni, Lucia Di Lammermoor (Enrico), Carmen (Escamillo), Manon Lescaut (Lescaut), I Pagliacci (Silvio) and The Merry Widow (Danilo).
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