Performance Year: 2018
Tenor David Margulis is emerging as a tenor with a bright future on international opera stages. He has been called “radiant voiced,” and been praised for his “clear, pleasing tenor.” Of his recent portrayal of Tamino in Die Zauberflöte in his mainstage debut at Arizona Opera, Opera Today raved: “David Margulis was an energetic Tamino who was only momentarily laid low by Pollard’s iconic monster. He sang with sumptuous lyrical sounds conveyed on a well-honed legato.” The upcoming 2016-17 season includes debuts with Opera Nationale de Lorraine, Opera Orlando, Zürcher Kammerorchester, and Opera Grand Rapids.
This past fall, he joined the prestigious Internationalen Opernstudio at Opernhaus Zürich where he will demonstrate his refined dramatic sensibilities in a variety of operas including Jonathan Dove’s musical fairy tale The Enchanted Pig, Rossini’s colorful comic opera Le comte Ory, Haydn’s rarely seen “heroic-comic drama” Orlando paladino, Mozart’s hilarious comic singspiel Der Schauspieldirektor, and Tchaikovsky’s Pique Dame. He finished the season with a debut at the Verbier Festival, singing Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni.
In recent engagements, Margulis made his main stage debuts as Borsa (Duke cover) in Rigoletto at Opera Santa Barbara, and in the The Impresario/Le Rossignol double bill at Santa Fe Opera. Margulis also participated in the inaugural New York Festival Song at North Fork program in Orient, New York with Steven Blier, performed Beethoven’s 9th Symphony for the opening night of the Phoenix Symphony’s season, and was seen at the Tucson Desert Song Festival performing on a program for the Ravinia Steans Music Institute on Tour with Kevin Murphy.
Additionally, Margulis has been engaged by some of the finest training programs in the country, where his assignments have included: Goro in Madama Butterfly and Léon in The Ghosts of Versailles at Wolf Trap Opera; Ernesto in Don Pasquale, Alfredo in La traviata, Steuermann in Die Fliegende Holländer, Ralph Rackstraw in H.M.S. Pinafore, Basilio/Curzio in Le nozze di Figaro, and Arturo in Lucia di Lammermoor at Arizona Opera; Young Servant in Elektra at Des Moines Metro Opera; Selimo in Maometto II at Santa Fe Opera; Molqi in The Death of Klinghoffer at Opera Theatre St. Louis; and Tybalt in Roméo et Juliette at Seagle Music Colony. While a Fellow at the Ravinia Steans Music Institute, he was privileged to work with some of the most respected coaches and conductors in the world, including Kevin Murphy, Malcolm Martineau, and James Conlon.
Mr. Margulis is earning a reputation as a champion of new works after being a part of numerous workshops of new pieces, including the workshop performance of Theodore Morrison’s first opera, Oscar, at The Santa Fe Opera and the workshop première of Bohmler’s Riders of the Purple Sage at Arizona Opera. He has premièred several new works including the tenor solo in Robert Kyr’s Pacific Sanctus.
Mr. Margulis holds degrees from the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, The University of Washington, and Florida State University. David is a three time Regional Finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.
