Performance Year: 2019
Two-time Grammy Award winning baritone Gabriel Manro has been called “a new kind of baritone: not lyric, not helden, not Kavalier, not Bariton-Martin — none of those. Rather, he’s a knock-down baritone.” —San Francisco Classical Voice. Indeed, Manro regularly sings dramatic baritone roles such as Don Carlo di Vargas (La forza del destino), Andrei Shchelkalov (Boris Godunov), and Tonio (I Pagliacci)
Opera News describes Manro as “Gifted with a striking, sinister baritone that remains strong, even and sonorous throughout the range, he tears into Verdi’s music with a vengeance.” — Opera News.
Mr. Manro made his professional operatic debut as Third Inmate in Jake Heggie’s ground-breaking opera Dead Man Walking for Opera Pacific with Frederica von Stade. He went on to perform the role of Inquisitor in Opera Pacific’s Candide. Mr. Manro has appeared in numerous contemporary and world-premiere operas:
As Muscovite Trader in John Corigliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles (Pentatone Music: Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording), as the Mousling in the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Alice in Wonderland by Unsuk Chin, the Computer in Los Angeles Opera’s The Fly by film composer Howard Shore (Lord of the Rings Trilogy); as The Chauffeur in Opera Santa Barbara’s Séance on a Wet Afternoon by Stephen Schwartz (Wicked, Godspell); and as Angry Voter in Los Angeles Opera’s Il Postino (Sony Classical DVD). Manro created the role of President Lincoln in Golden Gate Opera’s world-premiere Civil War Epic: Lincoln and Booth. Off-Broadway, Mr. Manro led the original cast of Center for Contemporary Opera’s production of Oration by Line Tjørnhøj. On television, Manro appeared as Joel Lynch and Father Jackson in the European premiere live telecast of William Mayer’s: A Death in the Family at the Hungarian National Theater and Opéra Grand D’Avignon which was voted “audience favorite” opera by Mezzo and TBS Network viewers.
Mr. Manro made his European operatic debut as Doctor Bartolo (Il barbiere di Siviglia) with Corfu Opera in Greece. His extensive repertoire and engagements have also included the roles of Duke Bluebeard (Bluebeard’s Castle), Count Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro), Guglielmo, Don Alfonso (Cosí fan tutte), Belcore (L’elisir d’amore), Frédéric (Lakme), Enrico (Lucia di Lammermoor), Giorgio Germont (La traviata), Schaunard, Coline, Marcello (La bohème), Dandini, Alidoro (La Cenerentola), Alfio (Cavalleria Rusticana), Escamillo (Carmen), Scarpia (Tosca) and Superintendent Budd (Albert Herring). Equally at home in Musical Theater, he has performed numerous roles including Curly (Oklahoma!), Tony (The Most Happy Fella), Abner (Li’l Abner), Schroeder (You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown), Lank Sanders (Girl Crazy), Mr. Brownlow (Oliver!), Harrison Howell (Kiss Me Kate), James Hayes (South Pacific) and the Governor (Man of La Mancha). Manro has recently returned to the operatic stage after an extended run as Jafar in Walt Disney Company’s Aladdin directed by Francesca Zambello. See Manro next as Biboldo in Tuscon Desert Song Festival’s premiere of Llantos 1492, the world’s first flamenco opera.
