BARRINGTON LEE, BASS-BARITONE
BIOGRAPHY
Barrington Lee is captivating audiences across the world -- from his 2012 international operatic debut at Deutsche Oper Berlin in Prokofiev's L'amour des trois oranges to his 2018 musical theater debut as Jud Fry in Oklahoma! at The Denver Center for the Performing Arts.
This season Mr. Lee will join the ensemble of Ricky Ian Gordan's new opera Intimate Apparel at The Lincoln Center Theater. In 2018/19 he made his musical theater debut as Jud Fry in Oklahoma! at The Denver Center for the Performing Arts, he will perform in an invitation-only concert presentation as Noel/Bum/Grandpoppy Ralph/Overeaters in Mary & Max (a new musical by Bobby Cronin) at The Mary Rodgers Room, and his debut as King Arthur in Camelot with Charlottesville Opera.
Last season was filled with critically acclaimed performances for Mr. Lee. He was heard as Il Commendatore & Masetto Don Giovanni with Heartbeat Opera, Alberich Das Rheingold with Pittsburgh Festival Opera, Amonasro Aida with The International Verdi Society, and he debuted as Bass Soloist in Beethoven's 9th Symphony with the New Haven Symphony Orchestra.
Throughout his career, Mr. Lee has been featured at landmark venues such as Teatro Sodre in Uruguay and the world-renowned Mozarteum Argentino Festival in Buenos Aires, Argentina. In Harlem Opera Theater's historic revival of Harry Lawrence Freeman's Voodoo Mr. Lee sang the Priest Fojo, and he starred as Jake in the world premiere of Zenobia Powell Perry's Tawawa House with Townsend Opera.
Mr. Lee boasts a diverse repertoire that only someone with his unique combination of beautiful resonant vocalism and stunning dramatic interpretation could deliver. In addition to roles already mentioned, Mr. Lee has sung Sharpless Madama Butterfly with Amore Opera, Escamillo Carman and Orest Elektra with Opera Manhattan, Frank Chambers in Paulus' The Postman Always Rings Twice with Opera Avanti, and Herald in Britten's The Burning Fiery Furnace with Atlantic Vocal Society. Other engagements for the Greenville, South Carolina native have included Amonasro in Aida with Lyric Artists of New York, Morelos & Jackson in Lucien Lambert's La Flamenca with OperaCréole, and his debut under the baton of Arie van Beek with L'Orchestre de Chambre de Genève as Sam in Gershwin's Blue Monday.
Not only do audiences rise in ovation but even the toughest critics love Barrington Lee. The New York Times described him as portraying Priest Fojo with "passionate commitment"; Opera News praised his "impressive double duty as the Commendatore and Masetto" saying that he "slip[ed] so completely into each character that only his round, resonant bass-baritone gave him away." Indeed, Barrington Lee's performances are impressive and memorable. With versatility, vulnerability, and passion he is rapidly staking his claim as America's pre-eminent bass-baritone.