Chicago native David Govertsen recently stepped in on short notice at Lyric Opera of Chicago where he “handsomely replaced the ill Peter Rose as the producer La Roche” opposite Renée Fleming and Anne Sophie von Otter in Capriccio. Mr. Govertsen also appeared on short notice as Arkel in Pelléas et Mélisande with the Chicago Symphony under Esa-Pekka Salonen and as a soloist in James MacMillan’s Quickening with the Grant Park Orchestra. A former member of the Ryan Center at Lyric, his other mainstage assignments have included roles in Die Zauberflöte, Boris Godunov, Werther, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Madama Butterfly, and Roméo et Juliette. He returns to Lyric this season as the Sprecher in Die Zauberflöte and Priam in Les Troyens.

Mr. Govertsen recently created the roles of David/Bonobo in Matthew Aucoin’s new opera Second Nature for Lyric Opera Unlimited. Other operatic highlights of the past season include a reprise of La Roche at Santa Fe Opera, 2nd Soldier and 5th Jew in Salome with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and the title character in Cimarosa’s Il Maestro di Capella with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. On the concert stage this season he appeared with the Madison Symphony, Fort Wayne Philharmonic, Bach Week Festival, Battle Creek Symphony, and Champaign-Urbana Symphony Orchestra, among others.

Mr. Govertsen made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2011 as the Herald in Otello with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Riccardo Muti. He is an alumnus of both the Santa Fe Opera and Central City Opera apprentice programs and holds degrees from Northwestern University, Northern Illinois University and the College of DuPage. Locally in Chicago he has performed dozens of roles, among them the title roles in Don Giovanni, Le Nozze di Figaro, Don Pasquale, and Gianni Schicchi, the Four Villains/Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Sarastro/Die Zauberflöte, Colline/La Bohème, Basilio and Bartolo/Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Don Magnifico/La Cenerentola, Zaccaria/Nabucco, Sparafucile/Rigoletto, Padre Guardiano/La Forza del Destino, Nick Shadow/The Rake’s Progress, and Friedrich Bhaer/Little Women.