Renowned not only for his luxurious voice, confidence, and style, but also for his versatility and ability to bring a character to life on stage, bass-baritone Kyle Albertson is taking the business by storm. In his recent debut as Wotan in Wagner’s epic masterpiece Die Walküre, in Maestro Jaap van Zweden’s final performance with the Dallas Symphony, Theater Jones exclaimed, “the most impressive aspect of this performance came undoubtedly from Wotan…his voice masterfully brought the character to life…Albertson’s interactions throughout the performance with his most beloved daughter, Brünnhilde were ingenuously convincing. Coupled with Albertson’s commanding, though endearing, baritone, these moments did not seem like an opera concert at all, rather a fully realized engagement of dramatic and musical interpretation.” The Dallas News called his performance “gripping… I can’t recall the opera’s final parting of father and daughter so emotionally intense…this high-intensity performance will surely rank as a legend in Dallas musical history.” And the Texas Classical Review declared he “delivered a quietly dramatic presence in his monologue relatively early on in Act II which gradually built up to the final scene three hours later in which he allowed his luxuriant tone quality to resonate at full volume before slipping gently into the mournful farewell aria ‘Leb’ wohl’.” This tour-de-force performance left no doubt that the next American Wotan had arrived.

Albertson’s first foray into Wagner’s demanding vocal universe came in his house début at Lyric Opera of Chicago for their production of Das Rheingold, and subsequently performed the role of Donner in Minnesota Opera’s production shortly thereafter. This past season, he covered Wotan in Francesca Zambello’s production of Der Ring des Nibelungen for San Francisco Opera, sang DeGuiche in Cyrano with Opera Carolina, Sharpless in Madama Butterfly with New Jersey Festival Orchestra, Sam in Trouble in Tahiti with Opera Parallel at SFJazz, JP Morgan in the World Première of Tesla with SoBe Arts in Miami, and returned to the Phoenicia Festival as Escamillo in Carmen. Additional roles in his repertoire include Pizarro in Fidelio, Jochanaan in Salome, the title role in Der fliegende Holländer, Scarpia in Tosca, Jack Rance in La fanciulla del West, and Claggart in Billy Budd.

This season, engagements include a return to the Lyric Opera of Chicago for their production of Siegfried, a house début with San Diego Opera to perform the role of Sparafucile in Rigoletto, a reprisal of his performance as Lieutenant Horstmayer in Kevin Puts’ Silent Night with Arizona Opera, and his European house début with Oper Köln as Frank Maurant in Street Scene.

He first joined The Metropolitan Opera roster for Don Giovanni and returned for five consecutive seasons in their productions of Le nozze di Figaro, Die Zauberflöte, Dialogues des carmélites, The Merry Widow, and Manon.

With Houston Grand Opera he performed the role of Sacristan in Tosca; with Atlanta Opera, the Sergeant of Police in Pirates of Penzance; Zuniga in Carmen with Dallas Opera; Lyndon B. Johnson in the workshop of David T. Little’s JFK with Fort Worth Opera; the title role of Sweeney Todd with Syracuse Opera; Lieutenant Horstmayer in Silent Night with Opera San José; Lescaut in Manon Lescaut with Opera Grand Rapids; Count Monterone in Rigoletto for Austin Lyric Opera; Magnifico in La Cenerentola with El Paso Opera; DeGuiche in Cyrano with Michigan Opera Theatre; Sharpless in Madama Butterfly at Northern Lights Music Festival; Porthos in Les Trois Mousquetaires with Phoenicia Festival; Rucker Lattimore in Cold Sassy Tree with Sugar Creek Opera Festival; and the roles of the Prison Warden in Dead Man Walking, Hobson in Peter Grimes, and the Duke in Roméo et Juliette all with Des Moines Metro Opera. Of his performance as Bartolo in Il barbiere di Siviglia at Fort Worth Opera, The Dallas Morning News raved: “With a drop-dead gorgeous bass-baritone, Kyle Albertson is younger than the usual Dr. Bartolo, but he’s no less delightful an object of mockery. When he turns on his falsetto to demonstrate an aria from his youth, he sounds like the famously out-of-tune Florence Foster Jenkins.”

A sought-after concert artist, a few recent highlights of his concert career include a solo in Bruckner’s Te Deum with Houston Symphony; the bass solo in Verdi’s Requiem with The Händel Society of Dartmouth; Händel’s Messiah with Boise Philharmonic; Papageno in Boston Youth Symphony’s concert performance of Die Zauberflöte at Symphony Hall; a Carnegie Hall début in Rutter’s Mass of the Children; and a concert version of Der Rosenkavalier with Christoph Eschenbach and the National Symphony.

Albertson is a graduate of The Santa Fe Opera Program, Minnesota Resident Artist Program, The Glimmerglass Festival, Aspen Opera Theater Center, and Chicago Opera Theater. He appeared in a variety of productions during his training including Les contes d’Hoffmann, Le nozze di Figaro, Un ballo in maschera, Roméo et Juliette, La donna del lago, as well as performed the roles of Escamillo in Carmen, Harašta in The Cunning Little Vixen, Geronimo in Cimarosa’s Il matrimonio segreto, Gus O’Neill in John Musto’s Later the Same Evening, Nilakantha in Lakmé, to which critics hailed “Kyle Albertson made an imposing Nilakantha, bringing life to a character that is barely two-dimensional.” and finally Quince in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Henry Kissinger in Nixon in China, lauded by The Chicago Sun Times and The Chicago Tribune for his “watchful” and “effective” portrayal.

Mr. Albertson has placed as a finalist in several competitions such as The Gerda Lissner Foundation International Vocal Competition, the George London Foundation Competition, the Marcello Giordani Competition, the Liederkranz Competition, and the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. He holds a Master of Music degree from DePaul University where he studied with world renowned mezzo-soprano Susanne Mentzer, and a Bachelor of Music from the University of Northern Iowa where he studied with David Smalley. He is currently in the studio of Dr. Steven King.