November 2, 2023 6:30 pm

Quinn Kelsey, baritone

Quinn Kelsey began his career in opera in 1991 as a chorus member with the Hawai’i Opera Theatre. The last 30 years have taken the Hawai’i native many places and have put the baritone on many different stages in the U.S. and abroad. He received the Bachelor of Music degree in performance from the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa.

Kelsey’s list of programs and study include the Chautauqua Institute with Marlena Malas, San Francisco’s Merola Opera Program under Sherri Greenwald and Mark Morash, and three years at Chicago’s Lyric Opera Center for American Artists, now known as the Ryan Opera Center. For two seasons, Kelsey was accepted to the roster of the Marilyn Horne Foundation.

This past spring, Kelsey debuted as the lead in Verdi’s Macbeth with the Canadian Opera Company with sopranos Alexandrina Pendatchanska and Tracy Cantin, tenor Matthew Cairns, and bass Önay Köse, conducted by Speranza Scappucci. The 2022–23 season ended with a return to the Met for La bohème, while this past June, the baritone made his long-awaited debut as the baritone soloist in Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem with soprano Lisette Oropesa, conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.

The 2023–24 season began promptly at Opera Philadelphia with another Verdi debut, as Kelsey welcomed Simon Boccanegra to his repertoire in late September, joined by soprano Ana María Martínez, tenor Richard Trey Smagur, and bass-baritone Christian Van Horn, with Corrado Rovaris at the podium.

On the heels of Simon, the baritone will add yet another new Verdi to the list. Performances of Un Ballo in Maschera at the Metropolitan Opera begin in late October and run through November. Kelsey joins soprano Angela Meade, mezzo-soprano Olesya Petrova, and tenor Charles Castronovo in his role debut, while Carlo Rizzi conducts.

The Kelsey clan will be in Europe starting in late November until March 2024. First, a house debut with the Teatro Real in Madrid in a new production of Rigoletto. The cast includes soprano Ruth Iniesta, tenor John Osborn, and bass Andrea Mastroni, while friend and mentor Nicola Luisotti conducts. In 2024, the baritone will make another role debut, as Filippo Visconti in Bellini’s Beatrice di Tenda with the Opéra National de Paris. Cast includes soprano Tamara Wilson, mezzo-soprano Natalia Kutateladze, and tenor brothers Pene and Amitai Pati, with Mark Wigglesworth conducting. Kelsey is excited to finally return to Paris after a seven-year hiatus since Rigoletto in 2016. The baritone made the decision to cancel contracts for Il trovatore and Lucia di Lammermoor the beginning of this year to celebrate the birth of his daughter, Leonora.

Quinn Kelsey appears courtesy of The Metropolitan Opera.