Arizona Opera Cast Members & Creatives

Known for his “agile character tenor” and “over-the-top committed” portrayals, tenor Dylan Anthony Morrongiello is an emerging force in the highly sought-after supporting repertoire of the operatic canon. During the 2021/22 Season, Morrongiello will join the roster of the Lyric Opera of Chicago covering Monostatos in The Magic Flute, and the Metropolitan Opera making his debut singing the Dean in Cinderella and covering Don Curzio and Don Basilio in Le nozze di Figaro, Player 2 in Brett Dean’s Hamlet, and Sellem in The Rake’s Progress.

Morrongiello’s recent scheduled engagements included his debut with the prestigious Opera Theater of Saint Louis, where he was scheduled to perform the role of Dr. Blind in Die Fledermaus (COVID-19) and cover the roles of Elder Hayes and Little Bat in Carlyle Floyd’s Susannah (COVID19). In the 2019/20 Season, he made his debut in the roles of St. Brioche in The Merry Widow and Borsa in Rigoletto with St. Petersburg Opera, made a company debut with Cincinnati Song Initiative, performing songs of John Musto at Ithaca College, and was scheduled to make his role and company debut at First Coast Opera, singing various roles in The Little Prince (COVID-19). In the summer of 2021, Mr. Morrongiello returned to St. Petersburg Opera as Beppe in Pagliacci.

In the summer of 2019, Morrongiello made his company debut as an apprentice artist with Central City Opera, where he made his role debut as Goro in Madama Butterfly at the Odescalchi Kelly Family Matinee and covered Red Whiskers in Billy Budd. Having recently completed a residency in the Florida Grand Opera studio, Morrongiello performed Don Basilio/Curzio in Le nozze di Figaro and Mr. Ford in Frida on the FGO main stage. While in Miami, Morrongiello also frequently performed in local concerts and as part of the SongFest recital series. Other recent credits include Il Podestà in Mozart’s La finta giardiniera, the Jazz Trio in Leonard Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti with the Shepherd School Opera, and a return to the Glimmerglass Festival to perform the combined roles of the Schoolmaster and the Mosquito in a new English-language production of Leoš Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen, and covering the role of the Kronprinz in Kevin Puts’ Silent Night.

In 2017, Morrongiello made his debut as a young artist at The Glimmerglass Festival where he performed the role of Ali Hakim in Rodgers’ and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! and sang in numerous concert and ancillary events, including a special appearance with Stephen Schwartz. The contract also included covering the role of Edmondo in Donizetti’s L’assedio di Calais. Morrongiello has also made repeat engagements with Opera Saratoga as a young artist, appearing as Don Curzio in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, and covering roles in Daniel Catan’s Il Postino and Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas.

In concert, Morrongiello was recently featured as tenor soloist in Bach’s St. John’s Passion and Magnificat with the Bach Society Houston, Evangelist in Bach’s St. Matthew’s Passion with the Rice University Chorale, under the direction of Thomas I. Jaber, and in a coproduction with Da Camera of Houston and the Moody Center for the Arts of Sarah Rothenberg’s multimedia production “A Proust Sonata.”

A skilled musician and sought after for new works, Morrongiello has frequently been enlisted by modern auteurs to premier their compositions. Most recently, Morrongiello created the role of The Voice He in Franklin Piland’s Rose Made Man, an opera focusing on transgender issues, in collaboration with the Cohen New Works Festival at the University of Texas at Austin School of Theatre and Dance. Also, while at the University of Texas at Austin, Dylan appeared in the orchestral premiere of David Hanlon’s Past the Checkpoints, a piece telling the stories of undocumented immigrants in the Rio Grande Valley.

An avid supporter of the art song repertory, Morrongiello is a seasoned recitalist and interpreter of American art song. An alumni of the SongFest Institute in Los Angeles, California, Morrongiello was the recipient of a Schubert Fellowship to study and perform art song repertoire. With this honor came the privilege of performing numerous public master classes and concerts, including a special program celebrating the songs and poetry of California, featuring poet laureate and former NEA chairman Dana Gioia.

Morrongiello is a past winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions Houston district, and an Encouragement Award winner in the Gulf Coast Region. Morrongiello holds a Masters of Voice from the prestigious Shepherd School of Music at Rice University in Houston, Texas, where he was a recipient of the Elva Kalb Dumas Prize in Music, and holds a Bachelors from the University of Texas at Austin Butler School of Music.