Arizona Opera Cast Members & Creatives

Winner of a 2012-13 Sullivan Career Grant, tenor Jason Slayden has been celebrated for the warmth and beauty of his voice, as well as demonstrating “considerable subtlety as an actor.”

This fall, Jason premiers with Gotham Chamber Opera in their double bill of Bohuslav Martinů’s Alexandre Bis and Veselohra na Mostĕ (Comedy on the Bridge) and returns to Arizona Opera to sing il Duca di Mantua in Verdi’s Rigoletto. In December he will return to Florida with the Jacksonville Symphony in Handel’s Messiah, and in the spring he debuts with Florida Grand Opera as Ferrando in Mozart’s Cosi fan Tutte and Austin Lyric Opera in Don Giovanni as Don Ottavio.

The 2013-2014 season brought several Verdi role debuts, including il Duca di Mantua in Rigoletto with Opera Memphis, Gabriele Adorno in Simon Boccanegra with Kentucky Opera, and Cassio in Otello for Nashville Opera. Also in 2014 was a reprise of his Roldofo for Arizona Opera’s La Bohème, hailed by the press as “impeccably expressive.” In concert that season he performed with the Jacksonville Symphony in Verdi’s Messa da Requiem, the Dayton Philharmonic for Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and with L’Opéra de Montreal for their Gala 18th Edition: A Verdi Celebration. In Verdi’s Requiem with the Portland Symphonic Choir critics said, “Slayden supplied a heroic tenor that was remarkably expressive and supported with terrific stamina. His “Ingemisco teamquam reus” (“I groan as a guilty one”) beautifully forged power with lyricism.”

The 2012-13 season marked Jason’s international debut, which attracted much critical acclaim. As Rodolfo in Vancouver Opera’s La Bohème, critics praised him as a “heartfelt, note-perfect tenor,” and said, “His ‘Che gelida manina’ was refreshingly realistic . . . and was dramatically as well as musically interesting.” Prior to that he was a Filene Young Artist with Wolf Trap Opera, where he performed Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, a recital with pianist Steven Blier, and the tenor solo in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the National Symphony Orchestra. Additional engagements for the 2012-2013 season included his debut with Minnesota Opera in Thomas’s Hamlet as Laerte, and a return to Des Moines Metro Opera to premiere his first Roméo in Roméo et Juliette.

Mr. Slayden joined the Seattle Opera as a Young Artist for the 2011-2012 season, where he made his main stage debut as Uldino in Verdi’s Atilla. In the Young Artist program, he sang the title role in Massenet’s Werther and Ernesto in Donizetti’s Don Pasquale. In 2011, Jason won the Gerda Lissner Foundation First Prize, a George London Foundation encouragement award, and was a Metropolitan Opera National council semi-finalist. That same year, Mr. Slayden returned to the Santa Fe Opera as a principal artist to sing the role of Andres in Berg’s Wozzeck and, at the last minute, stepped in to sing two performances of La Bohème as Rodolfo. He was an apprentice artist at Santa Fe in the 2009 and 2010 seasons, where he was awarded the Donald Gramm Memorial Award and the Richard Tucker Memorial Award for apprentices.

In concert, Mr. Slayden has also performed as a soloist with the Dayton Philharmonic in Rossini’s Stabat Mater, the Seattle Youth Symphony in Verdi’s Messa da Requiem, Utah Symphony Orchestra in Roméo et Juliette by Hector Berlioz, Concert: Nova in Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde and Musica Sacra Cincinnati in the Gounod Messe Solennelle de Saint-Cecile.