Arizona Opera Cast Members & Creatives
Joseph Barron
Hailed by Anthony Tommasini of the New York Times as “vocally robust” and “lyrically malevolent”, American Bass-Baritone Joseph Barron was a winner of the 2011 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and the 2013 Sullivan Foundation Awards. In the 2013-2014 season, Mr. Barron will debut with The Metropolitan Opera in Shostakovich’s The Nose, and will return to Opera Philadelphia as Leporello in Don Giovanni and Pittsburgh Opera as the Speaker in The Magic Flute and the Prophet/Larry King in Dark Sisters. Recently, Mr. Barron debuted at the San Francisco Opera in Mark Adamo’s world premiere of The Gospel of Mary Magdalene.
In the 2012-13 season, Mr. Barron appeared as Monterone in Rigoletto, Masetto in Don Giovanni, Geronimo in Il matrimonio segreto, The Bonze in Madama Butterfly, and Alidoro in La cenerentola with the Pittsburgh Opera. Other recent appearances include Ramfis in Aida at Glimmerglass Festival, Polyphemus in Acis and Galatea with the Aix-en-Provence Festival and La Fenice, Montano in Otello with Opera Company of Philadelphia, and Grandpa Moss in The Tender Land and Antonio in Le nozze di Figaro with Glimmerglass Opera.
Other roles Mr. Barron has performed recently include Count Rodolfo in La sonnambula, Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Seneca in L’incoronazione di Poppea, Commendatore in Don Giovanni, Enobarbus in Antony and Cleopatra, Wilhelm Reischmann in Elegy for Young Lovers, Friedrich Bhaer in Little Women, Erste Handwerksbursche in Wozzeck, Bartolo in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Dulcamara in L’elisir d’amore, Gaudenzio in Il signor Bruschino, and Don Prudenzio in Il viaggio a Reims.
Mr. Barron has also garnered top prizes from the Sullivan Foundation Awards, Opera Index Vocal Competition, Lucia Albanese-Puccini Foundation Competition, Gerda Lissner International Vocal Competition, and the Irma M. Cooper Opera Columbus Vocal Competition. He received his Master of Music at the Curtis Institute of Music and his Bachelor of Music from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music.
