Arizona Opera Cast Members & Creatives

A rich, buttery voice. A wide emotional scope and actor’s grace. A stage presence that captivates the hearts of audiences. These accolades and more have followed baritone Andrew Stuckey, whose opera and concert performances are widely acclaimed for their visceral power and rich beauty. His exploration of the character’s complex persona, reviewers noted, was displayed winningly in arias whose vocal agility ranged from pensive whispers to despairing outbursts. Stuckey’s interpretation of Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor with the Syracuse Opera and the Connecticut Grand Opera brought praise for his “unusual sensitivity.”

Stuckey’s many and varied roles speak to his accomplished voice and broad appeal. He sang the title role of Rigoletto with Opera on the James. He had the honor of working with the late maestro Lorin Maazel as Michele in Il tabarro, Sonora in La fanciulla del West and Iago in Otello. As the black-hearted Iago in Opera Roanoke’s stellar production, the Roanoke Times deemed Stuckey’s portrayal “not to be missed.” With the Festival Lyrique-en-mer in France he debuted, with great success, the title role in the comic opera Falstaff, following up with Germont in La Traviata, a role he has perfected with several opera companies, including Santa Fe Opera, Opera Delaware and Opera New Jersey.

Stuckey has put his unique stamp on many varied roles including Tonio in I Pagliacci, and Sharpless in Madama Butterfly, Don Pizarro in Fidelio, the title role in Gianni Schicchi, and the High Priest in Samson et Dalila. He has interpreted these and other leading roles for opera houses throughout the United States, including the Washington National Opera, San Francisco Opera, and the opera houses of Santa Fe, Baltimore, Palm Beach, Portland, Augusta, Tulsa, Kansas City, St. Louis and Sarasota.

In addition to his prodigious talent as a singer, Stuckey is a consummate professional who has proven himself well able to meet the rigors of the stage. As an understudy in a Lyric Opera Company of Chicago production of Madama Butterfly, he once stepped in to take the role of Sharpless with just four hours’ notice. Also, last minute, he was recruited to sing Acts 3 and 4 of Mephistopheles in the opening night of Gounod’s Faust with the Kansas City Lyric Opera.

No stranger to concert work, Stuckey has had the privilege of performing Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Dvorak’s Te Deum, Britten’s War Requiem, Handel’s Messiah, Verdi’s Requiem, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, and Mozart’s Requiem, among other beloved classics of the concert repertoire.

He was chosen by the Lyric Opera of Chicago for its two-year apprentice program, out of a field of more than 1,200 performers to audition. Prior to that, he was a resident artist for the Portland Opera and apprenticed twice with the Santa Fe Opera. Over the years, he has received many prestigious prizes, awards and grants, including the Sara Tucker study grant, the William Matheus Sullivan Foundation grant and The Union League grant. He won first prize in both the Florida Grand Opera’s Young Patronesses of the Opera competition and the Palm Beach Opera competition. He was also a National Semi-Finalist for the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.

In the pursuit of excellence, Stuckey credits the enormous influence of renowned singers, teachers, directors, conductors, and coaches who have guided his career. He has had the pleasure of working professionally with many respected opera singers, including Bryn Terfel, Renee Fleming, Renata Scotto, Mirella Freni, Susan Graham, Frank Lopardo, Marcello Alvarez and Dmitri Hvorostovsky. He credits much of his success to his vocal coaches and voice teachers Daniel Beckwith, Eric Weimer, Craig Rutenberg, Richard Boldin, Donna Brunsma, Phil Morehead, Jerry Langenkamp, John Stephens and Marlena Malas.