American baritone John Chest’s “presence and delivery complement the dark, rich colours in his voice” (Opera Now).
Recent and forthcoming engagements include Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus at Vancouver Opera (2024), John Cree in Elizabeth Cree at The Glimmerglass Festival (2024), Marcello in La Bohème with Trondheim Symfoniorkester’s Opera (2024), Demetrius in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Teatro Carlo Felice in Genova and in Muscat, Oman (2023/2024), Guglielmo in Così
Fan Tutte (2023) at Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Figaro in Il Barbiere di Siviglia at Belcanto Opera Festival Rossini in Wildbad and with the Krakow Philharmonic (2023), Mendelssohn’s Die erste Walpurgisnacht at Teatro Massimo di Palermo; a concert tour with Maxim Emelyanychev and Il Pomo D’Oro of Handel’s Theodora alongside compatriots Joyce DiDonato, Lisette Oropesa and Michael Spyres.
Other recent operatic engagements include Figaro in Il Barbiere di Siviglia at Teatro Regio di Torino; Conte d’Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro at Opéra National de Lyon; a thrilling debut as Rodrigue in a new production of Don Carlos at Theater Basel; the title role in Billy Budd at Deutsche Oper Berlin and San Francisco Opera; Pelléas Pelléas et Mélisande at Glyndebourne; Albert Werther at the Théâtre des Champs Elysées; Nick Carraway The Great Gatsby for Staatsoper Dresden; Valentin Faust for Théâtre du Capitole Toulouse and Teatro Real Madrid; title role in Don Giovanni for Angers-Nantes Opéra; Figaro Il barbiere di Siviglia, Papageno Die Zauberflöte, Ford Falstaff, and Silvio Pagliacci at Deutsche Oper Berlin; Guglielmo Così fan tutte at Bayerische Staatsoper, Hamburgische Staatsoper and Deutsche Oper Berlin; Il Conte d’Almaviva Le nozze di Figaro for Grand Theatre de la Ville de Luxembourg,
Opera Philadelphia and Deutsche Oper Berlin; Marcello La bohème at Washington National Opera and Semperoper Dresden; Nardo La finta giardiniera and Demetrius A Midsummer Night’s Dream for Festival d’Aix-en-Provence; and Ned Keen Peter Grimes for Norwegian Opera.
Equally passionate about art song, Chest has sung recitals at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Paris Philharmonie, Essener Philharmonie and Wigmore Hall. He has recorded Brahms’ Die schöne Magelone with Marcelo Amaral and can be heard on all four volumes of Malcolm Martineau’s The Complete Songs of Fauré.
In 2017 Chest represented the United States at the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition. The same year he was awarded a Career Grant by the Richard Tucker Music Foundation. He received the top prize at the prestigious 2010 Stella Maris International Vocal Competition and the Arleen Auger Prize in the 2012 Hertogenbosch International Vocal Competition. He was a member of the ensemble of the Deutsche Oper Berlin until September 2016 and is a graduate of the Bayerische Staatsoper Opernstudio, where he sang over eighty main stage performances. He has held apprenticeships with the Santa Fe Opera and the Chicago Opera Theater, and took part in the esteemed Merola Opera Programme. Chest holds a Master of Music from the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University, where he studied with David Holloway.
