Matthew Curran, bass, is known as a commanding presence on stage with a beautifully lyric voice, balancing his strength as an actor with musicality and rich vocalism. He is a versatile performer, comfortable in opera, concert, chamber music and musical theater. Critics have described him as having “the voice of a poet,” a sound “that is confident and comes with a twinkle.”
He returns to Skagit Opera after singing Figaro in Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro in 2007, a role he most recently reprised with Washington East Opera. During the summer of 2007, was heard as Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte and Frère Laurent in Roméo et Juliette with New Jersey Opera, where he has previously sung Pistola in Falstaff, Don Alfonso in Cosi Fan Tutte and Dr. Bartolo in Le Nozze di Figaro. Critics hailed his Sarastro as “suave and debonair” and sung with “fluid nobility.” With American Opera Projects, he sang The Boiler Maker and The Doctor in Heart of Darkness, an opera after the Novella by Joseph Conrad, by Tarik O’regan. He also sang Basil in Lowell Lieberman’s The Picture of Dorian Gray with Center City Opera Theater in Philadelphia. He appeared with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra as Edwin Cheney in Daron Hagen’s opera on the life of Frank Lloyd Wright, Shining Brow.
After two seasons with the Seattle Opera Young Artist program singing Colline in La Boheme, Don Magnifico in Cenerentola and debuting on the main stage there as Zaretsky and The Captain in Eugene Onegin, he was a member of the Zurich Opera International Opera Studio singing Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte für Kinder, Macrobio in Rossini’s La Pietra del Paragone, Max Hammer (der Feind) in the Operetta Der Musikfeind and numerous small roles on the main stage along side many of the world’s biggest names. He was Sparafucile and Monterone in Rigoletto with The Opera Company of Brooklyn and sang the Blind Ballad Singer in Britten’s Gloriana as an apprentice artist with Central City Opera. He also appeared at the Aspen Summer Music Festival as Snug in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and in small roles with Chautauqua Opera and New Orleans Opera. Musical theater credits include Skye Masterson in Guys and Dolls, Cinderella’s Prince in Into the Woods and Tiger Brown in The Threepenny Opera.
Mr. Curran received his Master’s degree at Indiana University where he appeared as Count Waldner in Arabella, The Doctor in Wozzeck, Collatinus in The Rape of Lucretia, and Don Alfonso in Cosi Fan Tutte. Early music credits include Desengaño in the Bloomington Early Music Festival’s production of La Purpura de la Rosa and Caronte in Monteverdi’s Orfeo with Indiana University’s Early Music Institute. He graduated Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Music from Loyola University in New Orleans.
He won the Musical prize in the Debut in Merano competition in Merano, Italy and won third prize in the Ruggiero Leoncavallo International Opera Competition in the composer’s hometown in the South of Italy. He was a 2002 winner of the Western Washington District of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.