| Biography | Mark Delavan is an American operatic bass-baritone. He made his professional debut in 1986 at the San Francisco Opera in a small role in Giuseppe Verdi's Don Carlos. He spent the next three years performing in numerous comprimario roles with the company. He has since returned to that opera house to sing Scarpia in Giacomo Puccini's Tosca (2004, with Carol Vaness in the title role) and Wotan in Richard Wagner's The Ring Cycle (2008 and 2010). In 2001 he made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera as Amonasro in Verdi's Aida with Deborah Voigt in the title role, Luciano Pavarotti as Radamès, Olga Borodina as Amneris, and James Levine conducting. He has since been heard at the Met as Alfio in Pietro Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana, Carlo Gérard in Andrea Chénier, Count Tomsky in The Queen of Spades, Don Carlo in Verdi's La Forza del Destino, the Messenger in Richard Strauss' Die Frau ohne Schatten, Scarpia, and the title roles in Verdi's Nabucco, Verdi's Rigoletto, and Verdi's Simon Boccanegra.
Delavan has also sung roles with other leading American companies like the Houston Grand Opera, the Los Angeles Opera, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the New York City Opera, the Opera Company of Philadelphia, the Pittsburgh Opera, the Santa Fe Opera, and the Washington National Opera. Outside of the United States, he has made appearances at the Bavarian State Opera, the Berlin State Opera, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Liceu, the Prague National Theatre, and the Royal Opera House in London among others. (July 2015) |