In the 22/23 season, Mr. Cole returned to the Houston Grand Opera for his signature role of Don Basilio in Le nozze di Figaro. Other recent engagements include Monsieur Triquet with Opera Omaha and Don Basilio/Don Curzio in Le nozze di Figaro with Austin Opera. Future engagements include his long-awaited debut at The Santa Fe Opera in 24/25.

Recent seasons exemplify his extraordinary versatility: Don Buscone in Veremonda with the Spoleto Festival USA, performances as the narrator in a world premiere of Chris Theofanidis’ Creation/Creator with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Goro in Madama Butterfly and the Abbé de Chazeuil in Adriana Lecouvreur with Opéra de Nice, Nick in La Fanciulla del West with the San Francisco Opera, the four valets in The Tales of Hoffman with Edmonton Opera and the Canadian Opera Company, the three tenor roles in Lenfant et les Sortilèges with Théâtre de Caen, Sportin Life in Porgy and Bess with the Cincinnati Opera, and Monostatos in Die Zauberflöte at the Théatre Champs Elysées in Paris.

Mr. Cole made his debut at The Metropolitan Opera as the Tanzmeister in Ariadne auf Naxos under James Levine. He has sung with The Cleveland Orchestra and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and performed Janáček’s From the House of the Dead with Rafael Kubelik conducting the New York Philharmonic. Throughout his career, he has been invited to sing in over eleven countries and has additionally performed on the stages of Washington National Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Seattle Opera, Gran Teatre del Liceu, Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Victoria State Opera in Melbourne, and Opéra de Monte-Carlo.

Mr. Cole performs regularly in Europe, especially in France and Switzerland (Le Figaro, Paris: “Ah, if French singers pronounced like him, we would not need surtitles in our theatres.”) He has performed with the Opéra National de Paris (most recently Billy Budd), the Théâtre des Champs Elysées, the Opéra Comique, the opera companies of Lyon, Nice, Marseille, Bordeaux, Montpellier, Nantes, Nancy, Geneva, and Lausanne. He has performed at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, where he has recorded two productions for the ERATO Label: Die Zauberflöte under William Christie and The Rakes Progress under Kent Nagano. Mr. Cole’s performance of Orphée aux enfers under the musical direction of Marc Minkowksi was recorded for EMI.

Mr. Cole has a particular interest in contemporary repertoire, having participated in the world premieres of Jean Prodromidès’ La noche triste, Gavin Bryar’s Medea, and the revised version of Györgi Ligeti’s Le grand macabre in a production by Peter Sellars at the Salzburg Festival under the direction of Esa-Pekka Salonen (recorded by Sony Classical). Mr. Cole has also been heard in Berg’s Lulu, Boulevard Solitude by Hans Werner Henze and in Carlisle Floyd’s Susannah, the latter recorded under Kent Nagano for Virgin records. He has also collaborated with baroque specialists like Michel Corboz (Orfeo, Il ritorno dUlisse in patria, Lincoronazione di Poppea), and René Jacobs (Cestis Largia and recently, Cavallis La Calisto at the Salzburg Festival).

2023-2024