26/27 season highlights include Cole’s return to San Francisco Opera for Manon (Guillot de Morfontaine). Last season, he made his debut with The Atlanta Opera in Turandot (Emperor Altoum). Recent engagements also include his long-awaited Santa Fe Opera debut in Le nozze di Figaro (Don Basilio), as well as returns to Opera Columbus for Eugene Onegin (Monsieur Triquet) and Houston Grand Opera for Madama Butterfly (Goro). Additional recent appearances include Le nozze di Figaro (Don Basilio) with Houston Grand Opera, Eugene Onegin (Monsieur Triquet) with Opera Omaha, and Le nozze di Figaro (Don Basilio/Don Curzio) with Austin Opera.

Past seasons have showcased his extraordinary versatility, with appearances in Veremonda (Don Buscone) at the Spoleto Festival USA; the world premiere of Christopher Theofanidis’ Creation/Creator (Narrator) with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra; Madama Butterfly (Goro) and Adriana Lecouvreur (Abbé de Chazeuil) at Opéra de Nice; La fanciulla del West (Nick) with San Francisco Opera; Les contes d’Hoffmann (Four Valets) with Edmonton Opera and the Canadian Opera Company; L’enfant et les sortilèges (Three Tenor Roles) with Théâtre de Caen; Porgy and Bess (Sportin’ Life) with Cincinnati Opera; and Die Zauberflöte (Monostatos) at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris.

Cole made his debut at The Metropolitan Opera in Ariadne auf Naxos (Tanzmeister) under James Levine. He has appeared with major American orchestras including The Cleveland Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and the New York Philharmonic, performing From the House of the Dead under Rafael Kubelík. His international career has taken him to more than eleven countries and to companies including Washington National Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Seattle Opera, Gran Teatre del Liceu, Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Victoria State Opera (Melbourne), and Opéra de Monte-Carlo.

Particularly active in France and Switzerland, Cole has appeared with Opéra national de Paris, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Opéra Comique, and the opera houses of Lyon, Nice, Marseille, Bordeaux, Montpellier, Nantes, Nancy, Geneva, and Lausanne. At the Aix-en-Provence Festival, he appeared in recordings of Die Zauberflöte (Monostatos) under William Christie and The Rake’s Progress (Sellem) under Kent Nagano for Erato. His performance in Orphée aux enfers (John Styx/Le Roi de Béotie), conducted by Marc Minkowski, was released on EMI. Le Figaro (Paris) wrote, “Ah, if French singers pronounced like him, we would not need surtitles in our theatres.”

Cole has a particular affinity for contemporary repertoire. He participated in the world premieres of Jean Prodromidès’ La noche triste, Gavin Bryars’ Medea, and the revised version of György Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre (White Minister), conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen at the Salzburg Festival before touring to the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Théâtre du Châtelet, and the BBC Orchestra. The production was recorded by Sony Classical. He has also performed in Lulu, Boulevard Solitude, and Susannah, the latter recorded under Kent Nagano for Virgin Records.

An accomplished interpreter of Baroque repertoire, Cole has collaborated with early music luminaries such as Michel Corboz (Orfeo, Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria, L’incoronazione di Poppea) and René Jacobs (L’Argia and, most recently, La Calisto) at the Salzburg Festival.

2026-2027