Michael Sumuel

In the 24/25 season, American bass-baritone Michael Sumuel, lauded as having “vocals that are smooth and ingratiating” (Daily Camera) will return to the Metropolitan Opera to sing the title role in Le nozze di Figaro, sing his first performances of Porgy in Porgy and Bess with Washington National Opera, and Sharpless in Madama Butterfly with the Canadian Opera Company and LA Opera. An accomplished and in demand concert artist, Michael Sumuel will make his debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, performing Mozart’s Coronation Mass, perform the Fauré Requiem with the San Francisco Symphony, Mozart’s Requiem with the Salzburg Camarata and Dame Jane Glover, and Handel’s Messiah with Jonathan Cohen and the Houston Symphony. He last appeared with Music of the Baroque in September 2023.

Operatic highlights include the Metropolitan Opera (Reginald in X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X and Belcore, L’elisir d’amore), San Francisco Opera (Figaro, Le nozze di Figaro; Escamillo, Carmen; Elviro, Xerxes), Lyric Opera of Chicago (Masetto, Don Giovanni), Houston Grand Opera (Belcore, Sharpless, Marcello, Papageno in Die Zauberflöte and Frank in Die Fledermaus), Glyndebourne Festival Opera (Sharpless, Junius in The Rape of Lucretia, Theseus in A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Norwegian National Opera (Alidoro in La cenerentola and Escamillo), Seattle Opera (Figaro; Leporello, Don Giovanni), Detroit Opera (Forester, The Cunning Little Vixen and Elviro), Santa Fe Opera (Escamillo), and LA Opera (Jesus in The St. Matthew Passion).

In concert, previous work has included Messiah with the San Francisco Symphony, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Houston Symphony, the United States Naval Academy, New Jersey Symphony, Phoenix Symphony, and University Musical Society in Ann Arbor; Mozart’s Mass in C Minor with Los Angeles Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, the Orchestra of St. Lukes, and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam; Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Seattle Symphony; and Mozart’s Requiem with the New York Philharmonic, Cincinnati Symphony, Music of the Baroque, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and North Carolina Symphony.

Other repertoire includes Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis (Pittsburgh Symphony and Grant Park Music Festival); Bach’s Christmas Oratorio (Les violons du Roy); Christus and bass solos in Bach’s St. John Passion (Seattle Symphony and Music of the Baroque); the Fauré Requiem (National Symphony Orchestra); Haydn’s Theresienmesse (Grant Park Music Festival); Bach’s Easter Oratorio (Music of the Baroque); Puccini’s Messa di Gloria (San Diego Symphony); Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass (Pacific Chorale; the bass solos in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion as well as the Magnificat (Music of the Baroque, Mercury Houston); and finally, Bach cantatas BWV 61 and 140 (Handel & Haydn Society). Frequent conductor collaborators include Dame Jane Glover, Jonathan Cohen, Bernard Labadie, James Conlon, Zubin Mehta, Patrick Summers, Jaap van Zweden, Marc Minkowski, and more.

Michael Sumuel's competition accolades include being awarded a Richard Tucker Career Grant, Metropolitan Opera National Council audition Grand Finalist and a winner of the Dallas Opera Guild Vocal Competition. A Texas native, he is an alumnus of the Houston Grand Opera Studio, Merola Opera Program at San Francisco Opera and the Filene Young Artist program at Wolf Trap Opera. He currently resides in San Francisco with his wife and son.

Michael Sumuel appears in Bach's Christmas Oratorio on November 24 and 25.