Since his Metropolitan Opera debut as Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor in October 2007, American baritone Stephen Gaertner has emerged as an artist to watch in the operatic world. His other roles at the Met have included Melot in Tristan und Isolde, Paolo Albiani in Simon Boccanegra, Iago in Otello and Chorèbe in Berlioz’s Les Troyens. He made his European debut in December 2010 with Opéra Royal de Wallonie in Liège as Escamillo in Carmen. Recent career highlights have included appearances as Macbeth with the Savonlinna Opera Festival and with Opernfestspiele Heidenheim, Amonasro in Aida with Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, Iago in Otello with Teatro de la Ópera in San Juan, Rigoletto with Opera Grand Rapids, Riccardo in I Puritani with Teatro Verdi di Trieste, and Nabucco with Sarasota Opera.

Mr. Gaertner has also been a frequent performer of opera in concert. He appeared with Teatro Grattacielo at New York City’s Alice Tully Hall as Cristiano in Zandonai’s I Cavalieri di Ekebù and as Cascart in Leoncavallo’s Zazà (the latter under the baton of the late Alfredo Silipigni). He also made several appearances with Opera Orchestra of New York at Carnegie Hall: as Sonora in La Fanciulla del West, Abayaldos in Donizetti’s Dom Sébastien, and Frank in Puccini’s Edgar, all under the baton of founder and music director Eve Queler. He has also sung Macbeth in concert with the Südwestdeutsche Philharmonie Konstanz and Carlo in La Forza del Destino in concert with New Amsterdam Opera in New York City. He made his U.K. debut in 2015 at London’s Barbican Hall as Cascart in Zazà in concert with Opera Rara and Maurizio Benini conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

Mr. Gaertner has performed extensively across North America in such diverse roles as Riccardo in I Puritani, Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor, Rigoletto, Conte di Luna in Il Trovatore, Germont in La traviata, Escamillo in Carmen, Iago in Otello, Alfio in Cavalleria Rusticana, Tonio and Silvio in Pagliacci, Marcello in La Bohème, Scarpia in Tosca, Sharpless in Madama Butterfly, Lanciotto in Rachmaninoff’s Francesca da Rimini, Gianni Schicchi, and Balstrode in Peter Grimes. His other concert appearances have included Britten’s War Requiem at Catholic University in Washington, DC and Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem at Carnegie Hall with the New England Symphonic Ensemble. He has also been the recipient of awards from the Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation, Opera Index Inc. and the Oratorio Society of New York.

Stephen Gaertner features on Opera Rara recording of Leoncavallo’s Zazà.