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Peixin Chen

Peixin Chen

A recent graduate of the Houston Grand Opera Studio, and a student of Dr. Stephen King, Peixin Chen is recognized for his majestically resonant bass voice and for a keen dramatic instinct that he brings to a wide range of roles on the international opera stage. His repertoire spans from the comic parts of Donizetti, Mozart, and Rossini to the strong and serious of Puccini, Verdi, and Wagner. Peixin Chen has worked with an illustrious array of conductors and directors including Harry Bicket, Sebastian Lang-Lessing, Lorin Maazel, Giancarlo del Monaco, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, David Paul, Michel Plasson, David Pountney, James Robinson, Patrick Summers, and Francesca Zambello.

In the current season Peixin Chen makes his Opera Philadelphia debut as Sarastro in the acclaimed production of Die Zauberflöte co-directed by Suzanne Andrade and Barrie Kosky, with full-scale animation, created by Paul Barritt, takes to the stage of the Lyric Opera of Kansas City as Sparafucile in Rigoletto directed by David Gately, and debuts at the Bard Music Festival as the Old Patriarch in Dvořák’s Dmitrij conducted by Leon Botstein in a new production directed by Anne Bogart. With his home company, Houston Grand Opera, the Chinese bass bows as Don Bartolo in Il barbiere di Siviglia and as Oroveso in Norma.

Peixin Chen joined the Metropolitan Opera last season for productions of Aida and Salome and sang concert performances of the Verdi Requiem with the Houston Grand Opera Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Music Director Patrick Summers. He made a Detroit Symphony Orchestra debut with Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony led by Leonard Slatkin, having also sung this work with Andrés Orozco-Estrada and the Houston Symphony, and the bass joined Edo de Waart for staged performances of Le nozze di Figaro with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra.

Le nozze di Figaro featured prominently in the bass’ 2015-16 season assaying the title role in a new production by David Paul for Opera Saratoga and bowing as Bartolo at the Houston Grand Opera conducted by Harry Bicket in the company’s acclaimed production by Michael Grandage.

Recent company debuts include the roles of Sparafucile in Rigoletto at the Santa Fe Opera and Dulcamara in L’elisir d’amore for Washington National Opera. Mr. Chen has bowed as the King in Aida under the baton of Zubin Mehta as well as both Bartolo in Le nozze di Figaro and Basilio in Il barbiere di Siviglia at the National Center for the Performing Arts (NCPA), and in The Passenger at the Lincoln Center Festival at the Park Armory.

The bass’ roles with Houston Grand Opera have included Ferrando in Il trovatore, Bonze in Madama Butterfly, Montano in Otello, Sarastro in The Magic Flute, and Hunding in Die Walküre. As a member of the Merola Program under the auspices of San Francisco Opera, Peixin Chen sang Basilio in Il barbiere di Siviglia.

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