
Jack Swanson
Peppie Johnson
“The biggest asset of the production is Jack Swanson as Rodrigo, who has an even higher-lying role than Otello [Rossini].”
(Frankfurter Rundschau)
With an affinity for the high lyric repertoire, American tenor Jack Swanson has quickly established himself as one of the most sought-after young voices in opera. Conte Almaviva (Il barbiere di Siviglia) continues to be a calling-card role, marking debuts at Teatro Regio di Torino, Den Norske Opera, with Glyndebourne on Tour and as a welcome return to Santa Fe Opera last summer. A further string of impressive European debuts have followed including new productions as Rodrigo (Rossini’s Otello) for Oper Frankfurt, Florville (Il signor Bruschino) for Rossini Opera Festival, Pesaro, and Le comte Ory for Garsington Opera, and role debuts as Nemorino (L’elisir d’amore) for Den Norske Opera, and Sam Kaplan (Street Scene) for Oper Köln. The past season was focused on Mozart with Jack Swanson singing his first Tamino in a new staging of Die Zauberflöte for Opéra national de Lorraine, and Ferrando (Così fan tutte) both for Oper Frankfurt and in David Hermann’s new staging for Opéra national du Rhin.
Jack Swanson opens the new season in the title role of Bernstein’s Candide in concert performances with Hamburger Symphoniker before reprising it on stage at Atlanta Opera. At home in the United States, Swanson appears there this season as Conte Almaviva and Tonio (La fille du regiment) in Utah and Austin respectively, and creates the title role in the world premiere of Paola Prestini’s Edward Tulane for Minnesota Opera.
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Equally comfortable on the concert and recital platforms, Jack Swanson debuted with Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rossini’s Stabat Mater conducted by Myung-Whun Chung, and has otherwise appeared at Théâtre des Champs-Elysées as Candide under Robert Tuohy, the Kennedy Center in Washington in selections from Schumann’s Dichterliebe, and with Speranza Scappucci and the Insula Orchestra in Rossini’s Messa di Gloria. He has given mainstage recital debuts at Oper Frankfurt with Malcolm Martineau, and as part of the 2021 Rossini Opera Festival with Gianni Fabbrini, in programmes of Beethoven, Schumann, Liszt, Rossini and Poulenc.
Jack Swanson has had great competition success and been the recipient of several prestigious awards in recent years, including twice receiving the Richard Tucker Memorial award from Santa Fe Opera. Following his studies at the University of Oklahoma and the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, Swanson joined The Seagle Music Colony as a young artist where he performed the title role in Britten’s comic opera Albert Herring, and subsequently spent two years as an apprentice at the Santa Fe Opera. Jack Swanson studies with Stephen King.
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“Jack Swanson in his charismatic portrayal of Ory. With his fine bel canto tenor voice, he despatches the music stylishly, and is a winningly assured actor as he negotiates a part which spends most of the time in one disguise or another”
“The amorous Florville was sung by Jack Swanson who, for a tenor making his Italian stage debut, showed excellent mastery of fluency in the recitatives”
“Swanson’s tenor has an old-fashioned quality; a beautiful voice, with technique and elegance.”
“Her lover is Jack Swanson (Florville), a typical Rossini tenor, light, agile, musical and expressive”
“Jack Swanson is a cheeky Ory with zinging high notes and comic flair, and does marvellous vocal battle with the preening, predatory Adèle.”
“In the title role [of Comte Ory] Jack Swanson has the top notes, and gives a lively performance”
“Swanson, a superb comic actor, is spectacular in the set-piece arias, which are almost vertiginous in their difficulty.”
“During his encore of Rossini’s La danza, it was this endless ease with which his voice picks up speed, nothing wasteful, always hitting the mark, that put the audience in a jubilant mood…Swanson was confident, agile and charming”
“Jack Swanson has a remarkable voice. Spacious and silver in the chest, this tenor, despite his youth, has already played the great roles of the Italian bel canto and can bring subject matter onto the stage effortlessly with a sympathetic gesture…This singer has a great future ahead because of his technical precision, his sheer endless breath and penetrating timbre.”
“Jack Swanson knew how to express the sad experiences in Schumann’s Liederkreis in such a colourful and multi-faceted way. Sensitive, expressive…Swanson drew the miniatures with a glistening mid-tone before the voice opened up to an exuberant and youthful timbre.”
“The highlight of the recital was the challenging Liszt’s Petrarch sonnets which Jack Swanson performed brilliantly…the bel canto tenor is in his element, letting his juicy voice flow and undaunted by the stratospheric high notes which he takes with aplomb…All in all, a top young talent presenting a stylish and varied recital.”
“Jack Swanson’s handsome, more lyrical Rodrigo made an entirely plausible love rival.”
“The biggest asset of the production is the young American Jack Swanson as Rodrigo, who has an even more exhausting, overall higher-lying role than Otello. His aria presents the greatest danger of becoming a circus, but Swanson makes it seem so light and unpressurised that he convinces as a hapless lover and proves to be a tasteful contrast to the slightly darker-timbred Otello.”
“Jack Swanson as Rodrigo overcomes all the obstacles of a role famous for its difficulty.”
“Only Jack Swanson sang Rodrigo so beautifully that you feel sorry for him as Otello’s rival. Both the challenging scope and the many daredevil jumps were completely mastered by the young American tenor. His aria “Che ascolto?” was perfect and worth the lingering applause of the Frankfurt audience.”
“Rodrigo provides a contrast in the young, graceful tenor Jack Swanson, who makes a lightning debut in Frankfurt, mastering the impressive range and virtuosity of the role.”
“In his debut at Den Norske Opera, Jack Swanson with his clear and lyrical tenor carries much of the music as Nemorino.”
“Swanson has so steady and bold a voice that he could melt a stone.”
“We find a perfectly assured Candide in the young American tenor Jack Swanson. His physicality, comedic moments, diction, timbre, expression, emotion: it’s all there.”
“Jack Swanson is an ideal interpreter of Candide. His voice is full over his entire range, with a well-controlled vibrato and powerful projection. Moreover, he portrays the character not only with candour, but also humanity and emotion.”
“Jack Swanson can be added to the short list of top tier Rossini tenors. His brilliant, focused lyric instrument has a captivating colour, and his effortless execution of endless racing melismas was jaw-dropping in its élan and artistry.”
“Jack Swanson’s Candide stood out vocally in a cast that was impressively strong”
“Jack Swanson’s Candide anchored the production through solid acting and strong singing.”
“Jack Swanson is a sweet-natured, sensitive Candide, game for it all as he travels from country to country.”
“the focus of this delightful operatic romp sits on the able shoulders of the lovely tenor Jack Swanson, in the titular role of Candide. Swanson brings the naivety and charm of a young, out-of-place, illegitimate raised by royalty”
“Jack Swanson spouts forth with buttery tenor lyricism in the eponymous role as the optimistic Westphalian [Candide], while revealing his naïveté and travails along the way.”
“Jack Swanson’s handsome Almaviva”
“tenor Jack Swanson proves himself a talent to watch as Almaviva, with a ringing upper register and a knee-weakening lyric sense.”
“American tenor Jack Swanson’s Count Almaviva…[gave] a finely polished “Ecco rident”, and developed great rapport with his fellow American, Tobias Greenhalgh (Figaro)”
“Narciso is outshone by Jack Swanson as Albazar”