Musicians

Tom Fox, Baritone

Tom Fox, born in Cincinnati, Ohio, received his early musical education there at the College Conservatory of Music. In 1974, he became a resident member with the Texas Opera Theatre and the following year with Houston Grand Opera. Between 1976 and 1980 he became a resident member of the Cincinnati Opera. In 1981 Tom Fox took up a Fest contract at the Frankfurt Opera as Principal Bass-Baritone and his debut there was as Orest in Elektra. His roles with this company, among others, included Amonasro in Aida, Escamillo in Carmen, Don Pizarro in Fidelio, Klingsor in Parsifal, Thoas in Iphigénie en Tauride, Ford in Falstaff, Figaro in Le Nozze di Figaro and Nick Shadow in The Rake's Progress.

Since leaving the Frankfurt Opera, Tom Fox has sung in most of the internationally acclaimed houses of the world. In North America he has sung at the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, The Washington Opera, San Diego Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, Vancouver Opera, and Canadian Opera Company. In Europe he has sung in Munich, Berlin, Paris, Nice, Montpellier, Milan, Rome, Bologna, Torino and Brussels. Roles in these houses have included Scarpia in Tosca, Iago in Otello, Eugene Onegin, Der Fliegende Holländer, Alberich in Der Ring des Nibelungen, Kurwenal in Tristan und Isolde, Telramund in Lohengrin, Don Pizarro in Fidelio, Orest in Elektra, Jochanaan in Salome, and the Four Villains in Les Contes d'Hoffmann. In South America he has sung Kurwenal and Iago at the Teatro Colon, Buenos Aires and Escamillo in Caracas. In Santiago, Chile he made his debut as Wotan in Das Rheingold in 1994, followed by Die Walküre in 1995 and Siegfried in 1996, all to great critical acclaim.

Other roles Tom Fox has performed include Gérard in Andrea Chénier, Barnaba in La Gioconda, the leading baritone role in the American premiere of Das Verratene Meer by Henze and L'Evêque de Blois in Massenet's Esclarmonde.

In the summer of 1995, Tom Fox debuted at the Salzburg Festival as the Tierbaender in Lulu and returned in 1996 to sing Don Pizarro in a new production of Fidelio conducted by Sir Georg Solti. Other recent career highlights include Iago in a new production of Otello in Brussels, and with the Israel Philharmonic, his debut with Los Angeles Opera as Jochanaan in Salome, a production which then traveled to the Hong Kong Arts Festival, Prus in The Makropoulos Case with the Metropolitan Opera, Dr. Schoen in Lulu with the San Francisco Opera, and Scarpia in Tosca with Cincinnati Opera.

Highlights of the 1998-1999 season included Kurwenal in Tristan und Isolde with the San Francisco Opera, Scarpia in Tosca with Vancouver Opera, Jochanaan in Salome with the Staatsoper Berlin, Alberich in Der Ring des Nibelungen with San Francisco Opera, and the Music Master in Ariadne auf Naxos with the Minnesota Orchestra led by Jeffrey Tate.

The 1999-2000 season included performances of the title role in Der Fliegende Holländer with Teatro Regio di Torino, Jochanaan in Salome at the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, Kurwenal in a new production of Tristan und Isolde with the Opéra National du Rhin, Klingsor in Parisfal with the Bayerische Staatsoper and the San Francisco Opera, and Telramund in Lohengrin with the Vienna State Opera.

Other engagements included a return to such prestigious houses as the Met for The Makropulos Case, the Teatro Colon for his celebrated Kurwenal, the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels for Iago, the LA Opera where Tom Fox was seen as Scarpia and Jochanaan (on tour with the company in Savonlinna, Finland). More recently, he opened the 2001-2002 Los Angeles Opera season with Telramund in Lohengrin. He then performed Jochanaan with the Pittsburgh Opera and the Canadian Opera Company before returning to the Bayerische Staatsoper for Klingsor in Parsifal, immediately followed by an exciting series of concerts at the RAI in Torino of Wagner’s Meistersinger under the baton of Jeffrey Tate. Mr. Fox followed this with a series of performances of Fidelio at the Deutsche Oper, Berlin. He then sang in three different productions at the Wiener Staatsoper: Carmen, Les Contes d’Hoffmann and Fidelio. His definitive Don Pizarro in the latter opera was also seen at the Metropolitan and Washington Operas. On the concert stage, Mr. Fox sang his first Bluebeard in Bartok’s Bluebeard’s Castle in Dortmund.

Recently, he has sung performances of Les Contes d’Hoffmann and Aida with the Deutsche Oper Berlin. He appeared with the Wiener Staatsoper as the Four Villains in Les Contes d’Hoffmann and the Bayerische Staatsoper for a new production of Lulu and performances of Parsifal. Additionally, he sang Klingsor in a Nikolaus Lehnhoff production of Parsifal in Baden-Baden, to be released commercially on DVD, and he returned to the Austin Lyric Opera in Elektra.

In the 2004-2005 season, Tom Fox returns to Munich for performances of Lulu, Parsifal, and Biterolf in Tannhäuser, Wotan in Die Walküre with the Teatro Colon and last, but not least, Mr. Fox’s Carnegie Hall debut as Don Pizarro. Future projects include Lohengrin in Baden-Baden, a tour to Japan with the Bayerische Staatsoper in Meistersinger and Tannhäuser, Golaud in Pelléas et Mélisande with the Deutsche Oper Berlin and his first Boris in Lady Macbeth of Mzentsk with Austin Lyric Opera.

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