AUBREY ALLICOCK
AUBREY ALLICOCK
- B A S S - B A R I T O N E -
Making his debut with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and hailed by the New York Times as "sturdy", "dynamic", and "excellent", Aubrey Allicock continues to make his mark among important opera companies and symphonies both at home and abroad. A Grammy nominee for his participation in John Adams's Doctor Atomic as General Groves, Mr. Allicock adds to that nominee list a BBC Music Magazine Award for Opera.
Recent and upcoming: Aubrey Allicock made his role debut as Yusef Salaam with Portland Opera in Central Park Five; and debuted with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra as Tiridate in Handel's Radamisto. He participated in the exploration of a new work, Robeson/Moscow with Cincinnati Opera; and, made his Welsh National Opera as Pero Jones and Chief Mistawasis in Will Todd's Migrations. He was the Pirate King in Pirates of Penzance with Virginia Opera; Alberich with Dayton Opera's Das Rheingold; and, a role debut as Dick Hallorann in The Shining with Lyric Opera Kansas City along with a recording with the company. This season he made his Atlanta Opera debut reprising the role of Dick Hallorann; sings his first Leporello with the Sacramento Philharmonic and Opera; returns to Seattle Opera; and, makes his debut with Opera Saratoga as Don Alfonso under the direction of Mary Birnbaum, with whom he has collaborated on several productions.
Past season's engagements include Bernstein Songfest in Carnegie Hall conducted by Marin Alsop; a debut with Opéra de Montréal in Champion; and, a reprise in the title role of Le nozzze di Figaro with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. He returned to Glyndebourne as Argante in Rinaldo and was to revisited the role of Young Emile in Champion with Michigan Opera Theater before a COVID cancellation ending a long run for that particular role. He returned to Seattle Opera for a third season as Minskman in Flight in 2021 and was Alberich in Das Rheingold with Virginia Opera.
He was soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic debut under the baton of Gustavo Dudamel in works by Mozart; debuted with New Orleans Opera in Champion and reprised the title role in Le nozze di Figaro with the Salzburger-landestheater. He debuted at the Concertgebouw in John Adams’s El Niño and made his Washington National Opera debut in a reprise of Terence Blanchard’s Champion as the Young Emile in the spring of 2017. He returned to Europe to make his BBC debut as General Groves in Doctor Atomic and recorded the work for Nonesuch Records. Mr. Allicock was reengaged with the Bard Music Festival as Janusz in Stanislaw Moniuszko's opera Halka, sung in Polish; made his Opera Philadelphia debut in the fall of 2017 in We Shall Not Be Moved, music by Daniel Bernard Roumain with Bill T. Jones directing with a reprise at the Apollo Theater in New York and Dutch National Opera. Mr. Allicock completed a return engagement at the Wexford Festival in Delius’s Koanga; a return engagement with Seattle Opera in the title role of Le nozze di Figaro and was Cadmus/Somnus in Semele with Opera Omaha in a James Darrah production. He returned to Opera Theatre of Saint Louis as Bulbul Fakh in Jack Perla’s Shalimar the Clown, after the novel by Salman Rushdie; and, sang with the Bard Music Festival in Busoni’s Turandot in concert with Leon Botstein conducting.
He triumphed at the Metropolitan Opera as Mamoud in The Death of Klinghoffer which brought him world-wide recognition that season. This auspicious debut was followed by a Carnegie debut in a reprise of his roles from the Ojai Festival as Tonic and Don Giovanni in Steven Stucky's The Classical Style with Robert Spano conducting and where he was named a candidate for the Warner Music Prize. In addition, he made his Komische Oper Berlin debut that season as Escamillo and made an unscheduled Glyndebourne debut as Argante in Rinaldo with Ottavio Dantone conducting in a Robert Carson production.
In 2013 he returned to Opera Theatre of St. Louis for the world première of Terence Blanchard’s Champion, as the young Emile Griffith, the world-renowned prizefighter and made his Phoenix Symphony and New York Philharmonic Youth Concert debuts that season in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. He has sung the roles of Tiridate in Radamisto under the baton of Julian Wachner; the Forester (The Cunning Little Vixen) with Anne Manson conducting and the U.S. première of Peter Maxwell Davies’ Kommilitonen! as the Grand Inquisitor. In the 2010-2011 season Mr. Allicock joined the roster of the Metropolitan Opera covering the roles of Astarotte (Armida) and Marullo (Rigoletto).
Mr. Allicock has appeared on several occasions with the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis making his role debut as Mamoud in The Death of Klinghoffer; performed the Mad Hatter and Duck in the U.S. première of Unsuk Chin’s Alice in Wonderland; and, Zaretsky in Eugene Onegin. He has also covered the title role of Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro as well as the role of Figaro in The Ghosts of Versailles.
He has performed with the Ojai Music Festival, Wexford Festival Opera, the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra, the South Bohemian Chamber Philharmonic and with Concerts-Austria as bass soloist in Mozart’s Coronation Mass at Karlskirche. Mr. Allicock has also had the honor of sharing the stage with Academy Award winning actor Louis Gossett, Jr. in Chamber Music PLUS’s production of New World: Portrait of H.T. Burleigh which featured the music of Antonín Dvořák.
Mr. Allicock received his Artist Diploma from The Juilliard School; M.M. from Indiana University; holds a B.M. from Grand Canyon University and was a Gerdine Young Artist with Opera Theatre of St. Louis.
Reviews
Radamisto -- Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra
"The one consistently stellar vocal performance came from the dynamic bass-baritone Aubrey Allicock, who brought tonal brilliance and dramatic fervor to the role of Tiridate, the villainous Armenian ruler".
-- Joshua Kosman, San Francisco Chronicle
The Death of Klinghoffer -- The Metropolitan Opera
"...the bravest portrayal comes from the sturdy bass-baritone Aubrey Allicock, in his Met debut...Mr. Allicock’s Mamoud, looking stone-faced, brought chilling calm to the passage that underlines the tragedy of this opera.
-- Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times
Champion -- Opera Theatre of Saint Louis
“Baritone Aubrey Allicock could make his career on the vocal, dramatic and physical strength of his portrayal of Young Emile, a very human mixture of sunshine and darkness.”
— Sara Bryan Miller, Champion, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch
