As one of America's most exciting dramatic tenors, Barry Busse has been acclaimed for not only the quality and timbre of his voice but for his dramatic intensity and the sensitivity of his interpretation, as well as his remarkable acting ability. His career encompasses opera, musical theatre, legitimate theatre and both university and private voice teaching. Mr. Busse is also a private speech coach. With 83 roles, 23 concert works and almost 800 performances in French, Italian, German, English, Czech, and Russian to his credit, he is in high demand for his creativity and accuracy, and has created roles in a number of world premieres. Equally at home in opera and Broadway, Mr. Busse's repertoire ranges from Charles Ludlam to Stephen Sondheim, from Dominic Argento to Richard Wagner. He most recently starred in the comic lead, as Watty Watkins, in Gershwin's Lady Be Good at the Gran Teatro La Fenice in Venice, Italy. This was an historic production because it is the first time an Italian opera house has produced an American musical. The production was recorded and will be produced by RAI Television across Europe in the summer of 2000. Mr. Busse is co-founder and Director of Education for Ohio Opera Theatre. In the Fall of 1999, Mr. Busse was the tenor soloist for world premiere of Daron Hagen's Light Fantastic, a cantata written to celebrate the inaugural performance of Ohio Opera Theatre and the opening of the Canton Museum of Art's laser holographic art show Visions into the 21st Century. The performance was recorded by WKSU and the CD will be released on the ARSIS label around Christmas of 2000.
Mr. Busse collaborated with Stephen Sondheim on the first opera house production of Sweeney Todd. He has also frequently collaborated with operatic composers on world premieres. He debuted in the roles he created as Louis Sullivan in Daron Hagen's Shining Brow, for Madison Opera (the recording of which will occur in February of 2001), and Nosferatu in Randolph Peters' Nosferatu, for the Canadian Opera Company. Mr. Busse has also created the roles of the Foreman in David Lang's Modern Painter, s for the Santa Fe Opera, and Iron Hans in Conrad Susa's Transformations, for the Minnesota Opera, where he also created and recorded the role of the Shoe Salesman in Dominick Argento's Postcard from Morocco,. His New York City Op-era debut was in the role of Bothwell which he created and recorded for the American premiere of Thea Musgrave's Mary, Queen of Scots, a role which also marked his debut with the San Francisco Opera, where he was immediately reengaged and sang seven roles the following season. His debut with the Lyric Opera of Chicago was as Ægisthus to Eva Marton's Elektra. His debut as Don José in Ken Cazan's production of Carmen, for The Atlanta Opera resulted in Mr. Busse's reengagement by the Atlanta Opera to portray the Vice President, Alexander Throttlebottom in another Cazan production of special performances of Gershwin's Of Thee I Sing, which opened the 1996 the Atlanta Olympic Arts Festival. Debuts with the New Israeli Opera in Christopher Alden's production of I Pagliacci, with the Manitoba Opera as Canio in Pagliacci, and Nosferatu in that company's production of Nosferatu, as well as appearances as Ægisthus in Elektra, for the Seattle Opera and Herod in Salome, for the Michigan Opera Theatre have solidified Mr. Busse's reputation for powerful portrayals. His Santa Fe debut was as Alwa in that company's American Premiere of the complete three act version of Berg's Lulu,.
More recently he appeared as a featured soloist with the 19th Moravian Music Festival in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and then went on to re-create his role of Louis Sullivan in Ken Cazan's new production of Shining Brow for the Chicago Opera Theatre which was recorded. Mr. Busse and Mr. Cazan continued their collaboration with a new Die Fledermaus for Lyric Opera of Kansas City, a Side by Side by Sondheim for the Madison Opera in the summer of 1999 in which Mr. Busse was a featured performer, followed with performances of The Mystery of Irma Vep in which both Mr. Busse and Mr. Cazan were guest-artists-in-residence at Kent State University.
Mr. Busse's European debut took place at the Netherlands Opera as Don José in Carmen, where he has also performed as Agrippa and Mephistophélès in André Serban's production of Prokofiev's L'Ange de Feu, conducted by Riccardo Chailly. His debut at the Grand Théâtre de Genève was as Tichon in the François Rochaix production of Katya Kabanova. He also appeared in this role in the Ermanno Olmi production at the Teatro Communale in Florence, conducted by Chris-tian Thielemann. Other productions in Florence have included his debut in Jean-Pierre Ponnelle's production of Peter Grimes, Liliana Cavani's production of Hindemith's Cardillac which opened that season's Maggio Musicale, and Salome. He made his Paris debut, again in L'Ange de Feu, at the Opera de Paris-Bastille.
In addition to the Florence Peter Grimes, Barry Busse's work with Jean-Pierre Ponnelle included a production of Carmen for the Israel Philharmonic, conducted by Zubin Mehta, which was the last production completed before the director's death. Mr. Busse also sang his first Parsifal under Ponnelle's direction, with Michel Plasson conducting, in Toulouse. In the role of Siegmund, Mr. Busse inaugurated the acclaimed Rochaix production of Die Walküre with the Seattle Opera in its new Ring Cycle begun in the summer of 1985.
Mr. Busse has previously performed with the Opera Decentralize in Switzerland, as well as with the Dallas Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Fort Worth Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, Baltimore Opera, Florentine Opera, Michigan Opera Theatre, Hawaii Opera, Syracuse Opera, Kansas City Lyric Opera, and Virginia Opera. He has also worked with directors Francesca Zambello, Bliss Hebert, Hans Nieuwenhuis, Lotfi Mansouri, Jeannette Aster, and Frank Corsaro. He has also sung with conductors Armin Jordan, Nichola Rescigno, Edo de Waart, Michael Tilson-Thomas, Emil Chakarov, Herman Mi-chael, Semyon Bychkov, Charles Dutoit, Gerard Schwarz, Bruno Bartoletti, Bramwell Tovey, Anton Coppola, W. Fred Scott, Theo Alcantera, John Crosby, George Manahan, Lukas Foss, Christopher Keene, David Lewis Crosby, and John Demain. Barry Busse has performed with the symphony orchestras of Bolzano (Italy), Aspen, Baltimore, Columbus, Grand Rapids, Honolulu, Milwaukee, Montreal, Minnesota, St. Paul Chamber, Portland, Richmond, Rochester, Syracuse, Tulsa, Albuquerque, and Wichita. Some of the singers with which Mr. Busse has worked and performed are: sopranos Jeannine Altmeyer, Jose-phine Barstow, Kathleen Battle, Hildegard Behrens, Bianca Berini, Grace Bumbry, Mon-serrat Caballe, Maria Ewing, Brenda Harris, Cynthia Haymon, Linda Kelm, Janis Martin, Eva Marton, Johanna Meier, Erie Mills, Aprile Milo, Carol Neblett, Ashley Putnam, Katia Ricciarelli, Leonie Rysanek, Elizabeth Söderstrøm, Diana Soviero, Kiri Te Kanewa, Shirley Verrett, Ute Vinzing, Marilyn Zschau and Teresa Zylis-Gara; mezzo-sopranos Joyce Castle, Nadine Denise, Mignon Dunn, Brigitte Fassbaender, Maureen Forrester, Christa Ludwig, Eva Rondova, Hanna Schwartz, Frederica von Stade and Delores Ziegler; tenors Jose Carrerras, Placido Domingo, Jerry Hadley, Peter Hoffman, Rene Kollo, Sir John Lewis, Luciano Pavarotti, and Jon Vickers; baritones Sherrill Milnes and Ingvar Wixell, and basses Julien Robbins, Justino Diaz, Ezio Flagello, Nicholai Ghiaurov, Paul Hudson, John Macurdy and Tom Stewart.
Mr. Busse holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Oberlin College Conservatory of Music and a Master of Music degree from Manhattan School of Music. He has taught voice at both the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, and St. Katherine's University in St. Paul, Minnesota and he has been teaching privately for 30 years.
