Edward Nelson

Last season Nelson made notable debuts for Teatro Regio Torino as Marquis d’Hérigny in a new production of Auber’s Manon Lescaut, for Dallas Opera as Pelleas, for Boston Lyric Opera as Billy Bigelow in Anne Bogart’s new production of Carousel and for Opera Theatre of St. Louis as Eisentstein in Strauss’s Die Fledermaus. He also returned to Seville’s Teatro de la Maestranza as Oreste in Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride. Other important company debuts of recent seasons include the title role in Philip Glass’ Orphée for Teatro Real Madrid and Dandini for both the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and Semperoper Dresden in Damiano Michieletto’s production of La Cenerentola. He made his Metropolitan Opera debut in Terence Blanchard’s Champion, which won the 2024 Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording.

Nelson made his European debut in 2017 at the Norwegian National Opera in the title role of a new production of Pelléas et Mélisande and later returned to the company as Dandini in La Cenerentola and Figaro in Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia. He has since performed Pelléas at Ópera de Oviedo, Teatro de la Maestranza in Seville, and Des Moines Metro Opera.

Other opera engagements include his return to Washington National Opera as Don Andrès in Offenbach’s La Périchole, the Barber in Strauss’s Die schweigsame Frau for Bard Summerscape, his debut for Opera Philadelphia in Ne Quittez Pas: A Reimagined ‘La voix humaine’, performing songs of Francis Poulenc alongside Patricia Racette; Il Barbierie di Siviglia at the Vancouver Opera, title role in Don Giovanni for Palm Beach Opera, Maximillian in Bernstein’s Candide for the Washington National Opera, the Count in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro for Detroit Opera, title role in Thomas’s Hamlet for West Edge Opera, Schaunard in Puccini’s La Bohème for Cincinnati Opera, and a staged performance of Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin at Chicago’s Harris Theater, in collaboration with Jessica Lang Dance.

An alumnus of both the Merola Opera Program and the Adler Fellowship at the San Francisco Opera, Nelson has made over 70 appearances on the stage of the War Memorial Opera House. In his final season as an Adler Fellow, he sang mainstage performances of Malatesta in Donizetti’s Don Pasquale, Yamadori in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, and roles in the world premiere of Bright Sheng’s Dream of the Red Chamber. He has since returned as the Bosun in Britten’s Billy Budd.

On the concert platform, Nelson made his Carnegie Hall debut with the American Symphony Orchestra in Vaughan Williams’s Sea Symphony and Kurt Weill’s Four Walt Whitman Songs. He has also sung Sea Symphony with the Milwaukee Symphony and performed Orff’s Carmina Burana with both the Orquesta y Coro de la Comunidad de Madrid and the Mobile Symphony. He has given a recital of Schubert lieder at the Four Arts Society in Palm Beach, and sung both Schaunard in La Bohème and Papageno in The Magic Flute with the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra at Boston’s Symphony Hall.

Nelson is a decorated international vocal competitor. In addition to winning the 2020 Glyndebourne Cup, he was a finalist and encouragement award winner in Operalia 2021 at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow. He was awarded Third Prize at the 2021 Ottavio Ziino Competition in Rome and is the recipient of grants from the Gerda Lissner Foundation and the Shoshana Foundation. He was a National Semi-Finalist in the 2013 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. 

2025/26 season / 749 words. Not to be altered without permission.