Ellis, Brent
Ellis, Brent
Ellis, Brent, American baritone; b. Kansas City, Mo., June 20, 1946. He studied with Edna Forsythe (1962–65), Marian Freschl (1965–71), and Daniel Ferro in N.Y. (from 1971), where he also attended classes at the Juilliard School of Music (1965–67; 1970–72). In 1965 he made his first appearance at the Santa Fe Opera, where he later sang regularly (1972–82); also appeared at the Houston Grand Opera (1972–81). In 1973 he won both the WGN Radio Auditions of the Air and the Montreal International Competition, and on April 28, 1974, made his N.Y.C. Opera debut as Ottone in L’incoronazione di Poppea’f then sang with the Chicago Lyric Opera (1974), the San Francisco Opera (1974–78), the Boston Opera (1975–83), the Glyndebourne Festival (1977–78), the Hamburg State Opera (1977–79), and the Vienna State Opera (1977–79). On Oct. 25, 1979, he made his Metropolitan Opera debut in N.Y. as Silvio in Pagliacci. From 1984 he sang at the Cologne Opera. In 1989 he made his first appearance at London’s Covent Garden as Rigoletto. He sang Amonasro in Seattle in 1992. In 1996 he portrayed Dandini in La Cenerentola in Toronto.
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire