Allan Glassman

Tenor

Tenor Allan Glassman has thrilled audiences throughout America and Europe for decades with his vibrant timbre and committed interpretations of roles. A regular at the Metropolitan Opera, Mr. Glassman triumphed as Herod in a new production of Salome starring Karita Mattila in 2004, and has since been heard in the MET’s productions of Die Frau Ohne Schatten, Boris Godunov, The Great Gatsby, Carmen, Elektra, Katya Kabanova, The Ghost of Versailles, Mussorgsky’s Khovanshchina, Salome, Wozzeck, and in 2012 as Red Whiskers in Billy Budd. He returns there this season as the Hunchback Brother in Die Frau ohne Schatten and will also cover the role of the Captain in Wozzeck.

Hailed as the Otello of his generation, in the past few seasons alone he has performed the role with Opera Company of Philadelphia, Arizona Opera, Palm Beach Opera, Dallas Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, and at the Chautauqua Opera. Other recent engagements include Herald in Pizzetti’s Assassinio nella cattedrale with San Diego Opera, Aegisth (cover) in Elektra at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and Canio in Pagliacci with Shreveport Opera. Mr. Glassman will return to Arizona Opera this season for performances as Dick Deadeye in HMS Pinafore.

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…played the Witch lustily and hilariously…

Hansel and Gretel - “Dramatic tenor Allan
Glassman, sounding like a top-flight Salome Herodes and looking like Julia Child gone mad, played the Witch lustily and hilariously.” – Opera News

…had the audience under his spell…

Hansel and Gretel- “Allan Glassman had the audience under his
spell as The Witch. His getup and voice dialed directly to TV cooking icon Julia Child. Glassman also had impeccable timing when he flashed a crazy wide-mouthed smile to the audience while sing text that was laden with double entendres. Even when the orchestra was at its loudest, Glassman could be heard, and The Witch’s motto song “So hopp hopp hopp” became a climatic highlight of the evening.”– Oregon Music News

…voice…like a force of nature…

Otello- “The big star as Otello is tenor Allan Glassman, veteran of the Metropolitan Opera stage, whose cannon of a voice filled Shaftman Performance Hall like a force of nature. Glassman is a full-on Verdian tenor. This is no Rossini or Mozart specialist who was pulled in for a role with bigger shoes than he could vocally fill. Glassman is more than equal to the demands of the role, conveying Otello’s pain and suspicion vividly.” – The Roanoke Times

…voice was strong and carried well…

Carmen - “Glassman’s Don Jose was, simply put, marvelous. His command of the role was never in doubt and his very presence on stage made those around him sound better. The voice was strong and carried well. He had a competent control over the entirety of his range in both quality and dynamics.” – Post Crescent

…singing at its finest, sheer beauty and musical expression…

Carmen - “To me, however, the memorable moment of the evening was his interpretation of the “Flower Song” aria, la fleur que tu m’avais jetee, sung in the second act. This was singing at its finest; sheer beauty and musical expression. Perhaps what Bizet had in mind.” – Post Crescent

Composer	Opera	Role
Beethoven	Fidelio	Florestan
Bellini	Norma	Pollione
Berlioz	Les Troyens	Enee
Berg	Wozzeck	Captain
Bizet	Carmen	Don Jose
Boito	Mephistofele	Faust
Britten	Billy Budd	Captain Vere
	Peter Grimes	Peter Grimes
Corigliano	The Ghosts of Versailles	Begearss
Dvorak	Rusalka	Prince
Giordano	Andrea Chenier	Chenier
Handel	Samson	Samson
Harbison	The Great Gatsby	Gatsby
Janacek	Jenufa	Laca, Steve
	Kat’a Kabanova	Boris, Tichon
	The Makropulos Affair	Gregor
Korngold	Die Tote Stadt	Paul
Leoncavallo	I Pagliacci	Canio
	La Boheme	Marcello
Mascagni	Cavalleria Rusticana	Turridu
	Iris	Osaka
Mozart	Idomeneo	Idomeneo
	La Clemenza di Tito	Tito
Mussorgsky	Boris Godunov	Prince Shuysky, Dimitri
Offenbach	Les Contes d’Hoffman	Hoffman
Pasatieri	Frau Margot	Steinert
Picker	An American Tragedy	Samuel
Puccini	Il Tabarro	Luigi
	La Fanciulla del West	Dick Johnson
	Madama Butterfly	Pinkerton
	Manon Lescaut	Des Grieux
	Tosca	Cavaradossi
	Turandot	Calaf
Saint-Saens	Samson et Dalila	Samson
Shostakovich	Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk	Zinoviy Borisovich Izmailov
Strauss	Die Fledermaus	Einstein, Alfred
	Die Frau Ohne Schatten	Emperor
	Elektra	Aegisth
	Salome	Herod
Tchaikovsky	Queen of Spades	Hermann
Verdi	Aida	Radames
	Ernani	Ernani
	Il Trovatore	Manrico
	I Verspri Siciliani	Enrico
	La Forza del Destino	Don Alvaro
	Luisa Miller	Rodolfo
	Otello	Otello
	Un Ballo in Maschera	Riccardo
Wagner	Der Fliegende Hollander	Erik
	Die Meistersigner	Walther
	Die Walkure	Siegmund
	Lohengrin	Lohengrin
	Parsifal	Parsifal
	Siegried	Siegfried
	Tannhauser	Tannhauser
	Tristan und Isolde	Tristan
Weisgall	Esther	Hamen
Weber	Oberon	Oberon

Mr. Glassman’s recently noted engagements in North America have included Herod in Salome at San Diego Opera and Dallas Opera, Shuisky in Boris Godunov with San Diego Opera, The Witch in Hänsel und Gretel at the Portland Opera, Canio in I Pagliacci at the Arizona Opera, Chautauqua Opera, and Nashville Opera, Erik in Der Fliegende Holländer in concert with the Syracuse Opera, Walter Engelmann in Pasatieri’s Frau Margot at Fort Worth Opera, Canio in I Pagliacci and Pollione in Norma at Palm Beach Opera, Calaf in Turandot and Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus with Opera New Jersey, and Sacco in Sacco and Vanzetti at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center.

International performances have include Manrico in Il Trovatore with the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin; Samson in Samson and Dalilah at the New Israeli Opera in Tel Aviv; the Prince in Rusalka in the Czech Republic; title role in Ernani, Don Jose in Carmen, and I Vespri Siciliani with L’Opéra de Nice; I Vespri Siciliani with Den Norske Opera; Cavaradossi in a new production of Tosca at the Belleayre Music Festival; Carmen with Opera Valencia in Spain; and the Prince in Rusalka with Oper Frankfurt. In concert he has sung Prince Osaka in Mascagni’s Iris with the Münchner Philharmoniker, Verdi’s Requiem with L’Opéra de Nice, and Mahler’s Lied von der Erde with the Xalapa Symphony in Mexico.

Additional noted U.S. engagements have included Samson in Samson and Dalilah at the former Opera Pacific, Calaf in Turandot, Shuisky in Boris Godunov, and Boris in Katya Kabanova with Florida Grand Opera, the title role in Idomeneo with The Los Angeles Opera, where he was double cast with Placido Domingo, and Herod in Salome with Fort Worth Opera. In concert, he performed Rusalka with The Fort Worth Symphony, Das Lied von der Erde with Grand Rapids Symphony, and Boito’s Mephistofele with Boston Concert Opera. He was also a frequent guest at New York City Opera, where he performed the title role in Les Contes D’Hoffmann, Cavaradossi in Tosca, Don Jose in Carmen and Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly, among many other productions.