Baritone Michael Mayes enjoys a busy operatic career in both traditional and contemporary operatic roles with theaters throughout the United States and Europe. During HGO's 2024-25 season, he performs the role of Councilman in Breaking the Waves. He performed the role of Travis Briggs in the world premiere of Intelligence with HGO in 2023; the title role in Rigoletto in 2019, and as Captain von Trapp in My Favorite Things, the company’s 2020 outdoor singalong featuring songs from The Sound of Music. Mayes made his critically acclaimed debut as Joseph De Rocher in Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking in 2018 with Teatro Real and went on to engagements at houses including Staatsoper Stuttgart, English National Opera, The Barbican, Theatre of Sound, and Bergen National Opera. In the 2022-23 season, Mayes performed the title role in the U.S. premiere of a new translation of Bluebeard’s Castle with The Atlanta Opera and again with the Edinburgh International Festival, made his role and company debut as Mr. Potter in It’s a Wonderful Life at English National Opera, sang Alberich in The Dallas Opera’s Das Rheingold, and sang the title role in Saint François d’Assise at Staatsoper Stuttgart. He made his role debut as Captain Von Trapp in The Sound of Music and reprised his role as Daddy in Taking Up Serpents, both at The Glimmerglass Festival. Other notable recent engagements include Il Conte di Luna in Il trovatore with Seattle Opera, Central City Opera, and The Glimmerglass Festival; the title role in Wozzeck with Des Moines Metro Opera; Bluebeard with Theater of Sound (U.K.); Rigoletto with Boston Lyric Opera and Nashville Opera; and Richard Nixon in Nixon in China at Staatstheater Stuttgart, a role he will reprise there in the 2023-24 season in addition to singing Alberich in Das Rheingold. He also sings Alberich at Seattle Opera, Bluebeard at Edinburgh International Festival, and David in The Righteous at Santa Fe Opera.