NICHOLAS NEWTON

UNITED STATES

BASS-BARITONE

About the artist:

This season for HGO, Butler Studio alumnus Nicholas Newton performs as Sacristan in Tosca and as Second Soldier in Salome. Previously for HGO, Newton performed the role of Friar Laurence in Romeo and Juliet (2021), Daddy/Tim in the world premiere of The Snowy Day (2021), Billy King in performances of Marian’s Song at Miller Outdoor Theatre (2021) and in the opera’s world premiere (2020), and Monterone in Rigoletto (2019). During the 2020-21 HGO Digital season, he performed in The Making of The Snowy Day, an Opera for All and Giving Voice. He is the third prize winner in HGO’s 2019 Eleanor McCollum Competition Concert of Arias and an alumnus of HGO’s Young Artists Vocal Academy (2016). During the 2022-23 season, Newton’s engagements include a Dallas Opera debut as Monterone in Rigoletto, a Detroit Opera debut in Handel’s Xerxes, and a return to the Lyric Opera of Chicago to cover the role of Peter in Hansel and Gretel. Last season Newton made a Santa Fe Opera debut as Don Basilio in The Barber of Seville and joined the roster of the Metropolitan Opera to cover the role of Garibaldo in Rodelinda. His 2020-21 season included the roles of Colline in La bohème and Judge Turpin in Sweeney Todd with Wolf Trap Opera, Monterone in Rigoletto with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, and both Olin Blitch in Susannah and Achilla in Julius Caesar at Rice University. Newton is also an avid concert performer and recitalist. He is a co-founder of the in-progress Black Opera Database, a resource created to archive, celebrate, and preserve the vocal compositional output of Black composers and works that chronicle the Black experience. A 2021 Sullivan Award-winner, he earned his Bachelor of Music degree in Vocal Performance from San Diego State University and his Master of Music degree in Vocal Performance from Rice University.