Praised for his “big, heroic voice” (LA Weekly) and “powerful emotions,” tenor Dane Suarez (he/him) has developed an exciting and varied career. Last season, Mr. Suarez made his OffBroadway debut in Kate Tarker’s world premiere play Montag at Soho Rep and joined OperaDelaware, The Carolina Philharmonic, Heartbeat Opera, Penn Square Opera, and Maryland Opera for concert and gala performances. He also returned to New Jersey Festival Orchestra to sing Rinuccio (Gianni Schicchi), covered Apollo (Strauss’s Daphne) with American Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, sang Luigi (Il tabarro) with On Site Opera, and sang Turiddu (Cavalleria rusticana) with Lyric Opera of the North.
Upcoming performances include a reprise of Don José in Carmen with Festival Opera, Il Duca (Rigoletto) with OperaDelaware (debut) and Opera Baltimore, Scalia (Scalia/Ginsburg) with Anchorage Opera (debut), Don José in La tragédie de Carmen with Newport Classical, and Canio in his return to Opera Birmingham. With Penn Square Music Festival, he performs excerpts from Carmen, Cavalleria rusticana, and Tosca, with Maryland Opera he performs excerpts from Werther and Les contes d’Hoffmann, and he covers Calaf at OperaDelaware. He will also be heard in concert with The Phoenix Symphony as tenor soloist for both a Holiday Pops concert and Handel’s Mesías (Messiah in Spanish).
Mr. Suarez’s 2021-2022 season included a return to Opera Memphis starring as the tortured Canio in a new production of Pagliacci; his debut as Manrico (Il trovatore) and a jump-in as Lensky (Eugene Onegin) with Opera in the Heights; a reprisal of Scalia (Scalia/Ginsburg) with both Penn Square Music Festival and Opera in the Heights, company debuts as Rodolfo with Opera Birmingham and Newport Classical, and his role and company debuts as Pollione in Norma with Festival Opera. He was also seen in concert for a recital with wife Kerriann Otaño for Il Cenacolo Club of San Francisco, a debut with New Jersey Festival Orchestra for The Three Holiday Tenors, a return to Maryland Opera for a live-streamed concert entitled Variant Valentine, and a return to his alma mater (Butler University) as guest tenor soloist for Verdi’s Messa da Requiem.
In the winter of 2020, Mr. Suarez returned to West Bay Opera to perform the role of Macduff in their production of Macbeth. For the remainder of the 2020 season, he was scheduled to reprise the role of Rodolfo in La bohème with Fort Worth Opera (COVID19), perform the title role in Faust with Opera Neo (COVID19) and make his role debut as Manrico in Il trovatore with Opera in the Heights (COVID19). In the summer of 2020, Mr. Suarez performed the role of First Armored Man in Opera Neo’s innovative digital production of The Magic Flute. During the 2020-2021 season, Mr. Suarez debuted with the Memphis Symphony Orchestra for their holiday concert, returned to Opera Memphis as Scalia in Derrick Wang’s acclaimed Scalia/Ginsburg, returned to Maryland Opera for a live-streamed concert, and was scheduled to perform the role of Don José in Carmen with Festival Opera (the aforementioned production postponed to 2023).
Mr. Suarez’s 2019 season included his role and house debut as Fenton in Falstaff with West Bay Opera, a return to Opera Neo to perform the role of Lensky in Eugene Onegin (where he was hailed by critics as “a vocal tour de force of surpassing splendor,”) a return to Opera San José as Greenhorn in Moby-Dick, reprising the role of Erik in Der fliegende Holländer with Baltimore Concert Opera, and his mainstage debut as Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly with Opera San José.
In 2018, Mr. Suarez reprised the roles of Don José in Carmen and Rodolfo in La bohème AKA “The Hipsters” with Pacific Opera Project, where the Act I duet was described as “a transfixing moment of sublime beauty.” He sang the title role in Idomeneo with Opera Neo and joined Opera San José as a Resident Artist in 2017, where his role responsibilities included Ruggero in La rondine, Erik in Der fliegende Holländer, Alfredo in La traviata, and Canio in Pagliacci. During the 2016-17 season, Mr. Suarez made his New York City Opera debut in his “completely winning” performance as Joe in La fanciulla del West, Rodolfo in his debut with Pacific Opera Project, and was a Studio Artist with Sarasota Opera, where he covered Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly, and performed Flaminio in L’amore dei tre re. (Suarez was subsequently granted the Mandelker Award for Outstanding Studio Artist). He returned to Fort Worth Opera for their 2017 Frontiers Showcase, and to Opera Memphis for 30 Days of Opera. Mr. Suarez was pictured on the front page of The Arts section of The New York Times and lauded for his “beautiful, soaring, and moving” performance as Cavaradossi in LoftOpera’s production of Tosca that “brought down the house.”
Mr. Suarez made his John F. Kennedy Center debut in 2015 with Washington National Opera as Ely Parker in Philip Glass’s Appomattox. Other past credits include joining Opera Memphis as Don José in La tragédie de Carmen and Beppe in Pagliacci, a run with Crested Butte Music Festival as Rodolfo, his role debut as Il Duca in Rigoletto at Opera in the Heights, his Fort Worth Opera debut as Marcellus in Thomas’s Hamlet, Pedrillo in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Mr. Splinters in The Tender Land, and Normanno in Lucia di Lammermoor (all with Opera North), his debut as Don José as well as a turn as Shuisky alongside Eric Owens in the Coronation Scene from Boris Godunov with Aspen Music Festival, and Henrik in A Little Night Music at the late Loren Maazel’s Castleton Festival.
Mr. Suarez was a 2014 National Semi-Finalist of The Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and has been recognized and awarded by multiple organizations including: Tri-Cities Opera TCO NEXT Competition, The Loren L. Zachary Society for the Performing Arts, Giulio Gari International Vocal Competition, Opera Birmingham Vocal Competition, Sarasota Opera, Brava! Opera Theater Vocal Competition, The Mary Jacobs Smith Singer of the Year Competition, Beethoven Club of Memphis, Bel Canto Foundation, and Sigma Nu Fraternity, Inc.
