John Tessier Tenor

On the international stages of opera, concert, and recital, Canadian John Tessier has gained attention and praise for the beauty and honesty of his voice, for a refined style and creative versatility, and for his handsome, youthful presence in the lyric tenor repertoire. The Juno Award winning artist has worked with many of the most notable conductors of our day including Lorin Maazel, Leonard Slatkin, Plácido Domingo, John Nelson, Franz Welser-Möst, Donald Runnicles, Robert Spano, and Bernard Labadie.

During the 2009-10 season, John Tessier's operatic diary includes the role of Tamino in Die Zauberflöte with Opera Lyra Ottawa under Pinchas Zukerman and L'Opéra de Montréal, Nemorino in a new Jonathan Miller production of The Elixir of Love at English National Opera, and Laërte in Hamlet - sharing the stage with Carlos Álvarez, Diana Damrau, and Samuel Ramey - in a return engagement at Washington National Opera conducted by Plácido Domingo. The artist's concert schedule brings him to the Philadelphia Orchestra for Berlioz' Te Deum under the direction of Charles Dutoit and to Vienna, Paris, Frankfurt, Cologne, and Milan on a tour presentation of Handel's Messiah with Emmanuelle Haïm and Le Concert d'Astrée.

John Tessier made two prominent house debuts in the past season: he bowed as Almaviva in The Barber of Seville at the English National Opera and as the Steuermann in a new Tim Albery production of Der Fliegende Holländer at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, conducted by Marc Albrecht. The artist also returned to Glimmerglass Opera to sing Ramiro in La Cenerentola, a role he covered for his debut on the roster of the Metropolitan Opera conducted by Maurizio Benini. On the concert stage, he gave performances of Berlioz' L'enfance du Christ under the baton of John Nelson in Spain, Britten's Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings with Carl St. Clair and the Pacific Symphony Orchestra, and Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with Itzhak Perlman and the Russian National Orchestra at Festival of the Arts Boca.

On the opera stage John Tessier has sung Don Giovanni for his debut at the Washington National Opera, Il viaggio a Reims at Oper Frankfurt, I Capuleti e i Montecchi for Glimmerglass Opera, and Il Barbiere di Siviglia for New York City Opera, Edmonton Opera, Austin Lyric Opera, L'Opéra de Québec, and in a new Leon Major production at Glimmerglass Opera. He has bowed in L'elisir d'amore at the New York City Opera, Lakmé for the operas of Calgary and Edmonton, Così fan tutte at Vancouver Opera and in a new production by Tim Albery at Glimmerglass Opera, Don Pasquale with Opera Lyra Ottawa and Arizona Opera, The Merry Widow with L'Opéra de Montréal, L'Italiana in Algeri, Dialogues des Carmélites, Don Giovanni, and La fille du Régiment at Vancouver Opera, Don Giovanni, Falstaff, and Acis and Galatea at New York City Opera, Il Re Pastore at the Mostly Mozart Festival, Die Zauberflöte with the Opera Company of Philadelphia and the Edmonton Opera, Die Entführung aus dem Serail with L'Opéra de Québec, Little Women with Minnesota Opera, and Haydn's Orlando Paladino and Handel's Imeneo at Glimmerglass Opera.

Symphonic performances of the recent past have included John Corigliano's A Dylan Thomas Trilogy with Leonard Slatkin and the Nashville Symphony (recorded and commercially available on Naxos), Stephen Paulus' To Be Certain of the Dawn with Osmo Vänskä and the Minnesota Orchestra (recorded and commercially available on BIS Records), Haydn's Mass in the Time of War with Bernard Labadie and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, Mozart's Requiem with Donald Runnicles and the Orchestra of Saint Luke's at Carnegie Hall, Mozart's Mass in C with Lorin Maazel and the New York Philharmonic, Schumann's Scenes from Goethe's Faust with Franz Welser-Möst and the Cleveland Orchestra, and Haydn's The Creation with Jane Glover and Chicago's Music of the Baroque and with John Nelson and Ensemble Orchestral de Paris. He has given performances of Messiah with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony, and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Carmina Burana and Szymanowski's Symphony No. 3 with Robert Spano and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the Mozart Requiem with Donald Runnicles and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (recorded and commercially available on Telarc), Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with Paavo Järvi and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, and Bach's St. Matthew Passion with Nicholas McGegan and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Other engagements have brought him to Les Violons du Roy with Bernard Labadie, the National Symphony Orchestra, the Handel & Haydn Society, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra with John Nelson, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra with Bobby McFerrin, and to Lincoln Center with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and Nicholas McGegan.

Date Last Edited: 7th October 2009