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Eric Cutler

About this Artist

American tenor ERIC CUTLER (Tamino) is the winner of the 2005 Richard Tucker Award and is already being hailed as one of the most promising singers of his generation. He has attracted the attention of the world's major opera houses as well as gaining a notable following in both orchestral and recital repertoire. He is equally at home in the high-lying roles of Bellini and Donizetti as with the major protagonists of Mozart and the French repertoire.

The summer of 2006 saw Cutler making his debut with the Royal Opera, Covent Garden as Ernesto in Don Pasquale to critical acclaim. His busy UK summer also included his debut at the Edinburgh Festival as Tamino in Die Zauberflöte under Claudio Abbado and Mozart's Mass in C minor at the Proms under Sir Charles Mackerras. He began the 2006/07 season with his Paris Opera debut as Iopas in Les Troyens. This was followed by a major revival of I Puritani at the Metropolitan Opera (in the virtuosic role of Arturo) opposite Anna Netrebko and conducted by Patrick Summers. Later in the season he made his Lyric Opera of Chicago debut as Ferrando in Così fan tutte under Sir Andrew Davis. He also sang a recital for the Wolf Trap Opera.

In the 2005/06 season, Cutler returned to the Metropolitan Opera for Tamino in Die Zauberflöte conducted by Paul Daniel and Andres in Wozzeck under James Levine. He also made his role debut as Gounod's Romeo in his return to Opera Australia. He debuted at the Teatro Real, Madrid as Belmonte in Die Entführung aus dem Serail and with the Vlaamse Opera as Leicester in Maria Stuarda. An equally distinguished concert season saw him making recital debuts at London's Wigmore Hall and at New York's Weill Recital Hall. He also sang Mozart's Requiem under the baton of Christoph von Dohnányi in a return to the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Cutler made his European debut at the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa singing Rossini's Stabat Mater under Riccardo Frizza. He made his debut at the Grand Théâtre de Genève as Leicester followed by his UK operatic debut as Tamino at the Glyndebourne Festival. He also has performed Arturo in Bellini's I Puritani for his debuts at Palm Beach Opera and Vancouver Opera.

EMI issued Eric Cutler's first solo recording in September 2003, a program with pianist Bradley Moore featuring music of Barber, Schumann, Hahn, and Liszt. This disc was awarded the Record of the Month distinction from Opera News. He sang the demanding role of Léopold in Halevy's La Juive in the acclaimed Günter Krämer production conducted by Marcello Viotti at the Metropolitan Opera. He debuted with Opera Pacific as Ferrando in Così fan tutte and with Opera Colorado as Alfredo in La Traviata. He returned to the San Francisco Symphony for concert performances of Fidelio under Michael Tilson Thomas and made his debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Esa-Pekka Salonen in Berlioz' Lélio, returning for the composer's Requiem. His season concluded with his debut at Santa Fe Opera as Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni under the baton of Alan Gilbert. He made his Kennedy Center debut in recital and returned to his alma mater Luther College for a recital.

Other Met roles have included Vogelgesang in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg conducted by James Levine (telecast on PBS and available on DVD) as well as First Prisoner in Fidelio in a new Jürgen Flimm production conducted by Levine (also telecast and on DVD) and the First Student from Wittenberg in Busoni's Doktor Faust. He made his Houston Grand Opera debut as Belmonte in Die Entführung aus dem Serail conducted by Patrick Summers and directed by James Robinson. He also debuted with Opera Theatre of St. Louis as Tamino in a new production of Die Zauberflöte. He made his Wolf Trap Opera Company debut as Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni. While at Wolf Trap, he also participated in a National Symphony Concert and performed in recital with pianist Steven Blier. He returned there as Lysander.

Eric Cutler, a native of Adel, Iowa and a graduate of Luther College, was the recipient of a Sara Tucker Study Grant from the Richard Tucker Music Foundation in 2000. This was followed by a Tucker Career Grant for 2001. He was a 1999 winner of the Houston Grand Opera Studio's Eleanor McCallum Auditions. He is also the winner of the 2001 Martin E. Segal Award from Lincoln Center and a 2002 ARIA award. He is an alumnus of the Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artist Development Program and was a winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in 1998.

06/07