Renowned American baritone Troy Cook is a native of Henry County, Kentucky, and has performed in many of the world’s greatest opera houses, including The Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera, Covent Garden, San Francisco Opera, La Monnaie (Brussels) and Opera Bilbao.
Troy Cook’s 2024-2025 season begins with his home company, Opera Philadelphia, singing the role of Paul Devon in the North American premiere of The Listeners. A champion of new music, he bows in Virginia Opera’s world premiere, Loving v. Virginia (Geter/Murphy Moo), portraying ACLU attorney Bernard Cohen. Also during the season, Cook revives his hugely popular Major-General Stanley in The Pirates of Penzance for Knoxville Opera, bows as Giorgio Germont in Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra’s performances of La traviata (conducted by JoAnn Falletta), and sings Mahler’s Songs of a Wayfarer with the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra.
During the 2023-2024 season, Troy Cook made an anticipated role debut as Athanaël in Massenet’s Thaïs with Utah Opera, and returned to several favorite portrayals, including Giorgio Germont for Florida Grand Opera, Sharpless in Madama Butterfly with Boston Lyric Opera, and Major-General Stanley with Kentucky Opera. In the summer, he took the stage with Glimmerglass Opera as both Tonio in Pagliacci and Major-General Stanley.
The baritone's engagements during the 2022-2023 season included returns to Opera Philadelphia, reprising Marcello in La bohème in his fourth different production with the company, and Virginia Opera, for his role debut as Major General Stanley. With Palm Beach Opera, he made his company debut in one of his most-frequently performed roles, Sharpless in Madama Butterfly, and also sang Germont in La traviata with Inland Northwest Opera. During the summer, he returned to Bard, appearing as Mr. Page in the Music Festival's presentation of Vaughan Williams' Sir John in Love.
Troy created the role of Father Palmer in the world premiere of the Pulitzer Prize-winning opera Silent Night by Kevin Puts & Mark Campbell with Minnesota Opera, singing further performances of the role with Utah Opera, Austin Opera and Atlanta Opera amongst others. He created another role, John Cree, in Puts & Campbell’s Elizabeth Cree with Opera Philadelphia in 2017. In 2022, he created the role of Tom in the world premiere of Matt Boehler and Miriam Gordon-Stewart’s Fat Pig.
Other recent operatic engagements include Merlin in Chausson’s rarely-performed Le Roi Arthus for Bard Summerscape, Mark Torrance in The Shining with Opera Colorado, Sharpless with Washington National Opera, Portland Opera and Central City Opera, Dr. Falke in Die Fledermaus with Central City Opera, Watty Watkins in Lady be Good with Teatro San Carlo Napoli, Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor in a new Laurent Pelly production with Opera Philadelphia, Rodrigo in Don Carlo with Washington National Opera and Opera Philadelphia, Valentin in Faust at the Macau Festival, and Ford in Falstaff with San Diego Opera.
On the concert stage, Troy recently performed Handel’s Messiah with the San Francisco, Indianapolis, Charlotte, Memphis and Tucson Symphonies. He bowed as the baritone soloist in Carmina Burana with the Hong Kong Philharmonic and LA Philharmonic, and sang Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem with the Portland Symphony.
Previous career highlights include Ford in Falstaff with the Staatsoper Hamburg, Guglielmo in Così fan tutte with the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and Santa Fe Opera; Morales in Carmen and Schaunard in La bohème with the Metropolitan Opera; Marcello in La bohème with the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra, Florida Grand Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, Semperoper Dresden, and Opera Philadelphia; Lescaut in Manon Lescaut with Opera Philadelphia; the Count in Le nozze di Figaro with Lyric Opera of Kansas City; Germont in La traviata with Central City Opera; Riccardo in I puritani with Boston Lyric Opera; Sharpless in Madama Butterfly with Opera Philadelphia and Berkshire Opera; Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor with Las Palmas Opera and Lyric Opera of Kansas City; Zurga in Les pêcheurs de perles with Lyric Opera of Kansas City and Opera Carolina; Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia with Austin Opera, San Francisco Opera and Fort Worth Opera; Mr. Flint in Billy Budd with San Francisco Opera; Paolo in Simon Boccanegra and Albert in Werther with Kentucky Opera; and Giacomo in Beatrix Cenci with Grand Théâtre de Genève.
