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.
During the 2023-2024 season, Troy Cook makes an anticipated role debut as Athanaël in Massenet’s Thaïs with Utah Opera, and returns to several favorite portrayals, including Germont in La traviata for Florida Grand Opera, Sharpless in Madama Butterfly with Boston Lyric Opera, and Major-General Stanley in The Pirates of Penzance with Kentucky Opera. In the summer, he takes the stage with Glimmerglass Opera as both Tonio in Pagliacci and Major-General Stanley in The Pirates of Penzance.
The 2024-25 season will see Mr. Cook’s return to Opera Philadelphia for his role debut as Paul Devon in Missy Mazzoli’s The Listeners, followed by portraying Bernard Cohen in the world premiere of Damien Geter and Jessica Murphy Moo’s Loving v. Virginia with Virginia Opera.
Troy’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.
After making his Bard Summerscape debut as Merlin in Chausson’s only opera, Le roi Arthus, Mr. Cook began the 2021-2022 season with the Phoenicia Festival, making his role debut as Tonio in Pagliacci. He then debuted with Madison Opera as Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor, returned to the Memphis Symphony Orchestra for performances of Messiah, and joined Victory Hall Opera to create the role of Tom in the anticipated world premiere of Matt Boehler’s chamber opera Fat Pig. He also bowed with Opera Colorado as Mark Torrance in The Shining, appeared at the Spoleto Festival USA in a return to one of his signature roles, Marcello in La bohème, and returned to Central City Opera as Dr. Falke in Die Fledermaus.
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. Other recent operatic engagements include Sharpless in Madama Butterfly with Washington National Opera, Portland Opera and 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, he has recently performed Handel’s Messiah with the San Francisco Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, Charlotte Symphony, and Tucson Symphony, amongst others. 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.
