Zachary James - artist at English National Opera

Zachary James

Bass

Zachary James is an international opera singer and Broadway and screen actor known for his ‘tremendous power and presence’ (Arts Desk) and ‘intrinsically beautiful, ‘cavernous bass’ (Opera News).

Previously for ENO: Scribe Akhnaten, Abraham Lincoln in Glass’s The Perfect American

Career Highlights

Notable engagements elsewhere: Abraham Lincoln in Glass’s The Perfect American for Madrid’s Teatro Real and reprised the performance at ENO and Opera Queensland, and created the roles of Terry in Missy Mazzoli’s Breaking the Waves (Opera Philadelphia) and Oberon in Il Sogno (Teatro Citta della Pieve, Umbria). He made his Broadway debut singing Handel’s Messiah in Coram Boy, played Hassinger in the Tony Award-winning Lincoln Center revival of South Pacific, and Lurch in the original Broadway company of The Addams Family. He has sung with the New York Philharmonic (Sweeney Todd), Philadelphia Orchestra (West Side Story, Bernstein’s Mass), NHK Symphony Orchestra Tokyo (West Side Story), Arizona Opera (Das Rheingold), Fort Worth Opera (Avow), Virginia Opera (Street Scene), Des Moines Metro Opera (Billy Budd, Rusalka, Flight, Wozzeck), Opera Roanoke (Susannah, Sweeney Todd, La cenerentola, Die Entführung aus dem Serail), Anchorage Opera (The Mikado), Central City Opera (Don Giovanni), Union Avenue Opera (Nabucco, The Mikado), Shreveport Opera (The Pirates of Penzance), Opera Ithaca (Bluebeard’s Castle, Don Giovanni, Die Entführung), Knoxville Opera (Little Women, Madama Butterfly, The Most Happy Fella) and more. He has appeared on TV as Carl on 30 Rock, on Murphy Brown, as Claggart in the Emmy Award-winning broadcast of Billy Budd and as Ballion in the film The Gift.

In 2019 he will make his Nashville Opera debut as the Four Villains Les contes d’Hoffmann, will sing the Doctor Wozzeck (Des Moines Metro Opera), The Cook The Love for Three Oranges (Opera Philadelphia) and will make his Metropolitan Opera debut.

Last updated: 21st August 2019