Dale Travis is among the most sought-after bass-baritones in America today. With a repertoire encompassing over 50 roles in a wide variety of styles from Mozart, Donizetti and Rossini to Strauss, Puccini and Wagner, Mr. Travis has been a frequent guest artist at the most prestigious opera companies in the world, including the Metropolitan Opera, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Washington Opera, Los Angeles, Santa Fe Opera, Spoleto Festival USA, the Saito Kinen Music Festival, Teatro Regio in Torino, Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa, the Berlin Komische Oper, and the New Israeli Opera.
Most recently he returned to the San Francisco Opera as the Marquis de la Force in Dialogues of the Carmelites and was presented the San Francisco Opera Medal for 34 years of exemplary artistic servitude with the company. Other engagements included his return to Santa Fe Opera as the Sacristan in Tosca, and his debut with the Sacramento Philharmonic & Opera as Benoit/Alcindoro in La Boheme. This past season he returned to the Dallas Opera for the Sacristan in Tosca and to Opera San Jose for their 50th Anniversary Season as Dr. Bartolo in Il Barbiere di Siviglia. This coming season he returns to the San Francisco Opera as Benoit/Alcindoro in La Boheme.
Recently he returned to the Metropolitan Opera for La Boheme, San Francisco Opera for the Sacristan in Tosca, and the Seiji Ozawa Music Academy in Japan as Frank in Die Fledermaus. Other recent performances have also included West Side Story, The Barber of Seville, and Silent Night at the Glimmerglass Opera, the Sacristan in Tosca with Dallas Opera, Baron Douphol in La Traviata for Dallas Opera and San Francisco Opera, Elder McLean in Carlisle Floyd’s Susannah with the San Francisco Opera, Bartolo in Il Barbiere di Siviglia for Kentucky Opera and Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Waldner in Arabella, Music Master in Ariadne auf Naxos, and Nonacourt in The Straw Hat all for Minnesota Opera, Fernando in La Gazza Ladra and Benoit/Alcindoro in La Boheme for Glimmerglass Opera, the Sacristan for Michigan Opera Theatre, Don Magnifico in La Cenerentola for Atlanta Opera and Virginia Opera, and Don Alfonso in Cosi fan tutte with the Santa Fe Opera.
Other notable performances include the Lyric Opera of Chicago for Tosca and The Merry Widow, Santa Fe Opera for The Magic Flute and Albert Herring, the San Francisco Opera for The Marriage of Figaro and The Makropoulos Case, Teatro dell’ Opera in Rome for A View from the Bridge, Opera Colorado for La Cenerentola, St. Louis for Daughter of the Regiment and The Makropoulos Case at the Metropolitan Opera.
Mr. Travis is recognized as one of the premiere basso buffo artists of the day, stemming from his studying and working with three of the greatest artists of the 20th century in that repertoire: Italo Tajo, Paolo Montarsolo and Renato Capecchi. His performances as Bartolo, Dulcamara, Don Pasquale, Don Magnifico, Don Alfonso, Geronte, and Leporello have been described as “brilliant, definitive and utterly entertaining”. His work in dramatic and contemporary repertoire is widely praised as well with wonderfully detailed portrayals in the works of Britten, Berg, Poulenc, Weill, Stravinsky and Janacek. Mr. Travis can be heard on EMI Classics with the Metrpolitan Opera’s Manon Lescaut HD DVD, the EMI Classic CD of Die Burgschaft at the Spoleto Festival USA, Albany Records CD of Todd Machover’s Resurrection with the Houston Grand Opera and on London Records in Capriccio with the San Francisco Opera.
