Gregg Baker, bass-baritone
Gregg Baker began his Operatic career under Maestro James Levine at the Metropolitan Opera at the age of 29, in a landmark production of Gershwin’s Porgy & Bess to critical acclaim. As a result, he was invited back to the Met, and over the next seven seasons was seen in a variety of roles including Escamillo (Carmen), Silvio (Pagliacci), Donner (Das Rheingold), High Priest (Sampson), Count di Luna (Il Trovatore) and Amonasro (Aida).
Internationally, he was invited by Maestro Sir Simon Rattle and renowned Director Sir Trevor Nunn to perform in the ground-breaking Glyndebourne production of Porgy & Bess which led to an extensive international career spanning three decades. This included engagements at The Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Vienna Stattsoper, Arena di Verona, Teatro di San Carlo, Hamburg and Frankfurt Opera, New Isreali Opera, Scottish National Opera and Edinburgh Festival, New Tokyo Opera, Norway Opera, Teatro Massimo.
Recent engagements include Amfortas in Calixto Beito’s new production of Parsifal conducted by Maestro Manfred Honeck in Stuttgart, El Cimmaron at Der Norske Oper, new productions of The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny as Trinity Moses in Toulouse, Tosca at the Vlamse Opera Belgium as Scarpia, and Parsifal as Amfortas at Teatro Municipal in Santiago Chile.
On the concert stage, Mr. Baker has worked with James Levine, Zubin Mehta, Lorin Maazel, Andre Previn, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Daniel Oren, Sir Roger Norrington, Sir Simon Rattle, Leonard Slatkin, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Robert Shaw and Sir George Sotti.
Mr Baker has recorded with Zubin Mehta for Teldec Records, Nikolaus Harnoncourt for Sony Records, Sir Simon Rattle for EMI Records, including cast recordings of Carmen Jones (EMI Records), Sweeney Todd (Sony Records), and a recording of Beethoven 9 for Columbia Records.
His film and video recordings include Porgy & Bess directed by Sir Trevor Nunn, Aida directed by Franco Zefferelli, and Carmen directed by Popi Corsicato.
Media Links showing excerpts of Mr. Baker’s work can be found on YouTube.