Eric Owens

Narrator

In the 2022-2023 season, Mr. Owens returns to the Metropolitan Opera as Emile Griffith in James Robinson’s new production of Champion, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and to Los Angeles Opera as Raimondo in Simon Stone’s production of Lucia di Lammermoor. He also debuts at the Wiener Staatsoper in Wagner’s heroic Ring Cycle, first as Wotan in Das Rheingold and Die Walküre, and as the Wanderer in Siegfried, conducted by Franz Welser-Möst. Additional operatic engagements include King Marke at the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Opéra National de Paris in a multimedia production of The Tristan Project, led by conductor Gustavo Dudamel and director Peter Sellars. Concert engagements include performances of Mozart opera excerpts with the Philadelphia Orchestra, conducted by Nathalie Stutzmann.

Mr. Owens’s career operatic highlights include both Alberich and Hagen in the Metropolitan Opera’s Ring cycle; Wotan and the Wanderer in Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Ring cycle directed by Sir David Pountney; Orest in Patrice Chereau’s production of Elektra conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen at the Met; the title role of Der Fliegende Höllander and Stephen Kumalo in Weill’s Lost in the Stairs at Washington National Opera; his San Francisco Opera debut in Otello conducted by Donald Runnicles; his Royal Opera, Covent Garden, debut in Norma; Vodnik and Porgy at Lyric Opera of Chicago; the title role in Handel’s Hercules with the Canadian Opera Company; Ramfis in Aida at Houston Grand Opera; Die Zauberflöte for his Paris Opera (Bastille) debut; and the title role of Macbeth at the Glimmerglass Festival.

Mr. Owens has been recognized with multiple honors, including the Musical America’s 2017 Vocalist of the Year award, 2003 Marian Anderson Award, a 1999 ARIA award, second prize in the Plácido Domingo Operalia Competition, the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, and the Luciano Pavarotti International Voice Competition. He serves on the Board of Trustees of both the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts and Astral Artistic Services.