Hans Tashjian, a young bass described as having “a firm, resonant instrument and a gravid stage presence”, makes his St. Petersburg Opera debut in the present production of Il trovatore. He has most recently appeared as Dr. Grenvil in La Traviata and the title role of The Mikado with Chautaqua Opera, Second Prisoner in Fidelio and Second Boyar in The Golden Cockerel with Sarasota Opera, as Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte at Carnegie Hall with Manhattan Opera Studio, and as Biterolf in Tannhäuser with Apotheosis Opera. As a Young Artist with the Caramoor Music Festival, Mr. Tashjian performed Gazella in Lucrezia Borgia and the Usciere in Rigoletto.
Further operatic credits include the Verdian roles of Banco in Macbeth and Wurm in Luisa Miller, the Strauss roles of Baron Ochs in Chautauqua Music Festival’s production of Der Rosenkavalier and Truffaldin in dell’Arte Opera Ensemble’s Ariadne auf Naxos, Seneca in L’incoronazione di Poppea, also with dell’Arte Opera Ensemble, Méphistophélès in Faust, Daland in Der fliegende Holländer, and King René in Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta.
Mr. Tashjian is an alumnus of the Manhattan School of Music and Carnegie Mellon University, where he received the Derdeyne Award in Voice. He has fulfilled young artist residencies with Chautauqua Opera, Sarasota Opera, as a recipient of the Scheininger-Reznick Scholarship, and the Caramoor Music Festival. This is his first show with SPO.