Featured on the cover of Opera News as one of “opera’s exciting new voices,” Chinese baritone Yunpeng Wang is quickly gaining international recognition on both the opera and concert stages of the world.
In the 2019/20 season, Mr. Wang will perform the roles of Le fauteuil and L'arbre in Ravel’s L'enfant et les sortilèges for concerts with the Philadelphia Orchestra. He will also make two Italian house debuts this season, Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa and Teatro Dal Verme in Milan, as he returns to the role of Wen Tianxiang in Enjott Schneider’s Marco Polo under the baton of Muhai Tang. Mr. Wang also makes his Danish debut in the CPH Opera Festival’s new production of La Bohème at the Østre Gasværk Teater in Copenhagen where he makes dual role debuts alternating performances as Marcello and Schaunard. His season culminates with performances and a recording of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra.
The highlight of Mr. Wang’s 2018/19 season was his stage debut in the title role in Pelléas et Mélisande at the Teatro Municpal in São Paulo, a role he had previously covered at the Metropolitan Opera. Additional appearances that season included Orff’s Carmina Burana with conductor Roberto Abbado and the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, a concert version of Madama Butterfly with the Pacific Symphony, a performance of Dona nobis pacem by Vaughan Williams with the Hartford Symphony, and a tour with Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center featuring Barber’s Dover Beach that culminated in a concert at Alice Tully Hall in New York. Mr. Wang also sang the title role in the Chinese premiere of Buddha Passion in Xi'an with the Orchestre National de Lyon conducted by the composer Tan Dun.
Previous performances at the Metropolitan Opera have included Mercutio in Bartlett Sher’s new production of Roméo et Juliette conducted by Emmanuel Villaume; a Flemish Deputy in Don Carlos under the baton of Yannick Nézet-Séguin; appearing twice in the Live in HD series in movie theaters around the world as Prince Yamadori in Anthony Minghella’s production of Madama Butterfly and Fiorello in The Barber of Seville with conducting duties shared by Antony Walker and Michele Mariotti; as well as appearing in the company’s 50th anniversary gala and the Summer Recital Series in New York City parks.
Additional career highlights include Fieramosca in scenes from Berlioz’s Benvenuto Cellini conducted by James Levine and Agamemnon in Gluck’s Iphigénie en Aulide under Jane Glover, both with Met+Juilliard; appearances at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, Italy, including his role debut as Figaro in a concert version of The Barber of Seville under the baton of Alberto Zedda and portraying Don Profondo in Rossini’s Il Viaggio a Reims at the Teatro Rossini; his debut with the Opera Orchestra of New York as Duke Azzo in Donizetti’s Parisina d’Este conducted by Eve Queler of which the New York Times said he “brought elegant phrasing and keen dramatic instincts”; a role debut as Valentin in Faust as well as his house and role debut as Zurga in The Pearl Fishers with the Tulsa Opera, both conducted by Emmanuel Plasson; a concert with the Dallas Opera for the Linda and Mitch Hart Institute for Women Conductors where he sang arias and duets under the batons of Alba Bomfim, Caroyln Watson, and Monika Wolinska; his United Kingdom recital debut at St. George’s Hall (Liverpool) in a program of Rossini, Liszt, Gounod, Mozart and more; debuts with both the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, singing Brahm’s Liebeslieder Walzer and Schumann’s Spanische Liebeslieder with Cecile Licad and Ken Noda, respectively; his Carnegie Hall debut was in collaboration with the Musical Olympus Festival where he sang arias by Verdi and Donizetti; his debut at Alice Tully Hall debut was with the I Sing Beijing Program; Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen with the Santa Cruz Symphony; singing the opening night concert of the Pécs Plácido Domingo Classics Festival with the Budapest Symphony Orchestra conducted by Eugene Kohn in Hungary; performances of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and Xian Xinghai’s The Yellow River Cantata with the Hartford Symphony; and a performance at the “Zürich Stiftung Opera Bel Canto Night” under the tutelage of Francisco Araiza in Zürich.
Further appearances in Asia have included performances of Marco Polo created by the international team of German composer Enjott Schneider, Chinese opera writer Wei Jin, and Danish stage director Kasper Holten at the Guangzhou Opera House and Quanzhou Opera House; his Japanese debut as Count Almaviva in a new production of The Marriage of Figaro at the Hyogo Performing Arts Center conducted by Yutaka Sado and he repeated the role at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing conducted by Lü Jia; Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra and baritone soloist in Ye Xiaogang’s The Song of the Earth with the Harbin Symphony Orchestra conducted by Muhai Tang; and the role of Guglielmo in Così fan tutte with the Macao Symphony.
Yunpeng Wang’s awards include the Second Prize (as well as the Zarzuela Prize and coveted Audience Favorite Award) at Plácido Domingo’s 2012 Operalia Competition; First Prize in the 2014 Gerda Lissner Foundation International Vocal Competition; First Prize in the Alan M. and Joan Taub Ades Vocal Competition; and recipient of the 2017 Martin E. Segal award at Lincoln Center awarded by the Metropolitan Opera. He received his Bachelor of Music from the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing and a Master of Music in Vocal Performance from The Manhattan School of Music. Mr. Wang has participated in masterclasses with Renata Scotto, James Levine, Marco Armiliato, Piotr Beczała, Sherrill Milnes, James Morris, Francesca Zambello, John Fisher, Carol Vaness, Anne Murray. In 2018, Mr. Wang was appointed as a Guest Professor at the Xinghai Conservatory of Music in Guangzhou, China. He is a former member of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program.
