Biography

American tenor Jay Hunter Morris (Lazarus) makes appearances in 2016-17 as Captain Ahab in Jake Heggie’s Moby-Dick at Dallas Opera, Lazarus in John Adams's The Gospel According to the Other Mary with the Saint Louis Symphony at Carnegie Hall, Erik in Der fliegende Holländer at the Metropolitan Opera, and as Tristan in Tristan und Isolde at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing and at Theatro Municipal de São Paulo in Brazil. He makes his San Francisco Symphony debut at these performances.

Recent highlights include appearances at Los Angeles Opera and San Francisco Opera as Captain Ahab in Moby-Dick; the role of Teague in Jennifer Higdon’s Cold Mountain at Opera Philadelphia, which he originated at Santa Fe Opera; and the title role of Tristan und Isolde at Polish National Opera. Mr. Morris was 2016 artist-in-residence at the Glimmerglass Festival. 

Mr. Morris has created many roles in world premieres, including Captain James Nolan in John Adams’s Doctor Atomic at San Francisco Opera and Netherlands Opera; Marky in Howard Shore's The Fly at Théâtre du Chatelet in Paris and at Los Angeles Opera; and Unferth in Elliot Goldenthal and Julie Taymor's Grendel at Los Angeles Opera and at Lincoln Center Festival. With San Francisco Opera, he sang Father Grenville in the world premiere of Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking, Mitch in Andre Previn's A Streetcar Named Desire, and Frere Elie in the American premiere of Messiaen's St. François d'Assise.

In 2012, Mr. Morris published his first book, Diary of a Red-Neck Opera Zinger.

(February 2017)