Biography

John Relyea (Mr. Swallow) is the winner of the 2009 Beverly Sills Award and the 2003 Richard Tucker Award. This season, he returned to the Metropolitan Opera as the Water Sprite in Dvořák’s Rusalka, sang Verdi’s I Lombardi at the Hamburg State Opera, and appeared in concert with the Cleveland Orchestra, National Symphony, Toronto Symphony, and the NDR Orchestra. This summer he returns to the Bavarian State Opera for Donizetti’s Lucrezia Borgia and appears in concert at the Ravinia Festival. Next season he returns to the Lyric Opera of Chicago in Donizetti’s Anna Bolena and Wagner’s Tannhäuser, the Canadian Opera in Bartók’s Duke Bluebeard's Castle, and the Gran Teatre del Liceu for Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia. Mr. Relyea’s recordings include Verdi’s Requiem with the London Symphony (LSO Live), Idomeneo with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra (EMI), Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (EMI), and several Metropolitan Opera DVD presentations on Deutsche Grammophon. He made his San Francisco Symphony debut in 1998.

(June 2014)