John Daszak

Biography

British tenor John Daszak made his operatic debut at English National Opera as Steva (Jenůfa) after graduating from London’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Manchester’s Royal Northern College of Music and Italy’s Accademia d'Arte Lirica.

John Daszak made his house debut at the 2015 Bayreuther Festspiele as Loge (Das Rheingold) under Kirill Petrenko and recent seasons have seen several important role debuts: Captain Vere (Billy Budd) at The Metropolitan Opera under David Robertson, Grishka Kuter'na (The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh) at De Nederlandse Opera under Marc Albrecht, Zemlinsky's Der Zwerg at the Bayerische Staatsoper under Kent Nagano, Tambour-Major (Wozzeck) at the Berliner Staatsoper under Daniel Barenboim, Siegfried in his first Ring Cycle at the Grand Théâtre de Genève under Ingo Metzmacher and Gustav von Aschenbach (Death in Venice) at the Teatro Real, Madrid under Alejo Peréz.

Boasting an extensive repertoire, other highlights of John Daszak's recent career include Aron (Moses & Aron) at the Wiener Staatsoper and the Komische Oper Berlin, Captain Vere, Mephistopheles (Doktor Faust), Alwa (Lulu), Prince Golitsin (Khovanshchina), and Messiaen’s St François d’Assise at the Bayerische Staatsoper, Boris (Katya Kabanova) at Opéra National de Paris and Peter Grimes at the Teatro alla Scala, Welsh National Opera and the Royal Swedish Opera. Further appearances include Jimmy (Mahagonny) with Komische Oper Berlin; Aegisth (Elektra) at the Royal Opera House, Male Chorus (Rape of Lucretia) for Maggio Musicale di Firenze; Erik (Der fliegende Holländer) at Sydney’s Opera House, and Andrei Khovansky (Khovanshchina) at Oper Frankfurt.

A popular concert performer with a repertoire ranging from Mahler’s Symphony No.8 and Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass through Beethoven’s Symphony No.9 and Verdi’s Messa da Requiem, he has collaborated with many esteemed conductors and has a discography including Tosca for Chandos Records, Respighi’s La campana sommersa with Orchestre National de Montpellier conducted by Friedemann Layer and, on DVD, Pfitzner’s Palestrina from the Bayerische Staatsoper (Simone Young) and Das Rheingold from the Palau de Les Arts, Valencia (Zubin Mehta).

John Daszak’s 2015/16 concert season included Berlioz’ Te Deum at King’s College Chapel, Cambridge under Stephen Cleobury. On the opera platform appearances included Sergei in Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk at ENO under Mark Wigglesworth and also at Opéra de Lyon under Kazushi Ono.

In 2016 he took part in the production of Katerina Izmailova at the Bolshoi Theatre, singing the role of Sergei.