Stefan Szkafarowsky

The bass, a native of New York City and an alumnus of the Lyric Opera Center for American Artists (now the Ryan Opera Center), recently appeared as Monterone/Rigoletto and Ivan Yakovievich/The Nose (both at the Metropolitan Opera), Zaccaria/Nabucco (Ukraine’s Lviv Opera House), Sparafucile/Rigoletto (Opera Colorado), and Benoit and Alcindoro/La bohème (Dallas Opera). After his appearance in Lyric’s Nabucco, Szkafarowsky will continue this season at the Met as the Bonze/Madama Butterfly. His varied repertoire includes roles as stylistically diverse as the Commendatore/Don Giovanni, Prince Gremin/Eugene Onegin, and Kuno/ Der Freischütz (all in Des Moines), Vodník/ Rusalka (Denver), Mitiukh/Boris Godunov (Dallas), Timur/Turandot (Dayton), Sarastro/The Magic Flute (Indianapolis), King/Aida (Nevada), Havrilo/War and Peace (New York), Friar Laurence/Romeo and Juliet (Toledo), Banquo/Macbeth (Milwaukee), and Ferrando/Il trovatore (Washington, D.C.). Szkafarowsky has appeared at Finland’s Savonlinna Opera Festival (Tosca, Samson et Dalila) and at China’s Macau International Music Festival (La serve padrona, The Marriage of Figaro). In 2002 the bass made his Italian debut in Tchaikovsky’s Oprichnik (Cagliari Opera House). He has been a featured soloist with the major orchestras of Pittsburgh, Washington, D.C., St. Louis, Colorado, Hartford, Milwaukee, Vancouver, and Montreal. Szkafarowsky is a graduate of the American Opera Center at Juilliard and the Westchester Conservatory of Music.