Michael Sumuel
Bass-Baritone
In the 2025-26 season, American bass-baritone Michael Sumuel, lauded as having "vocals that are smooth and ingratiating" (Daily Camera), returns to the Metropolitan Opera as Papageno in Julie Taymor's The Magic Flute, sings Porgy in Porgy and Bess at Houston Grand Opera, and sings Leporello in Don Giovanni at the Bayerische Staatsoper, Achilla in Giulio Cesare at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, as well as Alberich, a role debut in Wagner's complete Ring Cycle, also at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. Concert highlights include Brahms' Requiem with the San Diego Symphony, and Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 at St. John the Divine in New York City for New Year's Eve.
In the 2024-25 season, Sumuel returned to the Metropolitan Opera and debuted with Opera Australia in Sydney to sing the title role in Le nozze di Figaro, debuted Porgy in Porgy and Bess with Washington National Opera, and sang Sharpless in Madama Butterfly with the Canadian Opera Company and LA Opera. An accomplished and in-demand concert artist, Sumuel made his debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, performing Mozart's Coronation Mass, performed the Fauré Requiem with the San Francisco Symphony, Bach's Christmas Oratorio with Music of the Baroque and Dame Jane Glover, Mozart's Requiem with the Salzburg Camerata, again with Dame Jane Glover, Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with the North Carolina Symphony, and Handel's Messiah with Jonathan Cohen and the Houston Symphony.
Operatic highlights include the Metropolitan Opera (Reginald in X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X and Belcore, L’elisir d’amore), San Francisco Opera (Figaro, Le nozze di Figaro; Escamillo, Carmen; Elviro, Xerxes), Lyric Opera of Chicago (Masetto, Don Giovanni), Houston Grand Opera (Belcore, Sharpless, Marcello, Papageno in Die Zauberflöte and Frank in Die Fledermaus), Glyndebourne Festival Opera (Sharpless, Junius in The Rape of Lucretia, Theseus in A Midsummer Night's Dream), Norwegian National Opera (Alidoro in La cenerentola and Escamillo), Seattle Opera (Figaro; Leporello, Don Giovanni), Detroit Opera (Forester, The Cunning Little Vixen and Elviro), Santa Fe Opera (Escamillo) and LA Opera (Jesus in The St. Matthew Passion).
In concert, previous work has included Messiah with the San Francisco Symphony, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Houston Symphony, United States Naval Academy, New Jersey Symphony, Phoenix Symphony and University Musical Society in Ann Arbor, Mozart's Mass in C minor with Los Angeles Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, the Orchestra of St. Luke's and Concertgebouw in Amsterdam; Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Seattle Symphony; and Mozart's Requiem with the New York Philharmonic, Cincinnati Symphony, Music of the Baroque, Orchestra of St. Luke's and North Carolina Symphony. Other repertoire includes Beethoven's Missa solemnis (Pittsburgh Symphony and Grant Park Music Festival), Bach's Christmas Oratorio (Les violons du Roy), Christus and bass solos in Bach's The Passion According to St. John (Seattle Symphony), the Fauré Requiem (National Symphony Orchestra), Haydn's Theresienmesse (Grant Park Music Festival), Bach's Easter Oratorio (Music of the Baroque), Puccini's Messa di Gloria (San Diego Symphony), the bass solos in Bach's St. John Passion (Music of the Baroque), Haydn's Lord Nelson Mass (Pacific Chorale), the bass solos in Bach's St. Matthew Passion as well as the Magnificat (Music of the Baroque, Mercury Houston) and finally, Bach cantatas BWV 61 and 140 (Handel and Haydn Society). Frequent conductor collaborators include Dame Jane Glover, Jonathan Cohen, Bernard Labadie, James Conlon, Zubin Mehta, Patrick Summers, Jaap van Zweden, Marc Minkowski and more.
Sumuel's competition accolades include being awarded a Richard Tucker Career Grant, Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions Grand Finalist and a winner of the Dallas Opera Guild Vocal Competition. A Texas native, he is an alumnus of the Houston Grand Opera Studio, Merola Opera Program at San Francisco Opera and the Filene Young Artist program at Wolf Trap Opera. He currently resides in San Francisco with his wife and son.
