T H E O D O R E C H L E T S O S TENOR
Tenor Theodore Chletsos is a sought-after artist in opera and concert in the US and abroad, garnering praise for his powerful voice and dynamic stage presence. Career highlights include performing Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly, Rodolfo in La bohème, il duca in Rigoletto, Cavaradossi in Tosca, Alfredo in La traviata, Luigi in il tabarro, Anatol in Vanessa, the title role in Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Rinuccio in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi and Michael Ching’s hilarious sequel Buoso’s Ghost, Tamino in Die Zauberflöte, Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, and Tom Norman in the North American premiere of Joseph Merrick, dit <<Elephant Man>>.
Chletsos performed to much acclaim throughout the Netherlands and Belgium, performing in tours of Madama Butterfly, La bohème, and Rigoletto, where he was universally praised for his "ringing high notes" and dramatic talents. Theodore made his Carnegie Hall and New York City Opera debut in Samuel Barber's Antony and Cleopatra, conducted by George Manahan. Chletsos has performed with Minnesota Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, Central City Opera, Indianapolis Opera, Utah Opera, Opera New Jersey, Baltimore Concert Opera, Chautauqua Opera, the Minnesota Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, and the Oregon Symphony, among others. Chletsos performed in the world premiere (and can be heard on the original cast recording, singing nine roles!) of Ricky Ian Gordon's The Grapes of Wrath with Minnesota Opera, Utah Opera, and Pittsburgh Opera.
Chletsos' concert repertory spans four centuries, including Verdi’s Messa da Requiem, Puccini's Messa di Gloria, Beethoven's Symphony #9 and Missa Solemnis, Handel's Judas Maccabaeus and Messiah, Rossini’s Petite Messe Solonnelle and Stabat Mater, many of Mozart's works, including: Requiem, Vesperae, Great Mass in C Minor, and Coronation Mass; works of Haydn, Schubert, Brahms, Bruckner, Bach's Christmas Oratorio and B Minor Mass, Dvorak's Mass in D, works by Menotti, Bernstein, and Saygun, among many others.
Chletsos' awards include the Shoshana Foundation’s Richard F. Gold Career Grant and the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions National Semi-Finalist. Chletsos received his Bachelor's of Fine Arts in Voice from Carnegie Mellon University School of Music and pursued graduate studies at University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory, where he performed Tamino in Die Zauberflöte and Judge Danforth in Robert Ward's The Crucible.
Chletsos has lent his singing and dancing talents to numerous Broadway-style revues, cabaret performances, and operettas, including a concert with Marvin Hamlisch and starring Susan Lucci (All My Children), a musical revue produced by Jerry Adler and featuring the music of (and a performance by) Stephen Schwartz (Pippin, Godspell, Wicked), a "musical pageant" based on Purcell's King Arthur directed and choreographed by Mark Morris for New York City Opera, and a special preview of the Tony Award-winning musical Ragtime with composer Stephen Flaherty.
Chletsos recently sang a concert tour with the Carnegie Mellon University Philharmonic and Choirs as soloist in Bruckner's Te Deum, which was broadcast on WQED 89.3 in Pittsburgh. Recent engagements include a triumphant performance at Carnegie Hall, where he was soloist in Yunus Emre Oratorio of Ahmed Adnan Saygun and Bernstein's Chichester Psalms, soloist in Bruckner's Te Deum with New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Aeneas in MidAtlantic Opera's Dido and Aeneas, and soloist in Menotti's Missa “O Pulchritudo" with Glen Ridge Concert Society. In May of 2016, Chletsos performed the tenor solo in Puccini's Messa di Gloria with The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra at the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark, NJ. Chletsos recently made a return to a favorite role, Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly, with The North Shore Music Festival. In Spring of 2018, Chletsos was soloist once more with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra for Mozart's Great Mass in C Minor.
Bruckner's Te Deum with Carnegie Mellon University Philharmonic and Chorus
il Duca in Act IV of Rigoletto with Anita Dafinska, Maddalena