Gabriel Manro

Multiple Grammy Award winning baritone Gabriel Manro has
been called “a new kind of baritone: not lyric, not helden, not Kavalier,
not Bariton-Martin — none of those. Rather, he’s a knock-down
baritone.” --San Francisco Classical Voice. Indeed, Manro regularly
sings dramatic baritone roles such as Don Carlo di Vargas (La forza del
destino), Andrei Shchelkalov (Boris Godunov), and Tonio (I Pagliacci).
Opera News describes Manro as “Gifted with a striking, sinister
baritone that remains strong, even and sonorous throughout the
range, he tears into Verdi's music with a vengeance.” -- Opera News.
Mr. Manro made his professional operatic debut as Third Inmate
in Jake Heggie's ground-breaking opera Dead Man Walking for Opera
Pacific with Frederica von Stade. Manro has created roles in numerous
contemporary and world-premiere operas and musicals:
Muscovite Trader in John Corigliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles
(premiere audio recording-Pentatone Music: Grammy--Best Opera Recording), the Mousling in the Los
Angeles Philharmonic’s Alice in Wonderland by Unsuk Chin, the Computer in Los Angeles Opera’s The
Fly by film composer Howard Shore (Lord of the Rings Trilogy) directed by David Cronenberg; The
Chauffeur in Opera Santa Barbara’s Séance on a Wet Afternoon by Stephen Schwartz (Wicked,
Godspell); Angry Voter in Los Angeles Opera’s Il Postino (Sony Classical DVD); and the Commentator
in the Opera Las Vegas West Coast Premiere of Derrick Wang’s wildly popular Scalia/Ginsburg. Manro
created the role of President Lincoln in Golden Gate Opera's world-premiere Civil War Epic: Lincoln
and Booth. Off-Broadway, Mr. Manro led the original cast of Center for Contemporary Opera’s
production of Oration by Line Tjørnhøj. On television, Manro appeared as Joel Lynch and Father
Jackson in the European premiere live telecast of William Mayer’s: A Death in the Family at the
Hungarian National Theater and Opéra Grand D’Avignon which was voted “audience favorite” by TBS
Network viewers. Manro played Jafar in Walt Disney Company’s original stage production of Aladdin
directed by Francesca Zambello.
Mr. Manro made his European operatic debut as Doctor Bartolo (Il barbiere di Siviglia)
with Corfu Opera in Greece. His extensive repertoire and engagements have also included the roles of
Bluebeard (Bluebeard’s Castle), Count Almaviva, Bartolo, Antonio (Le nozze di Figaro), Guglielmo,
Don Alfonso (Cosí fan tutte), Don Giovanni (Don Giovanni), Die Sprecher, Papageno (Die
Zauberflöte), Belcore (L'elisir d'amore), Frédéric (Lakme), Enrico (Lucia di Lammermoor), Giorgio
Germont (La traviata), Schaunard, Coline, Marcello (La bohème), Valentin (Faust), Dandini, Alidoro
(La Cenerentola), Alfio (Cavalleria Rusticana), Escamillo (Carmen), Scarpia (Tosca), Don Pizarro
(Fidelio), and Superintendent Budd (Albert Herring). Equally at home in Musical Theater, he has
performed numerous roles including Curly (Oklahoma!), Tony (The Most Happy Fella), Abner (Li'l
Abner), Schroeder (You're a Good Man Charlie Brown), Lank Sanders (Girl Crazy), Mr. Brownlow
(Oliver!), Harrison Howell (Kiss Me Kate), the Governor (Man of La Mancha), and Emile de Becque
(South Pacific). See Mr. Manro next as Alfio in the Berliner Philharmonie’s production of Cavalleria
Rusticana this March 2023.