BIOGRAPHY
Featured by Opera News as one of their ‘25 Rising Stars' (October 2015), tenor Andrew Bidlack’s career highlights include his 2016 and 2018 Metropolitan Opera appearances as Beppe I Pagliacci; the principal tenor role in Iain Bell’s world premiere In Parenthesis at Welsh National Opera with performances at Covent Garden in 2016; and the role of Sprinck in Kevin Puts’s Pulitzer Prize winning composition Silent Night at Arizona Opera.
Andrew’s recent success in the role of Lyonnel Le Roi Arthus which he sang at BARD Summerscape and in Austria’s Tiroler Festspiel, Erl, brought him an invitation to appear at Oper Frankfurt, and he sang several roles there including Moser Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Dance Master/Lamplighter Manon Lescaut, Schmidt Werther, The Assistant Der Zar lässt sich fotografieren, and perhaps most memorably the role of First Vagabond in Orff’s Die Kluge with its numerous high Cs. His easy command of Russian took him to Odyssey Opera for Young Gypsy Aleko and Paolo Francesca da Rimini and he joined Opera Delaware’s recital series for Schumann’s Dichterliebe. Future engagements include his return to Oper Frankfurt for Second Jew Salome and back to Dallas Opera for Doctor Alexandre The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Other recent highlights include his performances as Tony West Side Story at Atlanta Opera, Lyric Opera of Kansas City and Liepāja Symphony Orchestra, Latvia; and the role of Rob Hall in Joby Talbot’s celebrated Everest, a role he inaugurated at Dallas Opera and sang at Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Calgary Opera, Austin Opera, Chicago Opera Theatre and in a concert recording with the BBC Symphony Orchestra at London’s Barbican Theatre in June 2023.
Renowned for his interpretation of new roles in contemporary opera, Andrew has appeared in many world premieres, including Bell’s Stonewall as Andy at New York City Opera; he workshopped Greenhorn/Ishmael in the developmental production of Moby Dick at San Francisco Opera and later sang the role at Dallas Opera and at Chicago Opera Theatre; he inaugurated Tancredi The Inspector (John Musto) at Wolf Trap; and he created the role of Christopher Morcom in The Life and Death(s) of Alan Turning (by Justine Chen and David Simpatico). Other contemporary roles include The Young Collector A Streetcar Named Desire in his debut with Lyric Opera of Chicago also at Carnegie Hall; Ricky Ian Gordon's 27 as Pablo Picasso and Irving Tashman in Gordon’s Morning Star; the role of Sandy The Lighthouse at Dallas Opera; at Des Moines Metro Opera he sang Bill Flight; in several productions of Florencia in el Amazonas Andrew appeared as Arcadio; he has performed the title role Candide, and more recently, Camille The Merry Widow at Opera Idaho and as Steven Kodaly She Loves Me at Madison Opera.
A graduate of San Francisco Opera’s prestigious Adler Fellowship, Andrew’s significant body of standard repertoire includes many Rossini/Mozart and bel canto roles such as Tamino Die Zauberflote, Don Ottavio Don Giovanni, Almaviva Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Ferrando Cosi fan tutte; Rodrigo Otello (Rossini), Don Ramiro La Cenerentola, Bastien Bastien et Bastienne, Nemorino L’elisir d’amore, Tonio La Fille du Regiment, title role of Getry’s rarely heard opera Zémire et Azor. and Rinuccio Gianni Schicchi. Other past roles include Lensky Eugene Onegin, Young Gypsy Aleko, Lamplighter (cover Edmondo) Manon Lescaut, Baron Lummer Intermezzo, Almerich Iolanta, Prince Karl Franz The Student Prince, Anatol Vanessa, Rodolfo La bohème, Snout A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Emilio IB and Tom Rakewell The Rake’s Progress.
Andrew’s concert appearances are legendary, and he appears with eminent conductors in much of the standard vocal symphonic repertoire as well as the new works of today’s composers; his credits include Carmina Burana with New York’s New Choral Society in addition to the South Dakota Symphony and Milwaukee Symphony, Bach’s Weihnachts Oratorium in his Carnegie Hall debut, The Messiah with Lexington Philharmonic, The Creation with Greensboro Symphony, as well as premiering Iain Bell’s London’s Fatal Fire at the Spitalfield’s Festival.
Other international engagements include his appearance as A Guest The Saint of Bleecker Street at the Spoleto Festival in Italy, which was recorded and released under the Chandos label; the role of Oronte Alcina in Chile and Damon Acis and Galatea in Macau.