William Burden
Tenor William Burden was just beginning his impressive career when he was a Santa Fe Opera Apprentice Singer in 1990. Since then, he has graced the Santa Fe Opera stage in principal roles in Italian Girl in Algiers in 2002, in La belle Hélène in 2003, Beatrice and Benedict in 2004, Billy Budd in 2008, King Roger in 2012, and Oscar in 2013. Santa Fe audiences will probably recall his portrayal of the Podestà in the 2014 production of Mozart’s La finta giardiniera. In December 2022, Mr. Burden sang the role of Louis in the Metropolitan Opera’s acclaimed production of The Hours. He shared the stage with two other alumni of the Santa Fe Opera Apprentice Singer program, Joyce DiDonato and Sylvia D’Eramo. (See adjacent profiles of Ms. DiDonato and Ms. D’Eramo.)
Mr. Burden’s broad-ranging repertoire spans leading roles in Italian, French, German, English, Czech, and Russian. A critic for the New York Times wrote, “Subdued emotional intensity permeates every line of Mr. Burden’s elegant singing.” He has sung in most of the major opera houses in the US and Europe. This includes the Metropolitan Opera and New York City Opera as well as opera companies in San Francisco, Chicago, Philadelphia, Houston, Seattle, Paris, Berlin, Madrid, Munich, Milan, and Glyndebourne. The Santa Fe Opera holds a special place in his heart. In correspondence about being featured in Apprentice Watch, Mr. Burden wrote, “My summers spent in Santa Fe are absolute highlights of my singing life and The Santa Fe Opera felt like home for me and my family.”
In addition to frequent performances with major opera companies and recitals on the concert stage, Mr. Burden is helping to mentor a new generation of musicians with positions on the faculties of The Juilliard School and The Mannes School, both in New York City. He holds a graduate degree from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music and participated in the San Francisco Opera’s Merola Program for young artists.
This gifted tenor has demonstrated a keen interest in new music, singing leading roles in numerous world premieres including Silent Night, Heart of a Soldier, The Gospel of Mary Magdalene, It's a Wonderful Life, Amelia, and Bel Canto. Not content to limit himself to traditional venues, he even starred in a Zoom production of Joe Illick and Mark Campbell's Bernadette’s Cozy Book Nook from Fort Worth Opera. Click here to watch an interview of Mr. Burden discussing this experience with Fort Worth Opera's Ryan Scott Lathan.
When asked about his enthusiasm for contemporary opera, he remarked, “To get to work with a living composer is a wonderful gift. Opera is the most collaborative performing art form--all the people in the mix: the composer, librettist, the conductor, the director, my colleagues...Being the instrument of the creation of this new character is really, really exciting.”