English
Matthew Surapine, Tenor, has won acclaim across North America for the beauty and incisiveness of his singing and for his spirited stage portrayals. His performances of Hortensius in La Fille du Régiment led the Toronto Globe and Mail to laud his “brilliant timing, breezily free movement, and the spirit of Franklin Pangborn,” and the Charleston Post and Courier to proclaim that the accomplished young tenor “stole every scene he was in.”
He has been welcomed in Opera Companies across the United States, as well as 10 years on the roster of the Metropolitan Opera company as a principal singer, as well as his tenure at the New York City Opera CO., first as a chorister and then joining the roster as a principal singer.
Mr. Surapine’s favorite roles include Goro in Madama Butterfly, his most frequently requested role. Other highlights in his career include his debut with the Chautauqua Institute in Verdi’s Othello, in which he performed Cassio. Also in this versatile performers career include Curley in “of Mice and Men”, Gastone in La traviata, Pedrillo in Die Entführung aus dem Serail Monostatos in “the Magic Flute” as well as Tamino in the same piece. King Kaspar in “amahl and the night visitors has always been a holiday favorite, as well as Baron Puck in Offenbach’s “La Grande Duchesse de Gerolstein. Mr. Surapine was proud to co-star with James Earl Jones in the Lincoln Center debut of “Lincoln at Ease”, written by Peter Schickele, AKA PDQ Bach.
Mr Surapine’s Musical Theater roles include Cocky in “the roar of the greasepaint, the smell of the crowd”, Motel in “Fiddler on the Roof”, as well as performing alongside Rebecca Luker in “Brigadoon”, Lisa Vroman and Paul Sorvino in the Most Happy Fella where he performed the role of Giuseppe the Chef, appeared with Sally Ann Howes and Jean Stapleton in Cinderella. Mr. Surapine has collaborated with Jazz/Cabaret Icon David Lahm as well as composer and beatnik jazz elf, Bob Dorough. His teachers include(d) Kalmen Opperman, Carolyn Marcell, Dan Marek, as well as coaches Colin Romoff, James Gregory, Jane Steel and Nico Castel.