Ryan Speedo Green fell for opera at age fourteen after seeing a Met production of Carmen. Sing for Your Life (2016), by New York Times journalist Daniel Bergner, tells the story of Mr. Green’s personal and artistic journey: from a trailer park in southeastern Virginia and time spent in Virginia’s juvenile facility of last resort to the Met stage.
Now his career is rising. He has quickly established himself as an artist of international demand at the world’s leading opera houses. Mr. Green opens the Metropolitan Opera’s 2021 – 2022 season as Uncle Paul in Terrence Blanchard’s Fire Shut up in my Bones and reprises his Grammy Award winning role of Jake in Porgy and Bess, Colline in La bohème, and sings Truffaldino in Ariadne auf Naxos, which will be broadcast as part of the Met’s Live in HD series. Mr. Green also makes his house debut with Washington National Opera as Escamillo in Carmen, directed by Francesca Zambello and conducted by music director Evan Rogister.
He received a Master of Music degree from Florida State University, a Bachelor of Music degree from the Hartt School of Music, and was a member of the Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. He made his Metropolitan Opera debut in 2012–13 as Mandarin in Puccini’s Turandot, followed by Parsifal as a Grail Knight. In 2014–15 he sang Rambo in The Death of Klinghoffer at the Met. Green returned to the Met in 2016 as Colline in La Bohème.
Praised by Anthony Tommasini of the New York Times for his “robust voice” and Anne Midgette of The Washington Post as an artist “fully ready for a big career,” bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green is quickly establishing himself as an artist of international demand at the world’s leading opera houses.