Gregory Kunde

Career Trajectory

Kunde's career began in 1978 as Cassio at Lyric Opera of Chicago, where he was nurtured through a rigorous apprenticeship that combined understudy work with smaller roles and intensive language and stagecraft training. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, he established himself as a preeminent interpreter of French and Italian bel canto, performing Rossini's Otello, Semiramide, and Armida at the Pesaro Festival and major European houses, his voice prized for its crystalline top notes and technical brilliance. Beginning in the 2010s, Kunde undertook a dramatic expansion into heavier Verdian and verismo roles—Otello, Manrico, Radamès, Andrea Chénier, and Calaf—performing at the Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera House, Wiener Staatsoper, and virtually every major international house. His 2016 International Opera Award for Male Singer of the Year and his historic achievement of performing both Rossini's and Verdi's Otello in the same season cemented his status as one of the most versatile and intellectually engaged tenors of his era.