Nicholas Tamagna · countertenor
Biography
The American countertenor Nicholas Tamagna sang Narciso in Handel's Agrippina at the Metropolitan Opera, all ten performances of the run, in David McVicar's production under Harry Bicket and broadcast worldwide in Met Live in HD. He had been contracted to cover the role. He went on from the first night. The last performance was 7 March 2020, and two days later he moved to Germany. When the theatres closed behind him he chose not to go home. He began again in Europe in 2021 with nothing in the diary, and everything since has come out of that.
He has since sung the title role of Giulio Cesare at the Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari, in Damiano Michieletto's staging under Stefano Montanari; Armindo in Partenope at San Francisco Opera alongside Julie Fuchs and Carlo Vistoli; the title role of Legrenzi's Giustino for Pinchgut Opera in Sydney; Hamor in Jephtha with Concerto Köln at the Elbphilharmonie; and Timagene in Vinci's Alessandro nell'Indie at Bayreuth Baroque and at the Theater an der Wien, a house he has returned to since 2018. Handel is the centre of the work: Cesare and Tolomeo, Ruggiero, Rinaldo, Polinesso, Oronte, Adelberto, Guido. Jonathan Dove is its counterweight. On the concert platform he has sung Bach's Matthäus-Passion in the Duomo di Milano, Handel's Messiah at Carnegie Hall, and Purcell's Dido and Aeneas with Vincent Dumestre's Le Poème Harmonique, recorded for DVD.
He commissions as well as sings. Raphael Fusco's cantata Un'alma innamorata was commissioned by him, premiered by him with I Porporini at the Schlosstheater Celle in 2022, and recorded for PentaTone. He created the countertenor role in Liisa Hõbepappel's Põrmuline in Tallinn, and sang in the world premiere of Sebastian Kloborg's Live on Tape with Kammerballetten and Concerto Copenhagen, for which he also wrote an additional verse to Feste's epilogue. He sang Cake and Berghahn in Jonathan Dove's Itch at the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe, the first German production of the opera and only the second anywhere. Dove's Refugee in Flight has been in his repertoire since 2017.
He also directs and leads. As co-founder and chair of Forum neue Kunst Oldenburg e. V. he runs the Münstermann Festival, where in 2025 he directed Schütz's Dafne (widely held to be the first opera in the German language, reconstructed from surviving fragments) and sang Cupido and Ovid. Earlier he staged Acis and Galatea and La Cenerentola for Opera Theatre of Montclair.
As a recitalist he programmes his own work: "From Frost to Flame", devised for Crescendo in Connecticut, tracing his own artistic evolution from Purcell to Porpora; two recitals of Baroque arias and duets in Tel Aviv; and an invitation from the Morin Khuur orchestra to Ulaanbaatar, where he was received by dignitaries and sang Baroque music with traditional Mongolian instruments on operatic subjects from ancient Mongolia.
He has taught for close to fifteen years, giving masterclasses at the University of Mainz, Marist College and Hunter College CUNY alongside his private studio. He lives in Bremen. Ahead are Guido in Handel's Flavio at the Staatstheater Meiningen and two productions at the Warsaw Chamber Opera.