Ryan Speedo Green

Ryan Speedo Green (born April 1, 1986)
by Daniel Bergner, ''The New York Times Magazine'', 19 May 2011"Opera Colorado singer Ryan Speedo Green wins Met finals"
by Kyle MacMillian, ''The Denver Post'', 25 March 2011"TheGrio's 100: Ryan Speedo Green, allowed opera to change the course of his life"
by Keosha Johnson, The Grio, 27 February 2012 is an American bass-baritone opera singer.

Life and career

Green was born in Suffolk, Virginia, and grew up in low-income housing and a trailer park. He has said his middle name was derived from his father: "I was born on April Fools’ Day, and my father, who considers himself quite a funny man, thought he would name me — he’s a bodybuilder — after his favorite sporting brand. I’ve kind of embraced it and made it my own." He was sent to juvenile detention at the age of 12 after he threatened to stab his mother and brother.

Green earned a Bachelor of Music degree at the Hartt School of Music and a Master of Music at Florida State University. He won several singing competitions. In March 2011, he was one of the five winners of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. Following an article by Daniel Bergner in ''The New York Times'' about Green and his win in that competition, HarperCollins expressed interest in publishing his biography. It was published in October 2016 with the title ''Sing for Your Life: A Story of Race, Music, and Family''."A Singer's Journey: From Solitary Confinement to the Met Opera"
by Michael Cooper, ''The New York Times'', 30 September 2016 In 2014 he received the George London Foundation Award, won first prize of the Gerda Lissner Foundation, was a finalist in Palm Beach Opera's singing competition, and graduated from the Metropolitan Opera's Lindemann Young Artist Development Program.

Green sang the Commendatore in ''Don Giovanni'' at the Juilliard School in New York and at Opera Colorado in Denver where he was Resident Artist in 2010–11. There he also sang Colline in ''La bohème'' and Don Magnifico in ''La Cenerentola''. In 2012, he sang Colline for Central City Opera. In 2014 he sang Zuniga in ''Carmen'' for the Wolf Trap Opera Company in Vienna, Virginia.

He made his Metropolitan Opera debut in 2012–13 as Mandarin in Puccini's ''Turandot'', followed by ''Parsifal'' as a Grail Knight. The following season at the Met saw him as the Bonze in ''Madama Butterfly'' and as the Jailer in ''Tosca''. In 2014–15 he sang Rambo in ''The Death of Klinghoffer'' at the Met. Green returned to the Met in 2016 as Colline. In 2018, he sang Oroe in ''Semiramide''.

In 2014 Green became a member of the Vienna State Opera. His roles there included Angelotti in ''Tosca'', Sparafucile in ''Rigoletto'', Basilio in ''The Barber of Seville'', a Jew in ''Salome'', Fouquier-Tinville in ''Andrea Chénier'', a Monk in ''Don Carlos'', Titurel in ''Parsifal'', the King in ''Aida'', Timur in ''Turandot'', and Varlaam in ''Boris Godunov''. He appeared as guest artist in Opéra de Lille's 2016 production of in ''Il trovatore'' as Ferrando. Later that year, Green debuted at the Salzburg Festival in ''Die Liebe der Danae'' as one of the Kings.

In concerts, Green has sung in Handel's ''Messiah'', in Mozart's Requiem and ''Coronation Mass'', and in Verdi's ''Messa da Requiem''. He sang several times in Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, first in 2014 with the Philadelphia Orchestra."Tovey lifts the orchestra, and Beethoven"
by David Patrick Stearns, ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'', 1 July 2014

References

External links

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Interview
on Fresh Air

Profile
BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2015

Profile
IMG Artists

As Colline
"Vecchia zimarra" (video, Metropolitan Opera, 2016)

Performance schedule
Operabase

{{DEFAULTSORT:Green, Ryan Speedo
1986 births
People from Suffolk, Virginia
American operatic bass-baritones
Living people
Florida State University alumni
University of Hartford alumni
University of Hartford Hartt School alumni
21st-century American male opera singers
21st-century African-American male singers
African-American male opera singers
Singers from Virginia
Classical musicians from Virginia