“Much of the effect is thanks to baritone Edward Nelson’s suave, agile, and authoritative Figaro, Figaro, Figaro, the title character who’s the master orchestrator of all the deception and mayhem.”
In the 2019-2020 season, American baritone Edward Nelson makes debuts with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis as Dr. Falke in Die Fledermaus, Vancouver Opera as Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia, and returns to San Francisco Opera for Bosun in Billy Budd. Additionally he will debut with the Saint Louis Symphony in Vaughan Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem.
Edward began the 2018-2019 season making his Opera Philadelphia debut in Ne Quittez Pas: A Reimagined La voix humaine where he sang songs of Francis Poulenc. He returned to the Norwegian National Opera as Dandini in Stefan Herheim’s production...
“Edward Nelson was an exciting protagonist: in his first outing as the melancholy Dane, the Californian baritone cut an aptly youthful, agile figure throughout Aria Umezawa’s production. Nelson’s flexible voice sounded well placed and attractive even in the upper reaches of the role...”
Georgia Rowe, Opera News, 2017 - title role in 'Hamlet' with West Edge Opera
“…soprano Julie Adams and baritone Edward Nelson gave superb individual performances during the first half of the evening before joining forces to close the program with a riveting account of the final scene from Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin… while Nelson brought suavity and tonal radiance to ‘Pierrot’s Tanzlied’ from Korngold’s Die tote Stadt.”
Joshua Kosman, San Francisco Chronicle - The Future is Now: Adler Fellows Gala - San Francisco Opera
“Haunted and vulnerable, elegant and peevish, feverish and emotionally ravaged, Edward Nelson is compelling from start to finish. Wandering the set’s industrial-look terrain, he projects an intensely distracted air. Nelson’s lustrous baritone, which can track hair-trigger emotional shifts within a single phrase, is a marvel. Even at a whispery pianissimo, he projects a sense of velocity and momentum across Hamlet’s arc.”
Steven Winn, San Francisco Classical Voice, August 7, 2017 - title role in 'Hamlet' - West Edge Opera
“Representing two of the most prominent composers Gockley commissioned were Carlisle Floyd (who co-founded HGO) and John Adams—both in attendance and warmly received by the audience. “News” from Nixon in China represented Adams’ landmark minimalist work from 1987, and one of the most often performed operas of the past 30 years. Baritone Edward Nelson, current an Adler fellow in San Francisco’s young artist program, gave it a splendid reading.
Harvey Steiman, Seen and Heard International - David Gockley Farwewll Gala - San Francisco Opera
“Making his role debut as Pelléas, Edward Nelson impressed with a ringing baritone, excellent French diction and a surprisingly easy top. His ardent tower scene with Susanna Hurrell’s Mélisande was a thrill to listen to.”
Aksel Tollåli, BachTrack - Pelleas in 'Pelleas et Melisande' at Norwegian National Opera
