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date = "2019-02-20T01:46:50+00:00"
discipline = "Baritone"
primary_image = "https://res.cloudinary.com/schmopera/image/upload/v1550626846/media/2019/02/PaulLaRosa.jpg"
primary_image_credit = ""
related_companies = ["scene/companies/fort-worth-opera.md", "scene/companies/san-diego-opera.md", "scene/companies/lyric-opera-of-kansas-city.md", "scene/companies/lyric-opera-of-chicago.md", "scene/companies/glimmerglass-festival.md", "scene/companies/the-juilliard-school.md", "scene/companies/merola-opera-program.md"]
slug = "paul-la-rosa"
title = "Paul La Rosa"
website = "http://www.paullarosabaritone.com/"
[[social_media]]
platform = "Facebook"
template = "social-media"
url = "https://www.facebook.com/paullarosabaritone"
[[social_media]]
platform = "Twitter"
template = "social-media"
url = "https://twitter.com/PaulSLaRosa"

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American baritone Paul La Rosa continues to gain recognition on the strengths of his vocal appeal and charismatic stage presence. He has earned critical praise for "a wonderful touch for physical comedy, a strong and beautiful voice, and the dancing skills that one typically encounters on Broadway". 2018 witnesses Mr. La Rosa's return to San Diego Opera and his debut with Eugene Opera, for the respective company premieres of Piazzolla's tango-opera _María de Buenos Aires_, in the role of El Payador, and his Princeton Festival debut as Sharpless in _Madama Butterfly_. Mr. La Rosa looks forward to his 2019 role and company debuts with Gulfshore Opera (Germont in _La Traviata_ and Malatesta in _Don Pasquale_) as well as his Fort Worth Opera debut reprising the role of Enrique in Martinez's _El pasado nunca se termina_, which he created in 2015.

In the summer of 2017, Mr. La Rosa made his debut with the Brooklyn Art Song Society at the Marcella Sembrich Opera Museum in Bolton Landing, NY, performing excerpts from Mahler's _Des Knaben Wunderhorn_. Throughout the autumn, Mr. La Rosa rejoined Brooklyn Art Song Society for a French mélodie program dedicated to Chausson and Duparc, and bowed his debut with New York's Bare Opera as Figaro in the two-hour Mozart / Rossini pastiche _Figaro/Figaro!_

Recent seasons have witnessed return engagements with Lyric Opera of Chicago (Cascada in _The Merry Widow_, Jud Fry in _Oklahoma!_) and Chicago Opera Theater (Boris in Shostakovitch's _Moscow, Cheryomushki_), in addition to debuts with Los Angeles Opera (First Mate in _Billy Budd_, directed by Francesca Zambello), Lyric Opera of Kansas City (Falke in _Die Fledermaus_, directed by Tomer Zvulun), and Central City Opera (Jud Fry in _Oklahoma!_). As Enrique in the world premiere production of José "Pepe" Martinez's _El pasado nunca se termina_, he appeared at Lyric Opera of Chicago and made his company debuts with both San Diego Opera and Houston Grand Opera.

Committed to the performance of new works as well as to the revival of long-unheard works, in 2011 Mr. La Rosa made his debut with Chicago Opera Theater as Oronte in the Midwest premiere of Charpentier's 1693 masterpiece _Médée_ and his debut with Opera Theater of St. Louis as Rambo and First Officer in the second fully staged US production of John Adams' _The Death of Klinghoffer_.

Mr. La Rosa enjoyed a long association with the late Lorin Maazel, and was a frequent guest artist at Maestro Maazel's Castleton Festival for several seasons. Under the Festival's auspices, Mr. La Rosa performed the roles of Le fauteuil in _L'enfant et les sortilèges_, Don Quixote in de Falla's _El retablo de maese Pedro_, Jack Rance in _La fanciulla del West_ (all under the maestro's baton), and Mercutio in _Roméo et Juliette_. Concert appearances with Maestro Maazel include Mr. La Rosa's role debut as Jack Rance at Spain's Palacio de la Ópera de A Coruña and his Roman debut as the baritone soloist in Brahms' _Ein deutsches Requiem_ with the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana at Rome's historic Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia.

Additional concert credits include debuts with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at the Tanglewood Festival, the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl (both as Maximilian in _Candide_), and the Cleveland Orchestra both in Cleveland and at Miami's Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts (in a program of Aaron Copland's _Old American Songs_).

Mr. La Rosa initially came to national attention through America's most prestigious training programs. Between 2009 and 2012 he fulfilled a young artist residency in the Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center at Lyric Opera of Chicago, where his responsibilities included performing Hermann in _Les contes d'Hoffmann_, Bello in _La fanciulla del West_, Silvano in _Un ballo in maschera_, Moralès in _Carmen_ (conducted by Alain Altinoglu), Cascada in _The Merry Widow_ (conducted by Emmanuel Villaume), and Kuligin in _Katya Kabanovà_ (his company debut, conducted by Markus Stenz), as well as covering Ravenal in Show Boat, Papageno in _Die Zauberflöte_, Harlekin in _Ariadne auf Naxos_, Demetrius in _A Midsummer Night's Dream_ and Le Dancaïre in _Carmen_.

Mr. La Rosa has also apprenticed with Glimmerglass Opera (performing Curio and covering Achilla in _Giulio Cesare in Egitto_), San Francisco Opera's Merola Opera Program (Dandini in _La Cenerentola_), and the Juilliard Opera Center, where he trained between 2007 and 2009. As a member of the Juilliard Opera Center, Mr. La Rosa appeared as the boxer Adam Ochsenschwanz in Ernst Krenek's _Schwergewicht oder die Ehre der Nation_ under the baton of James Conlon, as Ford in _Falstaff_ in a production by Stephen Wadsworth conducted by Keri-Lynn Wilson, as Rambo in _The Death of Klinghoffer_ under the baton of the composer, and as Raimbaud in _Le comte Ory_.

Mr. La Rosa earned both his Master of Music and Artist Diploma from the Juilliard School and a Bachelor of Arts from Williams College, where he double majored in Philosophy and English.