About

Eric Cutler, Tenor

Eric Cutler has won international acclaim in such theaters as the Metropolitan Opera, Bayerische Staatsoper, the Royal Opera House, Opéra national de Paris, Salzburg Festival, Teatro la Fenice, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Théâtre Royal de La Monnaie, Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Canadian Opera Company, Houston Grand Opera, Opera Australia, Grand Théâtre de Genève, Glyndebourne Festival and Santa Fe Opera. Cutler began the current season with his first performances in the title role of Peter Grimes at the Theater an der Wien. He then appeared in the title role of Lohengrin at Staatsoper Hamburg and starred in a part of the new production at the Salzburg Easter Festival under Christian Thieleman. He will sing Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Houston Symphony later this season. In Summer of 2022, Cutler returns to the Bayreuth Festival as Erik.

Read More

Next Performances

VIEW ALL

News & Press

Covent Garden’s Eric Cutler – ‘I’m the luckiest tenor alive!’

Express

Critically acclaimed American singer Eric Cutler should never have been an opera singer.

He even brands himself, “the luckiest tenor alive!”

Set to perform the lead in Fidelio this week at Covent Garden, Eric, 48, would have been a “conservationist” in sleepy rural Iowa, had he not met Pablo Testolini, a Mexican exchange student, when he was still at high school.

“I was about 15 and in the 10th grade, when Pablo and I became friends.

“We were playing billards one night and in the basement, and he put on opera. I’ll never forget it. It was Luciano Pavarotti singing Tosca, the third act aria.

“I remember I looked at him and I said, ‘what is that?’ And he’s like, ‘it’s opera’. I’m like, ‘what?’ And from that moment on, I would tell him to put on another one. And so on.”

Pablo’s interest stemmed from his father, a tenor, but Eric kept his passion for opera a secret from his own family, and friends.

Said Eric: “I would go to the library in Des Moines, drive to the city and check out recordings, and would listen, and then to progress, I would get the score to the music. By the time I was a senior in high school, I was learning these arias.”

Added Eric: “You must understand, I grew up in a farming state, Iowa is like 92 per cent farmland.

“My grandparents were farmers, and I grew up in a very small town of about 3000 people.

“You know, there’s no opera house in Iowa!”

Finally, he came out as a budding opera singer to his mother after he showed her The Three Tenors in concert.

“I said to her, ‘this is what it is’. And she’s like, ‘really, can you make money? Can you make money doing that?’ I said, ‘I think so’.”

“For fun,” his voice coach entered Eric in the Metropolitan Opera auditions. “I won a place, I was 21.”

He still had much to learn.

Eric admitted: “I had never seen an opera before I was in one.

“I was wet behind the ears.”

Things have moved on and this year, he’s celebrating 25 years on stage, with performances around the world.

“This kid coming from lowa, I couldn’t have imagined that this would take me all over the world the way it has.”

Pablo lives on in the family. “We named our dog after him!

“I also probably wouldn’t have met my wife, who I met singing. I don’t know if my kids would be here.

“It was just a way of honouring this guy who came into my life and it changed it forever.”

‘Fidelio’ at Royal Opera House

‘Das Lied von der Erde’ with Staatskapelle Berlin

Eric Cutler launches his 2024/25 season as the featured tenor soloist in Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with the Staatskapelle Berlin, conducted by Susanna Mälkki. These highly anticipated concerts, performed across Germany and Switzerland, also features mezzo-soprano Wiebke Lehmkuhl. The performances begin at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin on September 2 and 4, with the program including the German premiere of Kaija Saariaho’s HUSH, a trumpet concerto featuring Verneri Pohjola.

The tour continues at the renowned Lucerne Festival on September 8, where Mälkki and the Staatskapelle Berlin will present Mahler’s Blumine alongside Das Lied von der Erde. The final performance will take place at the Kölner Philharmonie on September 9, reprising the original Berlin program.

Photos

Latest portraits, stage photos and backstage snapshots.