From the time of his professional debut in 2001 at the Seattle Opera in the role of Donald in Benjamin Britten's Billy Budd baritone Morgan Smith has performed with numerous opera companies and symphonies across North America. He has been heard in a number of roles at the Seattle Opera, including the title role in Don Giovanni, Silvio in I Pagliacci, and Peter Niles in Mourning Becomes Electra.
Last season Mr. Smith was heard as Escamillo in Carmen with Tacoma Opera, Dandini in La Cenerentola for the Portland Opera, and For a Look or a Touch by American composer Jake Heggie. He also sang Ted Steinert in the world premiere of Frau Margot by Thomas Pasetieri and Frank Corsaro at the Fort Worth Opera. Future engagements for Mr. Smith include I Puritani with Seattle Opera, Guglielmo in Così van tutte in Portland, Escamillo at the Ft. Worth Opera and Starbuck in the world premiere of Jake Heggie’s Moby Dick for his debuts with the Dallas Opera, and the San Diego Opera.
The young baritone has also performed with the San Francisco Opera, Portland Opera, Austin Lyric Opera, Sarasota Opera, Chautauqua Opera, Florentine Opera, El Paso Opera, the Pine Mountain Music Festival, Sun Valley Center for the Performing Arts, and the Bellingham Music Festival in the roles of Figaro in Le Nozze di Figaro, Papageno in Die Zauberflöte, Marcello in LA bohème, Don Alvaro in Il Viaggio a Reims, Slook in La Cambiale di Matrimonio,Top in The Tenderland, Belcore in , Guglielmo in Così fan tutte, and Don Giovanni. The Bellingham Herald had the following to say about his performance as Don Giovanni "Morgan Smith of the Seattle Opera gave an electrifying performance as Don Giovanni, radiating saturnine power, dark magnetism and cruel charm. His ample, cognac-smooth voice has just enough snarl to give it bite. This young singer already inhabits the role the way James Bond fills a tux.”
Mr. Smith has had the opportunity to appear with several orchestras around the U.S., including the National Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Portland Symphony, Seattle Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Omaha Symphony, Yakima Symphony, and North Arkansas Symphony. He also makes regular appearances with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra, with whom he recently performed Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.
Mr. Smith is also gaining a reputation for his interpretation of modern orchestral and operatic repertoire. Credits include covering Gerald Finley as Robert Oppenheimer, in the world Premiere of John Adams' Dr. Atomic for the San Francisco Opera, the world premiere of a work by Richard Cumming with the Hartford Symphony, entitled, Aspects of Hippolytus, and the title role in the Tony Kushner/Maurice Sendak adaptation of Hans Krasa's children's opera, Brundibar, with Seattle's Music of Remembrance under the baton of Gerard Schwarz.