Tenor Arnold Rawls has delighted audiences with his unique combination of vocal and dramatic skills in performances ranging from art song to opera. He has been hailed for having a “powerful, clarion-sounding tenor,” a “firm, pliant lyric tenor with ringing high notes,” as well as a “flair for acting.” His Radamès thrilled audiences as he “rose to the occasion, singing the famous “Celeste Aida” with a creamy tone and a beautiful sense of Italian lyricism. It included a dazzling high B-flat that seemed to ring for an eternity.” (Omaha World Herald)
Recent highlights include the role of Radames in Aida with Opera Australia in Sydney and Opéra Royal de Wallonie in Belgium, Hagenbach in La Wally with Dallas Opera, Manrico in Seattle Opera’s Il trovatore, and Calaf in Turandot for Teatro Colón, Bregenzer Festspiele in Austria and the Zeffirelli production at Metropolitan Opera.
Engagements during the last few seasons include Hagenbach in Le Wally and Bacchus in Ariadne auf Naxos both at the Theater St. Gallen in Switzerland, San-Lui in Leoni’s L’Oracolo, Roberto in Le Ville and Apollo in Daphne all with Oper Frankfurt, and Manrico in Il Trovatore both for his debut at the Sydney Opera House and with The Metropolitan Opera. With the Arizona Opera and Vancouver Opera he portrayed Radamès in Aida, with Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Pensacola Opera and Arizona Opera he sang Calaf in Turandot, with Opera Grand Rapids he sang Manrico in Il Trovatore, and he returned to the Bregenzer Festpiele as the title role in Andrea Chenier where The New York Times reported “Chénier, long a cherished role of Italian dramatic tenors, finds a creditable exponent in the American tenor Arnold Rawls, whose voice has an easy flow in midrange yet rang out excitingly in the big, high-lying moments.”
