American baritone Jarrett Ott, one of Opera News’ twenty-five “Rising Stars,” and called “a man who is seemingly incapable of an unmusical phrase,” is enjoying an international career at the age of thirty-seven. In the 2024–2025 season, Ott made his Metropolitan Opera debut singing Agrippa in John Adams’ Antony and Cleopatra, and reprised Rameau’s Samson with the Opéra Comique in Paris. Other appearances include Conte in Le nozze di Figaro with Teatro Regio di Torino, Aeneas in Dido and Aeneas with the Grand Théâtre de Genève, conducted by Emmanuelle Haïm, and concert appearances with the Grand Teatro del Liceu as Riff in West Side Story, at the Paris Philharmonie with conductor Raphaël Pichon for Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, with Philippe Herreweghe and the Orchestre des Champs-Elysées on tour in Europe for Bethoven's Symphony No. 9, and a tour of Mozart’s Requiem with Philippe Herreweghe and the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra.
In the 2023–2024 season, Jarrett Ott performed the title role in Rameau’s newly-completed Samson with Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, the title role in Pascal Dusapin’s Macbeth Underworld with Opéra Comique, Colonel Álvaro Gómez in a new production by Calixto Bieito of The Exterminating Angel by Thomas Adès with Opéra national de Paris, and Don Pedro de Alvarado in Purcell’s The Indian Queen with Teodor Currentzis and the Salzburg Festival. In concert, Jarrett joined the Colorado Symphony and Oregon Bach Festival for Vaughan-Williams’ A Sea Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra for Ralph Vaughan-Williams’ Five Mystical Songs, the US Naval Academy in Annapolis for Messiah and Symphoria in Syracuse, NY for an evening of opera favorites.
In opera, Jarrett Ott’s recent work has included Oreste in Iphigenie en Tauride (Opéra national de Paris); Dandini in La Cenerentola (Bayerische Staatsoper); Lescaut in Manon (Gran Teatre del Liceu), Aeneas in Dido and Aeneas (Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg); W.P. Inman in the East Coast premiere of Cold Mountain (Staatstheater Stuttgart); Papageno in Die Zauberflöte (Opera Philadelphia); Guglielmo in Così fan tutte, Harlekin in Ariadne auf Naxos, Maximilian in Candide, and Masetto in Don Giovanni (Santa Fe Opera); Figaro in The Barber of Seville (Lyric Opera Kansas City and Dayton Opera); Conte in Le nozze di Figaro (Pittsburgh Opera); Jupiter in Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld (New Orleans Opera); Curly in Oklahoma! (The Glimmerglass Festival); and Zurga in The Pearl Fishers (North Carolina Opera).
Other role debuts included The Count in Strauss’ Capriccio, a co-production with Opera Philadelphia and Curtis Opera Theatre, and Kenneth Fuchs’ Falling Man at Symphony Space and the 9/11 Memorial Museum in New York City. A former member of the Staatstheater Stuttgart Ensemble, he has performed Conte in Le nozze di Figaro, Marcello in La bohème, Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Dandini in La Cenerentola, Sharpless in Madama Butterfly, Faust in Schumann’s Scenes from Goethe’s Faust, Oreste in Iphigénie en Tauride, and Chou En-lai in Nixon in China.
In concert, Jarrett Ott has performed the title role in David Lang’s world-premiere prisoner of the state with Jaap van Zweden and the New York Philharmonic, and later with Malmö Opera and Barcelona Symphony Orchestra, Stephano with Susanna Mälkki in Sibelius’ The Tempest and in Weimar Nightfall: The Seven Deadly Sins, conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen, bothat the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He has performed Orff’s Carmina Burana with the Seattle Symphony and Colorado Springs Philharmonic, Brahms’ Requiem with the Columbus Symphony, joined colleagues for the inaugural Sag Harbor Song Festival on Long Island, and with New York Choral Society, has appeared as soloist in Stanford’s Songs of the Fleet, Handel’s Israel in Egypt, both at Carnegie Hall, and The Hyland Mass, a world-premiere at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. He made his European concert debut with the Ensemble Intercontemporain in Paris, performing pieces by Vito Zuraj and Bach, conducted by Matthias Pintscher and also embarked on a European tour with Perm Opera, Teodor Currentzis and MusicAeterna as Don Pedro de Alvorado in concerts of Purcell’s Indian Queen, with stops in Geneva, Köln, Bremen and Dortmund. He was also a featured soloist with Emmauelle Haïm and Le Concert d'Astrée for a gala event at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, which was later released on Warner Classics/Erato, and Maximilian in Candide with the Hamburg Symphoniker at the Lausitz Festival.
A native of Pen Argyl, Pennsylvania, Jarrett Ott is based in New York and received his master’s degree at the Curtis Institute of Music.
