Luke Sutliff

American Baritone Luke Sutliff, a top prize winner of the Metropolitan Opera’s 2025 Laffont Competition and second prize winner of the 2023 Operalia Competition, is an alumnus of the Houston Grand Opera Butler Studio and is quickly starting to make his mark on the opera world.

This season, Sutliff returns to Lyric Opera of Kansas City and to Seattle Opera as Marcello in La bohème. He also returns to The Atlanta Opera in a role debut as Lt. Audebert in Kevin Puts’s Pulitzer Prize–winning opera Silent Night and to Santa Fe Opera in his signature role of Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia. He will make his house and role debut at Sarasota Opera as Germont in La Traviata. Future engagements include his debut at the Metropolitan Opera, Opéra de Lausanne in Switzerland, and at the Glyndebourne Festival. Additionally, he will return to Lyric Opera of Chicago and to Houston Grand Opera, his home company, all in leading roles.

This past season, Sutliff made debuts at the Teatro Municipal in Santiago de Chile as Albert in Werther, at Lyric Opera of Chicago as Silvio in Pagliacci, and at the Canadian Opera Company as Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia, a role he reprised in the summer with Central City Opera. He continued his close collaboration with The Atlanta Opera by making an important role debut with the company: the Count in Le nozze di Figaro. Additionally, he debuted with Opera San Antonio as Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia. In concert, he debuted with Dallas Symphony as the baritone soloist in Mahler’s Symphony No. 8with Fabio Luisi and in a New Year’s Eve concert of Opera Pops in Toronto. He was also heard in a joint recital with soprano Caitlin Aloia in Houston.

In the 2024–25 season, Sutliff returned to The Atlanta Opera for two role debuts: Marcello in La bohème and Papageno in Die Zauberflöte. Later in the season he returned to Houston Grand Opera for his first Wolfram in Tannhäuser. He also appeared as Marcello in La bohème with Opera Maine. In the summer he made his Central City Opera debut as Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia. In concert he made his debut with the Nashville Symphony as the baritone soloist in Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 with Giancarlo Guerrero conducting.

In the 2024–25 season, Sutliff returned to The Atlanta Opera for two role debuts: Marcello in La bohème and Papageno in Die Zauberflöte. Later in the season he returned to Houston Grand Opera for his first Wolfram in Tannhäuser. He also appeared as Marcello in La bohème with Opera Maine. In the summer he made his Central City Opera debut as Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia. In concert he made his debut with the Nashville Symphony as the baritone soloist in Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 with Giancarlo Guerrero conducting.

In the summer of 2023 Luke Sutliff premiered the title role in Nico Muhly’s version of Monteverdi’s Orfeo at the Santa Fe Opera, then made a series of exciting company/role debuts: Silvio in Pagliacci with Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia with Opera North Carolina and the Seattle Opera, and Demetrius in A Midsummer Night’s Dream with The Atlanta Opera. He returned to the Santa Fe Opera in the summer of 2024 to perform Belcore in L’elisir d’amore. In concert, he debuted in Tokyo with the NHK Symphony Orchestra and Fabio Luisi as the baritone solo in Mahler’s Symphony No. 8.