Rod Nelman is one of America’s most versatile basses with a repertoire that encompasses roles by Mozart, Rossini, Donizetti, Verdi, and, more recently, Wagner and Strauss. He has also earned critical acclaim as Wotan in Long Beach Opera’s condensed “Ring” cycle which he repeated with Pittsburgh Opera Theater.
Notable roles in his repertoire include George in Of Mice and Men for The Washington National Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, Florentine Opera, and New York City Opera, Mustafa in L’Italiana in Algeri with New York City Opera, Fort Worth Opera, and Knoxville Opera, Bartolo in Le Nozze di Figaro with Palm Beach Opera, New York City Opera, Indianapolis Opera, and Opera Festival of New Jersey, Basilio in Il Barbiere di Siviglia with Portland Opera, Kentucky Opera, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, and Fort Worth Opera, the title role in Don Pasquale with Opera Quebec, Orlando Opera and Virginia Opera, Dulcamara in L’Elisir d’Amore with the Washington National Opera and Orlando Opera, Bartolo in Il Barbiere di Siviglia with Opera Carolina and Orlando Opera, Sulpice in La Fille du Regiment for the Indianapolis Opera, Leporello in Don Giovanni for Virginia Opera and for Opera Grand Rapids, Nourabad in Les Pecheurs des Perles for the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Colline in La Boheme for Florida Grand Opera, Dayton Opera, Orlando Opera as Papageno in Die Zauberflöte, Alphonso in Cosi fan tutte, Edmonton Opera as Luther and Crespel in Les Contes d’Hoffman and Indianapolis Opera, and Timur in Turandot for the Rochester Philharmonic and Chattanooga Opera.
This past season, he appeared with the Indianapolis Opera as Fasolt in Das Rheingold, Fort Worth Opera as Magnifico, Utah Opera as Ben in Regina, and Skylark Company as Don Pasquale. This season, he will appear with Kentucky Opera as George in Of Mice and Men, Michigan Opera as Leporello, Utah Opera as Mustafa, and Fort Worth Opera as Dulcamara.
In addition to the aforementioned roles, he has also sung at New York City Opera the roles of Crespel in Les Contes d’Hoffman, Zuniga in Carmen, Kublai Kahn in Marco Polo, Bonze in Madama Butterfly, Farfarello in The Love for Three Oranges, and Dr. Grenvil in La Traviata the Washington National Opera the roles of Padre Anton in El Gato Montes,and the Sacristan in Tosca, In Europe, he has appeared in Nantes, France in their production of Gurlitt’s Die Soldaten and as Henry Kissinger in Nixon in China in Verona, Italy.
On the concert stage, he has appeared with the Milwaukee Symphony as bass soloist in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and Mozart’s Mass in C-minor, Virginia Symphony for Handel’s Messiah, El Paso Symphony in Mozart’s C-minor Mass, and Jacksonville Symphony for Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.
Mr. Nelman is a graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music and was awarded the Verdi Prize in the Palm Beach Opera Vocal Competition as well as First Prize in Orlando Opera’s Heinz Rehfuss Singing Actors Competition. He was also a member of the Pittsburgh Opera Center and Cincinnati Opera’s young artists program.