BASS-BARITONE, STAGE ACTOR, & WRITER
BIOGRAPHY
Denver native Eric J. McConnell is quickly garnering acclaim in the American opera and musical theatre communities for his distinctive dramatic voice and theatrical interpretations of both comic and tragic characters.
McConnell's current season includes several exciting role and house debuts, beginning with a five-week run as the title role in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street with the Greenhouse Cabaret in Bend, Oregon. He emerges from a brief holiday hiatus to sing the bass soloist in Verdi's Requiem with the University of Denver in March, and returns to his contemporary opera roots with performances as Kinny Kincaid in The Cook-Off with Hub City Opera and as the Vicomte de Valmont in The Dangerous Liaisons with Vegas City Opera in the spring.
He began his 2023-2024 season with the Missouri Symphony and Landlocked Opera singing the title role in their joint production of Le nozze di Figaro this September. He then travelled to the DC metro area for a role and company debut as Escamillo in Carmen with Bel Cantanti Opera. In the new year, he returned to Opera Fort Collins to reprise the title role in Le nozze di Figaro before making his role and company debut with Shreveport Opera, where he sang Don Alfonso in Così fan tutte. Spring 2024 brought him back to his musical theatre roots in a crossover production of Beauty and the Beast with Opera San Luis Obispo, in which he made his long-awaited Disney Villain debut as Gaston. He then debuted at Utah Festival Opera & Musical Theatre, where he juggled the stylistically contrasting roles of the fiendish dentist Orin Scrivello in Little Shop of Horrors and the inebriated uncle Betto in a double bill of Gianni Schicchi and Buoso’s Ghost. He also provided the voice of the Plant for a single performance of Little Shop as a last-minute cover. His season concluded with his third appearance at Union Avenue Opera in St. Louis, where he portrayed the Wolf in Into the Woods.
His 2022-2023 season included a company and role debut with Suncoast Broadway Dinner Theatre in Hudson, Florida, as Bob Wallace in Irving Berlin's White Christmas. He then travelled down the Florida gulf coast to begin a winter contract as a Studio Artist with Sarasota Opera, in which he gave two performances of Leporello (going on as a cover) in Mozart's Don Giovanni and sang Jago in Verdi's Ernani. He then returned to his home state to perform as Olin Blitch in Carlisle Floyd's ever-relevant American masterpiece Susannah with Opera Fort Collins. He then made his principal debut with Opera Saratoga, performing the nine-person D’Ysquith Family in A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder. McConnell ended his summer 2023 season with a return to Union Avenue Opera, singing the role of Father in the musical Ragtime.
He began his 2021-2022 season with a company debut with Opera Steamboat as a last-minute replacement Bartolo in Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia. He then returned to Virginia Opera as an Emerging Artist in its 2021-2022, performing as Donner in Das Rheingold, Colline in La bohème, Bartolo in Le nozze di Figaro, and Teacher/Space-Kitty/Taxi Driver in Frances Pollock’s Earth to Kenzie. He also provides the singing and spoken dialogue for the title role in VO’s animated recording of the Joshua Borths children’s opera Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf? From there, he sang with Opera Saratoga in their productions of Il barbiere di Siviglia and Sweeney Todd, before making his company and role debut with Union Avenue Opera as Carl-Magnus in Sondheim's enduring classic A Little Night Music.
Other roles performed include Olin Blitch (Susannah), Grandpa Moss (The Tender Land), Basilio (Il barbiere di Siviglia), Simone (Gianni Schicchi), Gus O’Neill (John Musto’s Later the Same Evening), Sarastro (Die Zauberflöte), and Aristotle Onassis (Michael Daugherty’s Jackie O). Additional roles studied as a cover include Pistola (Falstaff) and Mr. Mister (The Cradle Will Rock).
A multifacted performer, McConnell has made additional forays into the world of musical theater, performing as Rod in Avenue Q, Headmistress/Captain Ahab in Moby Dick! The Musical, Jean Prouvaire in Les Misérables, Molokov in Chess, and the title role in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
McConnell is a two-time regional finalist in the Rocky Mountain region of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, in both 2020 and 2019. He also recently won third place in the Denver Lyric Opera Guild’s 2020 competition. Additional honors include a MONC Encouragement Award (Colorado-Wyoming District, 2017) and fourth place in the Bel Canto Foundation’s final year of awards.
He has trained as a young artist with Opera Colorado, Central City Opera, Opera Saratoga, the Aspen Opera Center, and Seagle Music Colony. He holds a master’s degree from Northwestern University and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Miami. McConnell is an Eagle Scout, a black belt in Tae Kwon Do, and a zealous collector of rubber ducks. McConnell is also a writer: his debut novel Mall and its sequel, Park, is available at all major online book retailers.
He made his Virginia Opera debut in 2020 as part of the VOAF Stayin’ Alive initiative and performed Sam in Trouble in Tahiti and Dr. Dulcamara in the children's opera Pinocchio in the company’s reimagined Spring 2021 season. He then returned to Central City Opera in their postponed 2021 season, where he performed as Ceprano in Rigoletto and covered Jigger Craigin in Carousel.
He began the 2019-2020 season with a return as an Opera Fellow at the distinguished Aspen Music Festival, where he sang the Sodbuster in Missy Mazzoli’s Proving Up and covered Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro. He then returned as an Artist in Residence at Opera Colorado, where he performed as Bartolo in the student matinée performance of Il barbiere di Siviglia. He also made his debut with the Denver Philharmonic, singing the bass soloist in Mozart's Requiem. McConnell was scheduled to sing Angelotti in Opera Colorado’s production of Tosca before the production was halted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
During his first season with Opera Colorado in 2018-2019, he performed Dr. Grenvil in La traviata and Antonio in Le nozze di Figaro, and also debuted the role of Figaro in the student matinée performance of Le nozze di Figaro. Earlier in the season, he debuted at the Aspen Music Festival, performing as Schlémil in Les contes d'Hoffmann and covering Bartolo in Il barbiere di Siviglia.
Previous seasons have seen McConnell in professional debuts with Central City Opera (Jailer in Tosca, William Jennings Bryan in The Ballad of Baby Doe, and Antonio in Le nozze di Figaro), the Albany Symphony Orchestra (Elisha Fitzgibbon in the orchestral premiere of Evan Mack’s Roscoe, a performance featuring renowned soprano Deborah Voigt), Opera Saratoga (President Prexy in Blitzstein’s The Cradle Will Rock), Soirée Lyriqe (Sacristan in Tosca and Frank in Die Fledermaus), and the SoBe Arts Institute (Science Officer Curium Black in the world premiere of Carson Kievman’s Intelligent Systems).
