Tenor Michael Robert Hendrick made his Metropolitan Opera debut as Menelas in Richard Strauss’ Die Ägyptische Helena, followed by other engagements at the MET including the title role in Peter Grimes by Benjamin Britten, as Bacchus in Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos,, as Chairman Mao in John Adams’ Nixon in China, and as the Drum Major in Berg’s Wozzeck.
Mr. Hendrick was honored at the Kennedy Center as Washington National Opera’s Artist of the Year in 2001 for his portrayal of Lennie Small in Of Mice and Men by Carlisle Floyd, a role he has also portrayed at New York City Opera, Utah Opera, Arizona Opera, Sarasota Opera, Kentucky Opera, Phoenicia Festival of the Voice, and with Manitoba Opera in Winnipeg, Canada. He made his Croatian debut at Lisinski Concert Hall in Zagreb, Croatia as Waldemar in Schönberg’s Gurre-Lieder with Croatian National Opera and Croatian Radio-Television Orchestra, broadcast live in HD throughout Croatia. He returned to Croatian National Theater in Zagreb, and also to the National Theatre of Miskolc, Hungary, at the Barktók Plus Opera Festival to perform as the Prince in Prokofiev’s The Love for Three Oranges, sung in Croatian with an all-Croatian cast. In 2018 and 2019, he returned to Zagreb to portray Erik in Wagner’s Der fliegende Holländer.
Mr. Hendrick has appeared with Rome Opera at the Teatro dell’Opera in Rome, Italy in the title role of Saint-Saëns’ Samson et Dalila, and the title role in Wagner’s Parsifal at the Teatro Amazonas in Manaus, Brazil. He also portrayed Erik in Wagner’s Der Fliegende Holländer at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, with Sarasota Opera, and with the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra in Sioux Falls.
His repertoire includes the title role in Lohengrin in Moscow at Kolobov Novaya Theater; as Don José in Carmen at New York City Opera, at Opera Pacific (U.S.), in La Coruña (Galicia), Spain at the Palacio de la Ópera, and in Santander (Cantabria), Spain at the Palacio de Festivales; He bowed as Canio in Pagliacci at Sarasota Opera; as Florestan in Fidelio with Palm Beach Opera, Opera Boston, Sarasota Opera, and at The University of Ohio; and as Herodes in Salome with Oper Wuppertal in Wuppertal, Germany. Mr Hendrick has been seen as Bacchus in Ariadne auf Naxos with the Metropolitan Opera, Seattle Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, Opera de Montréal, and the Amazonas Opera Festival in Brazil; and as Midas in Die Liebe der Danae with Radio Filharmonisch Orkest Holland, at the Concertgebow in Amsterdam
Mr. Hendrick has performed as Paul in Korngold’s Die Tote Stadt with Opéra National de Lorraine in Nancy, France; the title role of Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito with the National Symphony Orchestra at The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and as Tamino in Die Zauberflöte with Lyric Opera of Chicago.
His Czech repertoire includes Laca in Janáček’s Jenufa at the Teatro Cervantes in Málaga (Andalusia), Spain, with ABAO Opera at the Palacio Euscalduna in Bilbao (Vizcaya), Spain, with Utah Opera, and Sarasota Opera; Mr. Hendrick has portrayed the role of the composer Živny in Jánáček’s Osud (Fate), and Glagolitic Mass, both at the Bard Summerscape and Music Festival in upstate New York. He returned to Bard to sing Liszt’s Missa Solemnis.
In Russian repertoire Mr. Hendrick has appeared as Sergei in Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk with Los Angeles Philharmonic, Count Vaudémont in Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta in New York City, as Levko in Rimsky-Korsakov’s May Night at Sarasota Opera, and as Shuisky in Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunow with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra.
In addition to his opera career, Michael Robert Hendrick is at home on concert stages. His Hungarian repertoire includes Kodaly’s Psalmus Hungaricus with Detroit Symphony Orchestra. He has portayed Mahler’s Das klagende Lied with the National Orchestra of Spain, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and The Philadelphia Orchestra.
Mr. Hendrick has appeared as tenor soloist in Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with Orchestre Symphonique de Mulhouse in France, the Teatro Amazonas in Brazil, with the Brevard Music Festival in North Carolina, Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, and Pensacola Symphony Orchestra. He has performed Verdi’s Requiem with the National Philharmonic in Bethesda, Maryland, Syracuse Symphony Orchestra, Huntsville Symphony Orchestra and the Amazonas Festival in Manaus, Brazil.
Update: September 2023