Alfred Walker, Scarpia

Lauded by Opera News for his “inky bass-baritone and clear projection ideally suited to the role, capturing … passion with telling grief,” Alfred Walker returns to the Metropolitan Opera in the 2026–27 season for Titurel in Parsifal and Abimélech in Samson et Dalila, sings Scarpia in Tosca with both Glyndebourne Opera and Detroit Opera, and joins Opera Philadelphia for Amonasro in Aida. On the concert stage, he joins both the Baltimore Symphony and Grant Park Music Festival for Verdi’s Requiem, the NDR Radiophilharmonie in Hannover for excerpts from Porgy and Bess, and the Naples Philharmonic for Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9.

Last season, he returned to the Lyric Opera of Chicago for Creonte in Medea and to the Metropolitan Opera for Porgy in Porgy and Bess. He also sang Scarpia with Florentine Opera, Nourabad in Les pêcheurs de perles in a return to Palm Beach Opera, and Jochanaan in Salome with Cincinnati Opera. On the concert stage, he joined the American Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall for Caspar in Der Freischütz, and the Cincinnati Symphony for the Porgy and Bess Suite.

Other recent credits include Don Fernando in Fidelio and Vater in Hänsel und Gretel (Lyric Opera of Chicago); Enobarbus in Adams’s Antony and Cleopatra (Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Gran Teatre del Liceu); High Priest of Dagon in Samson et Dalila (New Orleans Opera); the King in Smetena’s Dalibor, the Man in a Helmet in Julietta, and the title role in Saint-Saëns’s Henry VIII (Bard SummerScape); Orest in Elektra (Dallas Opera); and Masetto in Don Giovanni, Frère Laurant in Roméo et Juliette, and Rambaldo in La rondine (Metropolitan Opera).

Alfred is an equally versatile concert artist, having sung Rachmaninoff’s The Bells with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Gustavo Dudamel, and Verdi’s Requiem with The Philadelphia Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony, Vancouver Symphony, Stuttgarter Philharmoniker, Utah Symphony, Phoenix Symphony, and Louisiana Philharmonic, and at the Sun Valley Music Festival. He has joined the Boston Symphony Orchestra for Rossini’s Stabat Mater, and as Porgy in performances conducted by Bramwell Tovey at Tanglewood and in Boston. Other appearances include the Grant Park Music Festival for Shostakovich’s The Execution of Stepan Razin and Elgar’s The Kingdom; the Handel and Haydn Society for Mozart’s Requiem; the American Symphony Orchestra in Alice Tully Hall for Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder and Rückert-Lieder; and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Cologne Philharmonic, Sydney Symphony, and Toronto Symphony for Porgy in concert performances of Porgy and Bess.