Dale Travis, Sacristan

Dale Travis is among the most sought-after bass-baritones in America today. With a repertoire encompassing over 50 roles in a wide variety of styles—from Mozart, Donizetti, and Rossini to Strauss, Puccini, and Wagner—Dale has been a frequent guest artist at the most prestigious opera companies in the world, including the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Washington National Opera, LA Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Spoleto Festival USA, Saito Kinen Festival Matsumoto, Teatro Regio in Torino, Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa, Komische Oper Berlin, and New Israeli Opera in Tel Aviv.

Engagements this season include returns to Detroit Opera and San Francisco Opera for Tosca. Appearances last season included Bartolo in Il barbiere di Siviglia with Opera Omaha, and Don Alfonso in Così fan tutte with Opera San Jose. During the 2024–25 season, Dale returned to the San Francisco Opera for the roles of Benoit/Alcindoro in their production of La bohème and joined Palm Beach Opera as Bartolo in Le nozze di Figaro. Prior to that, he performed the Marquis de la Force in Dialogues of the Carmelites for San Francisco Opera and was presented the San Francisco Opera Medal for 34 years of exemplary artistic servitude.

Recently, he returned to the Metropolitan Opera for La bohème, to San Francisco Opera as the Sacristan in Tosca, and to Seiji Ozawa Music Academy in Japan as Frank in Die Fledermaus. Other recent performances have included West Side Story, The Barber of Seville, and Silent Night at the Glimmerglass Festival; the Sacristan with Dallas Opera; Baron Douphol in La traviata for Dallas Opera and San Francisco Opera; Elder McLean in Carlisle Floyd’s Susannah with the San Francisco Opera; Bartolo in Il barbiere di Siviglia for Kentucky Opera and Opera Theatre of Saint Louis; and Waldner in Arabella, Music Master in Ariadne auf Naxos, and Nonancourt in The Straw Hat for Minnesota Opera.

His work in dramatic and contemporary repertoire is widely praised as well, with wonderfully detailed portrayals in the works of Britten, Berg, Poulenc, Weill, Stravinsky, and Janáček. Dale can be heard on EMI Classics with the Metropolitan Opera’s Manon Lescaut DVD, the EMI Classics recording of Die Bürgschaft at the Spoleto Festival USA, Albany Records’ recording of Tod Machover’s Resurrection with the Houston Grand Opera, and London Records’ Capriccio with the San Francisco Opera.