Mexican-American bass-baritone Richard Ollarsaba represented the USA in the 2019 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition, was a member of the prestigious Ryan Opera Center at Lyric Opera of Chicago for three seasons and a grand finalist in the 2013 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.
Mr. Ollarsaba was recently featured in one of his signature roles, Escamillo in Carmen, as part of Francesca Zambello’s final season at The Glimmerglass Festival. In 2022-2023, he brings his Escamillo to Portland Opera and Lyric Opera of Kansas City. Other engagements for the season include reprising his celebrated Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro at Knoville Opera, joining Chicago Opera Theater as Fred Clayton and others in The Life and Death(s) of Alan Turing, bowing with Master Chorale of South Florida in Verdi’s Requiem, and returning to Palm Beach Symphony as soloist in Handel’s Messiah. Engagements for the 2021-2022 season included the title role in Don Giovanni with Opera Grand Rapids and Opera Carolina, which Classical Voice North Carolina called a “stunning debut,” Mozart’s Requiem with the Palm Beach Symphony, the Count in Le nozze di Figaro with Virginia Opera, and Schaunard in La bohème with the Jacksonville Symphony. In the 2020-2021 season he made his New Zealand Opera debut as Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro.
