Bio

American baritone Kenneth Mattice has earned international praise for his warm, lyric voice and his captivating stage presence.  The 2023-24 season marks this Wisconsin native’s tenth year as the principal baritone at Germany’s Theater Hagen.  This season he can be seen in Die lustige Witwe/The Merry Widow (Danilo), Lohengrin (Heerrufer), La Boheme (Schaunard), Don Giovanni (Masetto), Der Freischütz (Ottokar), and in Lady Macbeth von Mzensk.

In previous seasons at Theater Hagen, Mr. Mattice's roles have included the title characters in Eugene Onegin, Zar & Zimmermann (Zar), Graf von Luxemburg (Graf René), Dido & Aeneas (Aeneas) and Jonny Spielt Auf, as well as leading roles in Le Nozze di Figaro (Almaviva), Das Schlaue Füchslein/The Cunning Little Vixen (Förester), Madama Butterfly (Sharpless), Die Csárdásfürstin (Edwin), Die Zauberflöte (Papageno), Lucia di Lammermoor (Enrico), Faust (Valentin), Kiss Me Kate (Fred/Petruchio), Simon Boccanegra (Paolo) [also as guest with Badisches Staatsheater Karlsruhe], L'elisir d'amore (Belcore), Hänsel und Gretel (Peter), Tri Sestri (Andrei), Il Turco in Italia (Prosdocimo), Rusalka (Jäger & Heger) and Der Rosenkavalier (Faninal), among others.  A fully-staged version of the 24-song cycle Winterreise by Franz Schubert has also been performed numerous times in collaboration with pianist, Daniel K. Kurland.

A champion of new opera, Mr. Mattice created the title role in the World Premiere of Tesla in Miami, in his third collaboration with opera composer Carson Kievman.  His previous Kievman World Premieres have included Hamlet (as Hamlet) and Fairy Tales: Songs of the Dandelion Woman (as the Bank Examiner). His German operatic debut came at Theater Dortmund as Larry King in the European Continental Premiere production of Mark-Anthony Turnage's opera Anna Nicole (with wife, soprano Emily Newton, in the title role).  In Bergamo, Italy, Mr. Mattice performed the role of Petruccio in Efrain Amaya’s World Premiere production of La Bisbetica Domata/The Taming of the Shrew at the Festival Internazionale della Cultura.  In the European premiere of Joby Talbot's opera Everest at Theater Hagen, Mr. Mattice sang the role of Doug Hansen.  Also this past summer at the Savonlinna Festival in Finland, he created the role of Professor in the World Premiere Production of A Room of One's Own by Outi Tarkiainen.

In Macau, China, he was Aeneas in Dido and Aeneas for the Macau International Music Festival.  In the U.S., he has performed leading roles with Opera San José (two seasons as Principal Resident Artist), Opera Tampa, Lyric Opera Baltimore, Opera Delaware, Opera Orlando, Opera Providence, Shreveport Opera, Opera Saratoga and Union Avenue Opera.

Mr. Mattice has been a winner in the Palm Beach Opera Competition, the Bel Canto Italian Opera Competition and was a semi-finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions (New England Region).  He attended the Boston University Opera Institute and holds degrees from Northwestern University (M.M., Cert. in Perf.) and Luther College (B.A.).