


The talented and versatile American tenor, Frank Kelley, has performed in concert and on opera stages throughout North America and Europe, garnering plaudits and a loyal following. The Boston Musical Intelligencerhas observed, “Kelley’s burnished tone was just right…. His sensitivity to the texts and the shifts of mood were superlative.” In the 2017-18 season he is soloist in Britten’s War Requiem with Music Worcester, Inc. and in Carlisle Floyd’s Prince of Players in a return to Florentine Opera.
Recent season highlights included a return to Florentine Opera as Joseph in Carlisle Floyd’s Wuthering Heights and in his stage directing debut for Elmer Gantry. He also returned to Odyssey Opera in Boston as Victorin in Die Tote Stadt.
Mr. Kelley has enjoyed an ongoing relationship with Boston Lyric Opera, where he has performed many roles, including Triquet in Eugene Onegin, Basilio in Le nozze di Figaro, Normanno in Lucia di Lammermoor, Dr. Blind in Die Fledermaus, Goro in Madama Butterfly, Spoletta in Tosca, and Monostatos in Die Zauberflöte. With Opera Boston he appeared as Raoul in Offenbach’s La vie parisienne, as the Kavalier in Hindemith’sCardillac, the Magician in The Consul, and Fatty in The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny. Other notable opera appearances include Grandpa Joe in the world premiere of Peter Ash’s The Golden Ticket with Opera Theatre of St. Louis, also in the European premiere with Wexford Festival Opera; Spoletta in Tosca, Pang in Turandot, Basilio in Le nozze di Figaro and Eddie Fislinger in Elmer Gantry with Florentine Opera; and the United Way in Tod Machover’s Death and the Powers with Dallas Opera and Opéra de Monte Carlo.
He also has long associations with Boston’s premier concert organizations, including multiple performances of Bach’s cantatas with Emmanuel Music under the direction of Craig Smith, Christopher Hogwood, and Seiji Ozawa;St. John Passion with the Handel and Haydn Society and the Orquesta Sinfónica Naciónal de México; St. Matthew Passion with Boston Baroque and Emmanuel Music; Handel’s Messiah with the Handel and Haydn Society and Boston Baroque; recitals of Schubert lieder for Emmanuel Music’s Schubert Series; and Weill’s Seven Deadly Sins with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. His other concert appearances include Stravinsky’s Pulcinella Suite with the St. Louis Symphony; Master of Ceremonies in Queen of Spades with the National Symphony Orchestra; and Mendelssohn’s The First Walpurgis Night with Roger Norrington and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s.
On television, Frank Kelley appears on the PBS broadcasts of Peter Sellars’ productions of Le nozze di Figaro and Così fan tutte. Mr. Kelley’s recordings feature him in repertoire spanning ten centuries. His discography includes three Deutsche Harmonia Mundi albums with the ensemble Sequentia: Aquitania, Shining Light, and Saints; a Teldec release of Stravinsky’s Renard with Hugh Wolff and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra; and Kurt Weill’s Das Kleine Mahagonny with Kent Nagano. He is also featured on the recording of Robert Aldridge’s Elmer Gantry which received a 2012 Grammy for Best Contemporary Composition as well as Best Engineered Album.
November 26, 2020: Frank Kelley Receives 2 Grammy Nominations
Nominated as part of Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and Florentine Opera Chorus Recording
Source:https://www.grammy.com/grammys/news/2021-grammys-complete-nominees-list
Confronting Miller’s Daughter In Taproom
“Frank Kelley’s deep engagement with Schubert’s wanderer began some decades ago with a graduate school recital and has continued through the decades of his performing life. What you see is what you get now as he inhabits this role: a slightly emaciated, agonized, if occasionally hopeful seeker in slim back pants and a zippered black sweater. No score separated him from us. He directly conversed with us, making of the tale something as personal as a Dylan Thomas reading. His wealth of unforced colors ran evenly across his range, and his rolled Rs and German plosives really told.”
– Lee Eiseman, Boston Music Intelligence – Related Link
Quartet Spins NH Mill Wheels
“The best performers of song cycles, among which Kelley undoubtedly numbers, elevate the genre above mere singing to an experience of intense emotional drama.
“Kelley, who, with his impassioned, tightly coiled energy and magnetic stage presence, was the perfect embodiment of the tortured, unhinged romantic, the unreliable narrator who leads the listener through the seductive circles of his doomed inner life.”
– Zoe Kemmerling, Quartet Spins NH Mill Wheels – Related Link
The Poets of Song and Piano Speak
“Frank Kelley excelled as a communicative artist, giving us the impression that he was confiding in us individually. His German enunciation was impeccable….Kelley’s burnished tone was just right for the wood paneled 200-seat auditorium. His legato was admirable, but his sensitivity to the texts and the shifts of mood was superlative.”
– Larry Pillips, Boston Music Intelligencer – Related Link
An Inspirational “War Requiem”
“The soloists were superbly suited to their roles: Frank Kelley, as the tenor, sang with appropriate anger and resigned g”The soloists were superbly suited to their roles: Frank Kelley, as the tenor, sang with appropriate anger and resigned grief.”rief.”
– Anthony J. Palmer, Arts Fuse – Related Link
Orchestral
-
Albert
Distant Hills Coming NighBach
Mass in B Minor
Cantatas (over 100)
Christmas Oratorio
Easter Oratorio
Magnificat
St. John Passion
St. Matthew PassionBeethoven
Mass in CBerlioz
L’Enfance du Christ
RequiemBritten
Cantata Misericordium
Serenade
Saint Nicolas
War RequiemFoss
The PrairieHandel
Acis and Galathea
Brockes Passion (Evangelist)
Israel in Egypt
Jeptha
Judas Maccabeus
L’Allegro, il Penseroso, ed il Moderato
Messiah
Samson
SaulHarbison
Four PsalmsHaydn
Lord Nelson Mass
Missa Sancti Nicolai (and other Masses)
The Creation
The SeasonsHonegger
Le Roi DavidMendelssohn
The First WalpurgisnachtMonteverdi
Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda
Tirsi and Clori
Verspers of 1610Mozart
Mason’s Cantata
Missa da Requiem
Missa Brevis (and other Masses)
Solemn VespersOrff
Carmina BuranaPergolesi
MagnificatPurcell
Dido and Aeneas
Fairy Queen
King ArthurSchönberg
A Survivor from WarsawSchumann
Scenen aus Goethes FaustStravinsky
Cantata
Les Noces
Pulcinella
Oedipus Rex (Le Berger)
Renard (Fox, Cock)
Opera
-
Ash
The Golden Ticket (Grandpa Joe)Machover
Death and the Powers (The United Way)Menotti
The Consul (Magician)Monteverdi
Orfeo (Orfeo, First Shepherd, Second Shepherd)Mozart
Die Entführung aus dem Serail (Belmonte, Pedrillo)
Le Nozze di Figaro (Basilio)Offenbach
Les Contes d’Hoffmann (Spalanzani)Puccini
Madama Butterfly (Goro)
Tosca (Spoletta)
Turandot (Pang, Pong)Shostakovich
The Nose (Chief of Police)Smetana
The Bartered Bride (Vasek, Circus Master)Strauss, R.
Ariadne auf Naxos (Tanzmeister, Brighella)Strauss, J.
Die Fledermaus (Blind)Stravinsky
The Rake’s Progress (Sellem)Tchaikovsky
Eugene Onegin (Monsieur Triquet)Verdi
Falstaff (Bardolfo, Dr. Caius)Weill
Die Sieben Todsünden (1st Son)
Mahagonny (Fatty)
Orchestral
Albert
Distant Hills Coming NighBach
Mass in B Minor
Cantatas (over 100)
Christmas Oratorio
Easter Oratorio
Magnificat
St. John Passion
St. Matthew PassionBeethoven
Mass in CBerlioz
L’Enfance du Christ
RequiemBritten
Cantata Misericordium
Serenade
Saint Nicolas
War RequiemFoss
The PrairieHandel
Acis and Galathea
Brockes Passion (Evangelist)
Israel in Egypt
Jeptha
Judas Maccabeus
L’Allegro, il Penseroso, ed il Moderato
Messiah
Samson
SaulHarbison
Four PsalmsHaydn
Lord Nelson Mass
Missa Sancti Nicolai (and other Masses)
The Creation
The SeasonsHonegger
Le Roi DavidMendelssohn
The First WalpurgisnachtMonteverdi
Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda
Tirsi and Clori
Verspers of 1610Mozart
Mason’s Cantata
Missa da Requiem
Missa Brevis (and other Masses)
Solemn VespersOrff
Carmina BuranaPergolesi
MagnificatPurcell
Dido and Aeneas
Fairy Queen
King ArthurSchönberg
A Survivor from WarsawSchumann
Scenen aus Goethes FaustStravinsky
Cantata
Les Noces
Pulcinella
Oedipus Rex (Le Berger)
Renard (Fox, Cock)
Opera
Ash
The Golden Ticket (Grandpa Joe)Machover
Death and the Powers (The United Way)Menotti
The Consul (Magician)Monteverdi
Orfeo (Orfeo, First Shepherd, Second Shepherd)Mozart
Die Entführung aus dem Serail (Belmonte, Pedrillo)
Le Nozze di Figaro (Basilio)Offenbach
Les Contes d’Hoffmann (Spalanzani)Puccini
Madama Butterfly (Goro)
Tosca (Spoletta)
Turandot (Pang, Pong)Shostakovich
The Nose (Chief of Police)Smetana
The Bartered Bride (Vasek, Circus Master)Strauss, R.
Ariadne auf Naxos (Tanzmeister, Brighella)Strauss, J.
Die Fledermaus (Blind)Stravinsky
The Rake’s Progress (Sellem)Tchaikovsky
Eugene Onegin (Monsieur Triquet)Verdi
Falstaff (Bardolfo, Dr. Caius)Weill
Die Sieben Todsünden (1st Son)
Mahagonny (Fatty)
Audio
Haydn: The Creation – Mit Wurd und Hoheit Angetan

Bach: Cantata, BWV 1 – Unser Mund und Ton der Saiten

Vaughan Williams: Along the Field – Goodbye

Handel: Neun deutsche Arien – Flammende Rose, Zierde der Erde

Bach: Cantata, BWV 92 – Seht, seht! Wie Reist, Wie Bricht, Wie Fallt

Documents
Short Biography
The talented and versatile American tenor, Frank Kelley, has performed in concert and on opera stages throughout North America and Europe, garnering plaudits and a loyal following. The Boston Musical Intelligencer has observed, “Kelley’s burnished tone was just right…. His sensitivity to the texts and the shifts of mood were superlative.” In the 2017-18 season he is soloist in Britten’s War Requiem with Music Worcester, Inc. and in Carlisle Floyd’s Prince of Players in a return to Florentine Opera. |
Full Biography
The talented and versatile American tenor, Frank Kelley, has performed in concert and on opera stages throughout North America and Europe, garnering plaudits and a loyal following. The Boston Musical Intelligencerhas observed, “Kelley’s burnished tone was just right…. His sensitivity to the texts and the shifts of mood were superlative.” In the 2017-18 season he is soloist in Britten’s War Requiem with Music Worcester, Inc. and in Carlisle Floyd’s Prince of Players in a return to Florentine Opera.
Recent season highlights included a return to Florentine Opera as Joseph in Carlisle Floyd’s Wuthering Heights and in his stage directing debut for Elmer Gantry. He also returned to Odyssey Opera in Boston as Victorin in Die Tote Stadt.
Mr. Kelley has enjoyed an ongoing relationship with Boston Lyric Opera, where he has performed many roles, including Triquet in Eugene Onegin, Basilio in Le nozze di Figaro, Normanno in Lucia di Lammermoor, Dr. Blind in Die Fledermaus, Goro in Madama Butterfly, Spoletta in Tosca, and Monostatos in Die Zauberflöte. With Opera Boston he appeared as Raoul in Offenbach’s La vie parisienne, as the Kavalier in Hindemith’sCardillac, the Magician in The Consul, and Fatty in The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny. Other notable opera appearances include Grandpa Joe in the world premiere of Peter Ash’s The Golden Ticket with Opera Theatre of St. Louis, also in the European premiere with Wexford Festival Opera; Spoletta in Tosca, Pang in Turandot, Basilio in Le nozze di Figaro and Eddie Fislinger in Elmer Gantry with Florentine Opera; and the United Way in Tod Machover’s Death and the Powers with Dallas Opera and Opéra de Monte Carlo.
He also has long associations with Boston’s premier concert organizations, including multiple performances of Bach’s cantatas with Emmanuel Music under the direction of Craig Smith, Christopher Hogwood, and Seiji Ozawa;St. John Passion with the Handel and Haydn Society and the Orquesta Sinfónica Naciónal de México; St. Matthew Passion with Boston Baroque and Emmanuel Music; Handel’s Messiah with the Handel and Haydn Society and Boston Baroque; recitals of Schubert lieder for Emmanuel Music’s Schubert Series; and Weill’s Seven Deadly Sins with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. His other concert appearances include Stravinsky’s Pulcinella Suite with the St. Louis Symphony; Master of Ceremonies in Queen of Spades with the National Symphony Orchestra; and Mendelssohn’s The First Walpurgis Night with Roger Norrington and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s.
On television, Frank Kelley appears on the PBS broadcasts of Peter Sellars’ productions of Le nozze di Figaro and Così fan tutte. Mr. Kelley’s recordings feature him in repertoire spanning ten centuries. His discography includes three Deutsche Harmonia Mundi albums with the ensemble Sequentia: Aquitania, Shining Light, and Saints; a Teldec release of Stravinsky’s Renard with Hugh Wolff and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra; and Kurt Weill’s Das Kleine Mahagonny with Kent Nagano. He is also featured on the recording of Robert Aldridge’s Elmer Gantry which received a 2012 Grammy for Best Contemporary Composition as well as Best Engineered Album.