Baritone

Jordan Shanahan

The Flying Dutchman

Biography

In recent years, American baritone Jordan Shanahan has made a name for himself internationally, particularly with his charismatic interpretations of dramatic roles. This is his first appearance with Irish National Opera.

In the 2024/25 season, Jordan sings Monterone in Verdi’s Rigoletto at the Metropolitan Opera New York, makes his Portuguese debut at the Casa da Música in Porto in Zemlinsky's Lyric Symphony, performs in a new production of Strauss’s Frau ohne Schatten as Barak at the Deutsche Oper Berlin (directed by Tobias Kratzer) and makes his house debut at the Vienna State Opera as Telramund in Wagner’s Lohengrin with Christian Thielemann. In addition, he will return to the Bayreuth Festival, where he will perform three roles: Klingsor in Wagner’s Parsifal, Kothner in Wagner’s Die Meistersinger and Kurwenal in Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde. 

Jordan made his professional opera debut in 2002 as Silvio in Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci at the Natchez Opera Festival in the USA. His repertoire is wide-ranging and includes roles such as both Rossini’s and Mozart's Figaro, bel canto repertoire including Belcore in Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore and Enrico in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, as well as Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin and Yeletsky in Tchaikovsky's Pique Dame. Recently, he has been engaged by major opera houses for the dramatic repertoire of Wagner, Richard Strauss and Erich Korngold, including Telramund in Lohengrin, Alberich in Wagner’s Das Rheingold, Jochanaan in Strauss’s Salome, Barak in Strauss’s Die Frau ohne Schatten, and Der Herrscher in Korngold's Das Wunder der Heliane. He also performs Italian repertoire including Verdi’s Rigoletto, Amonasro in Verdi’s Aida, and Scarpia in Puccini’s Tosca. In addition to the standard repertoire, Jordan has also made a name for himself in contemporary repertoire, with roles such as Joseph de Rocher in Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking, Robert Oppenheimer in John Adams’s Dr Atomic, The Protector in George Benjamin’s Written on Skin and Il Uomo in Péter Eötvös Senza Sangue. On the concert stage, Jordan Shanahan has performed works including Handel's Messiah, Mendelssohn's Elias, Stravinsky's Oedipius Rex, and Verdi's Requiem. 

Jordan now lives in Switzerland and performs regularly in Europe, North America, Asia, and in his native Hawaii. 

March 2025