Countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo Named General Director of Opera Philadelphia

Costanzo will continue with his singing career while also running the company

Opera Philadelphia has announced that the American countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo will serve as its next General Director and President. He will begin his time in the position on June 1, 2024.

Costanzo, 41, intends to continue with his singing career alongside the GD position — making him one of the first singers to lead a major opera company in tandem with their work on the stage.

Costanzo's appointment is in keeping with the company's forward-looking approach. In particular, Opera Philadelphia is highly committed to the genesis of new works, and has produced more than 25 staged and filmed operas in the past decade.

A GRAMMY Award winner, Costanzo also holds an honorary doctorate from Manhattan School of Music, a visiting fellowship from Oxford University, and the History Makers Award from the New York Historical Society. In addition, he is a distinguished visiting scholar at Harvard, a recipient of the 2020 Beverly Sills Award from the Metropolitan Opera, a winner of the 2020 Opera News Award, and Musical America’s 2019 Vocalist of the Year.

He has appeared at the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, English National Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Opera Philadelphia, the New York Philharmonic, and The Philadelphia Orchestra, among many others.

"We set the goal of finding a new, creative leader who would be capable of taking Opera Philadelphia to even greater levels of artistic and business success," said Stephen K. Klasko, the Chair of Opera Philadelphia’s Board of Directors. "Of the nearly 40 impressive candidates reviewed, Anthony Roth Costanzo rose to the top and emerged as the ideal leader at this important time in our history."

"Anthony is a visionary, innovative, and strategic thinker, and an artist of unsurpassed quality," Klasko continued. "It is unprecedented for an opera singer in the prime of his performing career to take on this type of CEO role at a major opera company. He will set a new paradigm for our industry as a working artist running the business side of an organization."

"Opera Philadelphia makes art at the highest level, and this incredible company has been a part of my artistic life for the past 30 years," Costanzo said.

"I distinctly remember standing behind the curtain at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia listening to the audience roar. It was 1996, and I had just finished singing the shepherd boy in Tosca starring Luciano Pavarotti. Before he went in front of the curtain to take his bow, he extended his hand for me to come with him. As I stood beside that lion of opera, looking out at an audience that he had single-handedly introduced to this art form, I knew that I not only wanted to be a part of this tradition, but I also wanted to be part of carrying it forward in an impactful way."

"Little did I know that I would return to the same stage to star in an opera myself with Opera Philadelphia some twenty-odd years later," he added. "But singing in operas has only been part of my journey as an artist. I have found that perhaps the greatest impact I can have comes in what I produce, create, imagine, and what stories I can help find a voice."