Since 2004, he’s given over 1,000 performances of 60 different roles with 57 different opera companies and symphonies, with at least 100 performances each at the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Bayerische Staatsoper, and San Francisco Opera. But who’s counting? Bass-baritone Christian Van Horn, whose voice has been described by Opera Today as one that can “shake the heavens,” is an operatic force to be reckoned with, and he’s established himself as a favorite of audiences and critics alike.
Born in Rockville Centre, New York, in 1978, Van Horn dabbled in musicals in high school. He would go on to earn degrees in music from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and the Yale School of Music and then spend two years with Lyric’s Ryan Opera Center.
A fixture at the Met since 2013, Van Horn has tackled the title roles of Arrigo Boito’s Mefistofele, Mozart’s Don Giovanni, and Bela Bartok’s Bluebeard’s Castle and mostly recently appeared with the company as the four villains in Jacques Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffmann. He’s thrilled global audiences through the Met’s Live in HD series, taking star turns in, among other works, Alban Berg’s Wozzeck, Gaetano Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, and Mozart’s The Magic Flute.
Beyond the opera stage, Van Horn’s concert performances are nothing short of dazzling, and he’s been seen collaborating with acclaimed orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, and Los Angeles Philharmonic. His numerous accolades include snagging the Richard Tucker Award in 2018.
The bass-baritone was most recently in the Bay Area for SF Opera’s 2024 production of Carmen, portraying the toreador Escamillo in a performance that SF Classical Voice described as possessing “stentorian bravado.” This month, SFCV had a chance to catch up with Van Horn by phone from his home outside of Washington, D.C. On a well-deserved break, he spoke of his myriad roles, his attraction to singing villains, and what it’s like being a beloved presence at many major opera houses.
So what is it about bass-baritones that leads composers to score them as villains? How fun is it to play a villain as opposed to, say, a priest or a king? And what about the boos?
I’ve always rooted for bad guys. It made sense to me [that composers would gravitate toward bass-baritones because] the power of the low voice is going to sound eviler than others. And of course, it’s more fun, absolutely. Think about the amount of fun I’m having onstage. Is a priest having fun? A king, maybe, but it’s short-lived. [As a villain] you’re constantly enjoying what you’re doing. The boos? If there are boos, I did my job.
You’ve sung at the Met countless times. Does it ever feel like, “Meh, it’s just another opera house”? I mean, what is it about the Met that continues to attract audiences and performers alike?
It’s such an interesting thing. If you want to put it in baseball terms, the Met is Yankee Stadium. Everybody dreams of it. When you’re a young singer, the Met is a dream. It’s that castle on the hill you’re chasing. When you finally get there, it lives up to the [imagination] and doesn’t disappoint. It actually pays off. It always pays off.
You also have a storied history with SF Opera, from Escamillo in Carmen to past seasons when you were featured as the four villains in The Tales of Hoffmann, Narbal in Hector Berlioz’s epic Les Troyens, and Claggart in Benjamin Britten’s Billy Budd. How do you even manage to keep track of what roles you’ve sung with which companies and when?
My history with San Francisco Opera is that I’ve sung 16 or 17 roles over the last 15 years. I’ve been working there since 2010 and have given between 100 and 115 performances. I have to keep track, of course — it’s my steps along the way. Claggart was during one of the most satisfying artistic periods I was ever in, definitely, but I won’t be returning to San Francisco until 2027.
I’m wondering if you have a favorite role — and a conductor with whom you’d like to work that you haven’t yet.
My favorite role right now is King Philippe II in Verdi’s Don Carlos. This is one I’m going to sit with for the next couple of years. I’ve been [lucky] and feel like I’ve worked with everybody, but I would love to sing with Gustavo Dudamel.
What about new operas — are you a fan? You’ve been in several, including the American premieres of Thomas Adès’s The Exterminating Angel at the Met in 2017, Tan Dun’s Tea: A Mirror of Soul in Santa Fe in 2007, and David Carlson’s Anna Karenina at Florida Grand Opera in 2007.
I really don’t like to do too much modern opera. A lot of it doesn’t feel well written for voice. With Adès, it was a lot of vocal gymnastics, which doesn’t lend itself to beautiful singing but to correct singing. This is not what I got into this for. [But] on the few occasions [I did premieres], it was exciting for me. There were interesting things notated in the score [that the composer] could describe — a feeling he wanted to portray in notation — but he’d invented his own notation I’d never seen before.
What’s the state of opera today? Have you noticed a change in attendance since you began your career?
In Europe, no. It only grows [and] becomes more popular. People are begging for tickets, scalping them. When I sing in Europe, it’s only to sold-out audiences. In America, it’s different. We have a lot of options for entertainment here, but opera is [Europe’s] culture. It was born there, grown there. They take it like going to the movies — or what used to be going to the movies [because even that’s] not a thing today.
In America, our audience has always been gray-haired. We’re losing our audience to age, but we just move the next group in.
Somehow, between all the jetting around the world, you’ve also got The CVH Podcast, where you cover such topics as “music as religion” and interview singers including J’Nai Bridges and Angel Blue. What was the genesis of the podcast, and how often do you record it?
It was the middle of COVID, and I felt like I needed to use my voice, to connect with an audience. I missed performing, so I turned on the mics and started speaking. It’s been well-received. We captured a bit of [the opera] audience and [created] a little area for community. Over the past four years, I’ve done nearly 300 episodes. It’s been wonderful. The listenership grows and grows and grows. I’ve been watching it get popular, [and] we just released [an episode] two days ago. Each episode takes me an hour and 15 minutes from beginning to end.
And you’re the whole ball of wax — producer, editor, host?
I’ll do all of the business for now [until] it becomes bigger than I can manage. I learned on the road. I figured out what needed to be done and did it. It was easier than I expected. I have a hard time stopping anything — that’s a characteristic of mine. To make it to the highest levels of the classical world, there are some fairly specific [traits we share as singers]. We’re all crazy, and we’re all hard workers. I only hope I know when to stop before somebody has to tell me to stop.
Where do you see yourself in the next five to 10 years?
My whole [vocal] mechanism is changing now, and I’m finally singing things I wanted to. The next 10 to 12 years are most prime, and I’m ready to leave the stage before the stage tells me to leave — and on the last day, when I want, not when somebody else wants me to.
What’s the best advice you’ve been given, and what advice do you have for young singers today?
It came from an administrator — a friend — who said, “You need to do this as well as you can for as long as you can. It’s a marathon, not a race.” I’ve been a professional for 23 years, and it’s not a sprint because people who sprint tend to disappear.
I would give young singers the same advice my teacher gave me. If you can even imagine yourself doing something else for your business, for your life, you should probably do that. The only way this works is if you’re completely obsessed. I’ve never met a singer at the top who was half in. You have to be completely in.
