Christian Pursell is a dynamic, impassioned actor with unmatched stage
presence, an enthralling, powerful voice, and a mastery of musical genres
from baroque to musical theater, including bel canto and romantic opera.
In May 2025, Mr. Pursell débuted the role of Tom in the world premiere of
Ricky Ian Gordon’s opera This House at Opera Theatre of St. Louis. His
2024-2025 season began with his Metropolitan Opera house début as
Sciarrone in Tosca, alongside covering Hermann/Schlemil in Tales of
Hoffmann. Mr. Pursell then joined the Bach Ensemble of St. Thomas
featuring members of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. In November,
he returned to Seattle Symphony to perform Fauré Requiem, performed
the title role in Mendelssohn’s Elijah with San Jose Symphonic Choir, then
visited Portland Baroque Orchestra as a soloist in Handel Messiah. Pursell
performed The Prosecutor in Blind Injustice with MasterVoices, followed
by Aman in Ester with Haymarket Opera. The 2025-2026 season brings
more exciting house and role debuts, including house débuts with Seattle
Opera and Dayton Opera as Escamillo in Carmen, and role and house
débuts with the Teatro Colón as Cassandro in Mozart’s La Finta Semplice, Chicago Opera Theater as
Falstaff in Salieri’s operatic setting of the Shakespeare play, and with the Florentine Opera singing the Four
Villian in Tales of Hoffman. Additionally, he appears as a guest soloist in Handel’s Messiah at Grace
Cathedral in San Francisco with the American Bach Soloists and will sing Monterone in Baltimore
Symphony’s concert performances of Rigoletto and Four Villains.
Mr. Pursell released his first art song album, Ferne, in July 2024; the live lieder recital recording is available
on IDAGIO, Apple Music, and Spotify. Last season, he added three important roles to his repertoire:
Leporello in Don Giovanni (Cincinnati Opera) Don Basilio in Il barbiere di Siviglia (Virginia Opera), and the
role of Noah at Carnegie Hall (debut) in a concert performance of Ricky Ian Gordon’s The Grapes of Wrath.
Chicago Classical Review
Other recent opera engagements include Opera Philadelphia as Elmiro in Rossini’s Otello, the Canadian
Opera Company as Angelotti in Tosca, Wolf Trap Opera as Blitch in Susannah, and at Wiener Staatsoper as
Second Englishman in Prokofiev’s The Gambler. He has performed the role of Escamillo in Carmen at the
Cincinnati Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Hawaii Opera Theatre, Des Moines Metro Opera, and Opera
Theatre of Saint Louis.
As a concert soloist, Mr. Pursell has performed Handel’s Messiah with the San Francisco Symphony
Orchestra, Samuel in Handel’s Saul with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra in Walt Disney Concert Hall, and
Strauss’ Salome with Fabio Luisi and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. Other works performed include
Britten’s War Requiem, Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem, Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, Beethoven’s
Symphony No. 9, Haydn’s The Creation, Faure’s Requiem, and Pärt’s Passio. His first commercial recording,
the world premiere of Gregory Spears’ Fellow Travelers with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, was
released in 2017.
In January 2024, Pursell won Fourth Prize, and “Best Baritone” at the Tenor Viñas International Vocal
Competition in Barcelona, Spain. He won 2nd prize in the 2024 Concorso Lirico Internazionale Tebaldi-Gigli-
Corelli competition. He placed 3rd in the 2022 Opera Mississippi Vocal Competition, and won 3rd prize in
the 2021 James Toland Vocal Arts competition. He is the recipient of the 2019 Igor Gorin Memorial Award,
and is a national semi-finalist of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions (2016). He was also a
quarterfinalist in the 2019 Operalia competition, a Richard F. Gold Career Grant recipient (2018), winner of
the Partners for the Arts competition (2018), second award winner of the Jensen Foundation competition
(2017), winner of the Theodor Uppman Award from the Sullivan Foundation (2017), and recipient of a Sara
Tucker Study Grant from the Richard Tucker Music Foundation (2017).
A graduate of the prestigious Adler Fellowship at San Francisco Opera, Mr. Pursell’s many role credits with
the company included Lieutenant Ratcliffe in Billy Budd, and Walter Raleigh in Roberto Devereux. He also
sang a critically acclaimed performance of Dandini in La Cenerentola with Merola Opera Program.
Mr. Pursell is a graduate of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and received his Master of Music
degree from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. He raises his young son in the
Fingerlakes region of New York.