Michael Sumuel

In the 2025-26 season, American bass-baritone Michael Sumuel returns to the Metropolitan Opera as Papageno in Julie Taymor’s The Magic Flute. Other roles include Porgy in George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess at Houston Grand Opera, Leporello in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Don Giovanni at the Bayerische Staatsoper, Achilla in George Frideric Handel's Julius Caesar — as well as Alberich, a role debut in Richard Wagner’s complete Ring Cycle — both at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. Concert highlights include Johannes Brahms’ Requiem with the San Diego Symphony and Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 at St. John the Divine in New York City for New Year’s Eve.

In the 2024-25 season, Sumuel returned to the Metropolitan Opera and debuted with Opera Australia in Sydney to sing the title role in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, debuted Porgy in Porgy and Bess with Washington National Opera, and Sharpless in Giacomo Puccini's Madama Butterfly with the Canadian Opera Company and Los Angeles Opera. An accomplished and in-demand concert artist, Sumuel made his debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, performing Mozart’s Coronation Mass. He has also performed Gabriel Fauré's Requiem with the San Francisco Symphony, Johann Sebastian Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with Music of the Baroque and Dame Jane Glover, Mozart’s Requiem with the Salzburg Camarata and Dame Jane Glover, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with North Carolina Symphony, and Handel’s Messiah with Jonathan Cohen and the Houston Symphony. 

Operatic highlights include the Metropolitan Opera (Reginald in Anthony Davis' X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X and Belcore, Gaetano Donizetti's The Elixir of Love), San Francisco Opera (Figaro, The Marriage of Figaro; Escamillo, Georges Bizet's Carmen; Elviro, Handel's Xerxes), Lyric Opera of Chicago (Masetto, Don Giovanni), and more across the United States and Europe.

In concert, he has performed notable works with many major United States orchestras. Frequent conductor collaborators include Dame Jane Glover, Jonathan Cohen, Bernard Labadie, James Conlon, Zubin Mehta, Patrick Summers, Jaap van Zweden, Marc Minkowski, and more. 

Sumuel’s competition accolades include being awarded a Richard Tucker Career Grant, Metropolitan Opera National Council audition Grand Finalist, and winner of the Dallas Opera Guild Vocal Competition. He is an alumnus of the Houston Grand Opera Studio, Merola Opera Program at San Francisco Opera, and the Filene Young Artist program at Wolf Trap Opera.