Bass Matthew Anchel has been called "a voice to watch" by the Wall Street Journal, has performed with many of the world’s leading companies and orchestras. Recent engagements include Melisso in Alcina with St. Petersburg Opera Company, Frère Laurent in Roméo et Juliette with Arizona Opera, and the First Soldier in Salome with the Houston Symphony, a role he has sung with Opera San Antonio and Opera Theatre of St. Louis.  He also made a return to Carnegie Hall to sing Petrus in Christ on the Mount of Olives with the Cecelia Chorus of NY. Mr. Anchel opened the Metropolitan Opera’s 2024-2025 season as part of the Kill Chain in Grounded. In 2025, Mr. Anchel joins Minnesota Opera for a production TBA.

 

This past season, Mr. Anchel sang a string of Sarastro’s with Nashville Opera, Arizona Opera, and the Norwalk Symphony Orchestra. He has covered the role at the Glyndebourne Festival, and his 2018 performance at St. Petersburg Opera received critical acclaim: "As its leader Sarastro, bass Matthew Anchel undergirds the spirit of this benevolent cult… His is a rich, mellifluous sound” (Tamba Bay Times).  He first sang the role with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis in 2014, a production directed and designed by Isaac Mizrahi. 

 

Mr. Anchel has been involved in productions with the Metropolitan Opera for over a decade. In addition to Grounded this season, he most recently appeared with the company as the 2nd Armed Man in The Magic Flute. In the 2021-2022 season, he made his Metropolitan Opera debut singing Master of Ceremonies in Cinderella and the Jailer in Tosca, and went on for the role of Un moine in Don Carlos.  He has covered the roles of Reinmar in Tannhäuser, Loreck in Fedora, 2nd Commissioner in Dialogues des Carmélites, Schwarz in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Latinus in Lavinia, John in Anna Kommene, Trojan Man in Idomeneo, 2nd Armored Man in Die Zauberflöte, and Waiter #3 in Der Rosenkavalier, and various covers in The Exterminating Angel, Cendrillon, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, Die Zauberflöte, and Die Meistersinger von Nurnburg.  Mr. Anchel first joined the roster of the Metropolitan Opera in 2013 for its productions of The Nose and Die Zauberflöte.

 

In recent seasons, Mr. Anchel joined the Lyric Opera of Chicago to cover the Grand Inquisitor in Don Carlos, sang Bartolo in Le nozze di Figaro at Opera San Jose and Escamillo in CarmXn with the Hogfish Festival, and made role and house debuts as Claggart in What Lies Beneath with On Site Opera, Vanuzzi in Die Schweigsame Frau at Bard Summerscape and Der Diener in The Miserly Knight with the American Symphony Orchestra. Past credits include Banquo in Macbeth with Stadttheater Giessen, several roles as an ensemble member of Oper Stuttgart including Bartolo in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Benoit in La Boheme, Crespel/Luther in Les Contes d’Hoffmann, The Cook in Love of Three Oranges, and Antonio in Le nozze di Figaro; cover of Tsar Dodon in The Golden Cockerel with Santa Fe Opera, and Lamberto in Pia de' Tolomei with the Spoleto Festival.  He made his debut with Anchorage Opera as Sparafucile in Rigoletto and Don Alfonso in Lucrezia Borgia with LOFTOpera. Other roles include #8 in Conrad Susa's Transformations (Merola Opera Program), Bonze in Madama Butterfly and Ferrando in Il Trovatore (Opera San Jose); Zaretski in Eugene Onegin, Alaska Wolf Joe in The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, Marquis D'Obigny in La Traviata, and The Police Inspector in Der Rosenkavalier (Oper Leipzig); Count Ceprano in Rigoletto and Fourth Noble in Lohengrin (Los Angeles Opera), Dr. Chausable in the world premiere of The Importance of Being Earnest (Los Angeles Philharmonic); Haraste in Troilus and Cressida and Familiare in Maria di Rohan (Caramoor Festival), and his international debut as the title role in Le nozze di Figaro (Intermezzo Festival).

 

Among his many concert engagements, solo appearances have included Der Diener in The Miserly Knight with the American Symphony Orchestra, Mozart Requiem with Stiftsmusik Stuttgart and Allentown Symphony, two oratorios by Georgia Shreve at Alice Tully Hall, Mahler’s 8th Symphony at Carnegie Hall, Dvorak's Stabat Mater with the St. George's Choral Society, Beethoven’s Mass in C with Spoleto Festival USA, and Bach’s St. John Passion with Annapolis Chorale. He made his Carnegie Hall/Stern Auditorium debut in 2017 with the New England Symphonic Ensemble as a soloist in Haydn's Mass in Time of War.