Dean Anthony
Programs
Opera Institute
Dean Anthony draws inspiration and expertise from a comprehensive career spanning over 30 years and innumerable turns as performer, director, educator, and producer.
Frequently engaged as a stage director, Mr. Anthony’s artistic process is hallmarked by an energetic, gritty, and physical style. His portfolio stretches across the repertoire from Le Nozze di Figaro to Dead Man Walking and includes regular engagements at regional houses across the United States. Mr. Anthony’s 2019-2020 season includes Cavalleria Rusticana with Knoxville Opera, Glory Denied with Union Avenue Opera, Die Fledermaus with Amarillo Opera, Man of La Mancha with Shreveport Opera, Carmen with Opera Tampa Tales of Hoffmann in Opera Delaware, Barber of Seville with Opera on the James, La Rondine with Peabody Opera Theater, Marriage of Figaro with Opera Omaha, and Carmen and Man of La Mancha at the Brevard Music Center.
A major producer and promoter of new opera works, Mr. Anthony has helped facilitate the development of numerous projects including Tom Cipullo’s Glory Denied and Mayo, J. Mark Searce’s Falling Angel, a workshop of Robert Aldridge’s Sister Carrie, and Change the World, It Needs It! a new cabaret with the Kurt Weill Foundation. In collaboration with composer Michael Ching, Mr. Anthony conceived the opera Speed Dating Tonight!, which garnered nationwide attention and has been booked for over 80 different productions to date.
Mr. Anthony is currently the Director of Opera with the Janiec Opera Company of the Brevard Music Center and has served on the faculty since 2008. A passionate educator, he has shared his insights through a unique movement and acting masterclass series at opera companies, universities, and music festivals the world over from the Boston Conservatory of Music to Festival Lyrique de Belle Ile en Mer.
As a character tenor, Mr. Anthony performed over 100 roles on the operatic stage and garnered acclaim for his keen vocal, dramatic, physical, and acrobatic abilities, earning him the nickname “The Tumbling Tenor.” Some of his most praised portrayals include the roles of Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Little Bat in Susanna, and Bardolfo in Falstaff. He has graced the stages of companies across the globe from Vancouver Opera to Theater des Westens in Berlin, while frequenting North American venues including L’Opera de Montreal, San Francisco Opera, and New York City Opera, among others.
Mr. Anthony is also esteemed for numerous television appearances from his celebrated turn as Daniel Buchanan in Francesca Zambello’s Street Scene, to the world premiere of Robert Greeleaf’s Under the Arbor and An Evening of Gilbert and Sullivan with The Boston Pops on PBS. He is featured in the Grammy-nominated recording of Amahl and the Night Visitors, produced under the NAXOS label.