James Rutherford
Since winning Seattle Opera's first International Wagner Competition in 2006, James Rutherford has quickly become known for his interpretations of German Romantic opera, particularly roles in operas by Richard Wagner.
He was seen as Hans Sachs in The Master-Singer of Nuremberg at the Bayreuth Festival, at the Vienna State Opera, at the Hamburg State Opera, at the Cologne Opera, at the San Francisco Opera, at the Budapest Wagner Days, at the Leipzig Opera and at the Glyndebourne Festival. He sang Wolfram in Tannhäuser at the San Francisco Opera and at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the title role in The Flying Dutchman at the Budapest Wagner Days, at the Frankfurt Opera, at the Stuttgart State Opera, the Leipzig Opera, the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, the Cologne Opera and at the Badisches Staatstheater, Kurwenal in Tristan and Isolde at the Washington National Opera as well as Amfortas in Parsifal and Holländer with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Andris Nelsons. In 2016, James Rutherford made his debut as Wotan in the entire Ring cycle at the Frankfurt Opera under the direction of Sebastian Weigle. Since then, he has portrayed Wotan and Wanderer in numerous productions and recordings.
His roles in operas by Richard Strauss include Jochanaan in Salome at the Vienna State Opera, the Berlin State Opera and the Opéra National de Montpellier, Mandryka in Arabella at the Dutch National Opera, the Hamburg State Opera, the Liceu in Barcelona and the Frankfurt Opera, Orest in Elektra at the Hamburg State Opera, the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos in Lisbon and with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and Faninal in The Knight of the Rose at the Opera Frankfurt. He recently sang the role of Peter in Engelbert Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel in a new production at London's Royal Opera House and Lawrence in Ethel Smyth's The Wreckers at the Glyndebourne Festival.
In 2009 he began a close collaboration with the Graz Opera, where he sang his first Hans Sachs and subsequently returned as Barak in Strauss' The Woman without a Shadow, Germont in Giuseppe Verdi's La traviata, Iago in Verdi's Otello, Scarpia in Giacomo Puccini's Tosca and in the title roles in Verdi's Falstaff and Gioachino Rossini's Guillaume Tell. After a guest contract as Lysiart in a new production of Euryanthe in 2015, James Rutherford began a long-term collaboration with the Frankfurt Opera, where his repertoire included Ford in Verdi's Falstaff and Balstrode in Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes.
The highlights of the 2025/26 season include The Flying Dutchman at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin, Wanderer in Siegfried at the Leipzig Opera and Giorgio Germont in La traviata at the Semperoper Dresden and the Graz Opera.
James Rutherford has presented a number of recordings, including an album of English songs from the early 20th century, orchestral songs by George Butterworth, Wagner arias with Andrew Litton and the Bergen Philharmonic, Wotan and Wanderer in The Ring of the Nibelung with the Duisburg Symphony under Axel Kober, and Schubert's Swan Song and the Winter Journey with pianist Eugene Asti.