Peter Tantsits, Tenor

American tenor Peter Tantsits returns to Belle Ile after appearing as Caius in Falstaff in the 2006 festival.  This season he made his debut at the Kennedy Center in Salome with Deborah Voigt, appeared with the Mark Morris Dance Group in Dido and Aeneas, performed Edmondo in Manon Lescaut with Fresno Grand Opera and Gastone in La Traviata in Connecticut, and traveled to the United Arab Emirates to perform Tony in West Side Story in Dubai.  Other notable roles include Ramiro in La Cenerentola, Kudryàsh in Katya Kabanovà, Léandre in Gounod’s Le Médecin malgré lui, and Arbaces in Arne’s Artaxerxes.  His French Baroque repertoire includes the title role in Platée, Tacmas in Les Indes Galantes, and Charpentier’s Actéon where he made his European operatic debut at the 2003 Aldeburgh Festival under Emmanuelle Haïm.  He regularly performs with a number of leading contemporary music ensembles and will perform works by Birtwistle, Berio, Ligeti and Nono nationally and abroad at the Festival Internacional de Musica Contemporánea in Morelia, Mexico and the Festiwal Muzyki Polskiej in Krakow.  His interpretation of George III in Davies’ Eight Songs for a Mad King has earned him outstanding international reviews.  He holds degrees from Yale University and the Oberlin Conservatory.