Jesse Merlin,
Bass

*Brandt Fellow

Jesse Merlin returns as a member of the resident company to perform the roles of Francis Nurse (The Crucible), Colline and Benoit/Alcindoro (La bohème) and Leporello (Don Giovanni) during Opera San Josè's 2005 - 2006 season.  During the 2004 - 2005 season, Mr. Merlin was seen as Dr. Bartolo (Le nozze di Figaro), the Sacristan (Tosca), Zuniga (Carmen), and Daland (Der fliegende Holländer). Other roles performed for Opera San Josè include the title role in Don Pasquale, Nourabad (Les Pêcheurs de perles), Frank (Die Fledermaus), Sarastro (Die Zauberflöte), Ferrando (Il trovatore), Mephistopheles (Faust), Alidoro (La Cenerentola), Yamadori (Madama Butterfly), Count des Grieux (Manon), Benoit (La bohème), and Count Ceprano (Rigoletto).

Roles performed with West Bay Opera include Benoit (La bohème), Wagner (Faust), and Marquis d'Obigny (La traviata).  In 2001, he created the role of Aileen’s Grandfather in the world premiere of WUORNOS at the Yerba Buena Center.

With Lamplighters Music Theatre, Merlin performed the title role in The Mikado and the Boatswain’s Mate (H.M.S. Pinafore), with Lyric Theatre of San Jose, Lord Mountararat (Iolanthe), and with the Stanford Savoyards, Lord Mountararat (Iolanthe), the Sergeant of Police (The Pirates of Penzance), and Arac (Princess Ida).

Mr. Merlin made his international debut in the world premiere of Benjamin Hamon's opera Le Terrain Vague in Paris at the Théâtre du Rond-Point and the Théâtre Lucernaire in June of 2005.

For more information, please visit Mr. Merlin's website: http://www.jessemerlin.com/

*Mr. Merlin's artist residency is made possible in part by a Fellowship Grant from Jean & Francis Brandt.