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American tenor, Joshua Collier, known for ”brimming with passion and sensuality” and having “delivered brilliant high notes as well as heart-wrenching tenderness” was hailed as “the quintessential Italianate tenor” and “the real thing” for a production of Puccini’s Tosca in 2024.
A graduate of The University of North Carolina School of the Arts (Bachelor in Music – Vocal Performance) and The New England Conservatory (Masters in Music – Vocal Performance), he has performed throughout New England and beyond in many of the romantic tenor roles. However, performing was not the only avenue for Collier’s artistic expression.
In 2013, he founded the Bostonian opera company “Opera Brittenica” championing the works of British composer Benjamin Britten. Over the next 4 years, he produced rarely produced works of Britten, and became deeply interested in the production element of the operatic medium.
After honing skills as a producer for 4 years, Collier relocated to Brandon, Vermont, and subsequently founded an opera company in a renovated barn, aptly called BARN OPERA. BARN OPERA was a project under the Compass Music and Arts Foundation for 3 years, where it produced 3 seasons of 4 full operatic productions annually, all conceived and directed by Collier.
Each of the 12 operas that BARN OPERA did pre-pandemic were warhorses of the operatic tradition, and yet, each of them were viewed through different lenses, ranging from contemporary to traditional, but always acknowledging the historical precedent – and then actively challenging why tradition is tradition