Thomas Forde
Barone Douphol

    Young bass Thomas Forde makes his debut with some of the country’s leading opera companies and festivals in the 2007-2008 season. For The Dallas Opera he performs the roles of Cesare Angelotti in Tosca and The Fifth Jew in Salome. He joins The Fort Worth Opera as The Mandarin in Turandot while covering Timur. He will also cover the role of Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermoor for The Fort Worth Opera. For Ash Lawn Opera, he debuts as Zuniga in their production of Carmen. Other recent engagements include Opera in The Heights in Houston, TX singing the roles of Zuniga in Carmen and Antonio in addition to covering Figaro in Le Nozze di Figaro. Past apprenticeships brought Forde to Central City Opera, Tulsa Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, and Utah Festival Opera where he has done roles such as Francis Nurse in The Crucible, Sarastro (cover) in The Magic Flute, and Father Trulove (cover) in The Rake’s Progress. A Moores Opera Center Fellow at The University of Houston, he sang the title role in Rossini’s Il Turco in Italia, Frank Maurrant in Street Scene, Le Philosophe in Massenet’s ChÈrubin, Don Alfonso in CosÓ fan tutte, Prince Gremin in Eugene Onegin, and Sulleyman Pasha in The Ghosts of Versailles. He received a Bachelor’s of Music from The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2005, and this past spring Forde completed a Masters of Music at The University of Houston Moores School of Music.