Bass-baritone Craig Colclough initially studied as a cellist and eventually attended the University of Redlands in California. Before training with Wolf Trap Opera and Florida Grand Opera, he began his career appearing in several roles with the Los Angeles Opera. The company awarded him the Eva and Marc Stern Artist Award during the 2020-2021 season, celebrating artists with deep connections to LA Opera.
Colclough begins the 2024-2025 season in Los Angeles, singing Juliette’s father Capulet in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette. With Opera Omaha, he will return to the role of Nick Shadow in The Rake’s Progress, and later makes his debut with Seattle Opera as the villainous Baron Scarpia in Puccini’s Tosca. The bass-baritone also returns to the Metropolitan Opera roster to cover Don Pizarro in Fidelio. During the summer, Colclough makes his debut with Des Moines Metro Opera, singing the Parson/Badger in Cunning Little Vixen.
Highlights of Colclough’s 2023-2024 season included his first career performances of the title role of Wagner’s Der fliegende Höllander, in a new production at the Göteborg Opera in Sweden, as well as a return to Los Angeles for Leporello in Don Giovanni, conducted by Music Director James Conlon, and his debut at Amsterdam's Concertgebouw singing Alberich in Siegfried, conducted by Karina Canellakis.
The 2022-2023 season featured a prominent return to Los Angeles, singing the title role in Le nozze di Figaro for the company’s new production, directed by filmmaker James Gray. Craig returned to the Atlanta Opera to make his role debut as Sharpless in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, reprised his acclaimed Monterone for further performances at The Metropolitan Opera, returned to Tiroler Festspiele Erl to continue the role of Alberich in their productions of Siegfried and Götterdämmerung, and bowed as the titular Sir John in Love in Bard Music Festival’s presentation of the Vaughan Williams work.
His recent engagements include his Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago and Bayerische Staatsoper debuts as the title role in Verdi’s Macbeth; Telramund in Lohengrin and Pistola in Falstaff with the Royal Opera, Covent Garden; the title role in Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd with Opera Saratoga; Alberich in Das Rheingold with Tiroler Festspiele Erl; Kurwenal in Tristan und Isolde, Scarpia and Jack Rance in La fanciulla del West with English National Opera; Scarpia for his debut with Canadian Opera Company; Peter in Hänsel und Gretel for LA Opera, and the title role in Don Pasquale with Minnesota Opera and Arizona Opera. A house favorite with Belgium’s Opera Vlaanderen, he has appeared with the company as Telramund, Kurwenal, Macbeth and the title role of Verdi’s Falstaff, in a production directed by Oscar-winning actor Christoph Waltz.
Known for his versatility, Craig Colclough has appeared as Peter Vogel in Der Ring des Polykrates with The Dallas Opera; the Storyteller in John Adams’ A Flowering Tree with Opera Queensland in Australia; Hare in the world premiere of Burke and Hare with Boston Lyric Opera; Pistola in Falstaff with the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; Fra Melitone in La forza del Destino with Oper Frankfurt and Doristo in L’arbore di Diana with Minnesota Opera. He has collaborated with acclaimed conductor Gustavo Dudamel for performances of Timur in Turandot with the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela and Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Additional credits include the Israeli Symphony Orchestra, California Philharmonic, Capitol Records, Abbey Road Studios and the soundtrack of the film Rolled.
