Baritone John Dooley has been praised by The Wall Street Journal for his “warm, supple baritone.”  His versatile comedic and “confident, even swaggering, stage presence” has made him an in demand crossover performer in opera, musical theatre and concert repertoire.  

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This season sees a return to Opera Wilmington as Papageno in The Magic Flute.  On the concert stage he will debut with the Wilmington Symphony Orchestra on the Pops 4th of July Celebration Concert and return to Choir of St Pauls for Faure Requiem. 

 

In the 2021-22 season  performed Marquis D'Obigny in La Traviata in the debut season of Holy City Arts & Lyric Opera in Charleston.  On the concert stage Mr. Dooley will be heard as a soloist in Jeanette MacDonald & Nelson Eddy concert with First Coast Opera, Faure Requiem and Dubois The Seven Last Words of Christ with Choir of St. Paul, Old American Songs by Copland and Great American Songbook concert with Opera Wilmington and Great Revivals of Broadway with FPC Concert Series.

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There were a few bright spots in the 2019-2020 pandemic season. Boston Modern Orchestra Project won the 2019 Grammy® Award for Best Opera Recording of Tobias Picker's Fantastic Mr. Fox recorded by BMOP sound where Mr. Dooley can be heard as Badger the Miner.  Mr. Dooley also bowed as Billy Bigelow in Carousel as a guest artist with Opera at USC and was a soloist in A Night in Italy concert with Opera Wilmington.

 

Mr. Dooley’s 2018-2019 season included mainstage debuts with Chattanooga Symphony & Opera as Dancaïro in Carmen with and Opera Wilmington as Falke in Die Fledermaus. On the concert stage he debuted with the Long Bay Symphony in their New Years Strauss on the Strand concert, with FPC concerts in Forever Broadway and Carolina Master Chorale as Maximilian in Candide. He returned as a guest artist to Opera at USC as Il Marito in Amelia al Ballo and as Soloist in Schubert’s Mass in G with the Wilmington Choral Society.

 

In the 2017-2018 season Mr. Dooley returned to Opera Theater of Connecticut as Sharpless in Madama Butterfly.  He saw notable debuts with the Jacksonville Symphony in their Holiday Pops concert and Chattanooga Symphony & Opera for the Luke Holdings Pops Series celebrating Maestro Bob Bernhardt’s 25th Anniversary. 

 

The 2016-17 brought debuts with Pittsburgh Opera in a workshop performance of Sonenberg’s The Summer King, The Florida Orchestra in a Gilbert & Sullivan Coffee Concert under the baton of Stuart Malina, soloist in Handel’s Messiah with the Wilmington Choral Society,and , Valentine’s Day Concerts with Opera Wilmington and Carmel Country Club.   Mr. Dooley returned to Amarillo Opera as William Clark in Mager’s Dream of the Pacific and to First Coast Opera as Yamadori in Madama Butterfly, Learned Judge in Trial By Jury and Hans Christian Anderson in The Trial of B.B. Wolf.  He’ll also returned with Opera Theater of Connecticut to the Sanibel Music Festival as soloist in the concerts An Evening with the Gershwin Brothers and Fantastic French Composers.

 

The 2015-16 season started with a debut with Pittsburgh’s Resonance Works as a soloist in The Bernstein Project and Trio member in Trouble in Tahiti. He returned to Opera Roanoke debuting Anthony Hope in Sweeney Todd. On the concert stage he was seen in the title role of Mendelssohn’s Elijah with the Pittsburgh Concert Chorale. He also made a return to the Columbia Orchestra for Symphonic Pops, to Resonance Works for Bach’s Coffee Cantata BWV 211 and An Evening of Rodgers & Hammerstein with Opera Theater of Connecticut.

 

The 2014-15 season saw a number of exciting role and house debuts for John.  He debuted as Badger the Miner in Tobias Picker’s Fantastic Mr. Fox with both Opera San Antonio and Odyssey Opera and had the privilege of recording the role with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project.  He debuted with the Erie Chamber Orchestra as Papageno in Die Zauberflöte.  Other debuts include concerts with Opera Theater of Connecticut, First Coast Opera, Pittsburgh Concert Chorale, Texas Hill Country Opera and the Sanibel Music Festival. John also returned to Amarillo Opera as Storyteller/Running Bear in Thunder of Horses, to Alexandria Symphony for Beethoven’s 9th Symphony and will spent the summer at Quisisana Resort debuting Sharpless in Madama Butterfly.

 

John Dooley’s 2013-14 season highlights included a return to Theater at Monmouth debuting Archibald Grosvenor in Patience; Captain Von Trapp in The Sound of Music with Arizona Broadway Theatre; The title role in Gianni Schicchi at Quisisana Resort; In 2012-13 he joined the New York Philharmonic in the Emmy Nominated, Live from Lincoln Center production of Carousel; Major General Stanley in Pirates of Penzance with Opera Roanoke; Yamadori/Commissioner in Madama Butterfly with Amarillo Opera; Marcello in La Bohème at Quisisana Resort; and soloist in Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass with St. Vincent Camerata.

 

Highly acclaimed for his work in 20th and 21st Century Opera, John has appeared in a number of world premieres, including Lysander in Michael Ching’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream: opera a cappella with Opera Memphis/Playhouse on the Square (recorded on Albany Records), Johnny in Todd Goodman’s Night of the Living Dead with Microscopic Opera; Ashmodeus in the American premiere of Jonathan Dove’s Tobias and the Angel with Opera Vivente; Noisy/Straw/Donkey in the touring premiere of Keith Jameson’s Petunia with FBN Productions; Buck George in Richard Maltz’s Bambino as a guest artist with Opera at USC.

 

Other career highlights include Hermann (Les Contes D’Hoffmann) Portland Opera, Malatesta (Don Pasquale) with Amarillo Opera, Dancaïro (Carmen) with Opera Roanoke, Marquis D’Obigny (La Traviata) Opera Delaware, Guglielmo (Cosi fan tutte) with Alamo City Opera, Schaunard (La Bohème) with Cartersville Opera, Riff (West Side Story) with Ash Lawn Opera Festival, Rolf Gruber (The Sound of Music) with Tulsa Opera, Bruce Granit (On the Twentieth Century) with Theater at Monmouth, Caroler (A Musical Christmas Carol) with Pittsburgh CLO, The Best of Sondheim with the Utah Symphony, Love Makes the World Go Round with Opera on the James and performances with Virginia Music Theater, So. of Broadway Theatre Company, The Columbia Orchestra, Bay-Atlantic Symphony, The Arts Club of Washington, Old Bridge Chamber Orchestra, Vienna Choral Society, Webster University Symphony Orchestra and The Thomas Circle Singers.