As a child, tenor Russell Thomas didn’t even consider a career in opera until he was “discovered” during a choir rehearsal. Now, he’s singing all over the world, including in Los Angeles in summer 2024 both as Calaf in LA Opera’s Turandot and in the world premiere of Fire and Blue Sky, a biographical work about Thomas written by composer Joel Thompson and librettist Imani Tolliver. 

I first heard opera on the radio as a small kid growing up in Miami. I didn’t know what it was, but something about the singing just instantly hooked me. When I was 12 years old, I went with my grandmother and family to visit New York City. We took the Amtrak up, which is quite a long trip from Miami. While we were there, a friend of my grandmother’s friend noticed me listening to classical music on the radio. She suggested that my grandmother take me to the opera, because New York City had some of the best companies in the world. My grandmother took me to Carmen at New York City Opera.

That production, the voices, the costumes, just the sonic world — that sealed the deal for me.

Back in Florida, I started going to the opera regularly, but I had no idea I could sing. I would listen to Gwyneth Jones and Pavarotti, but I didn’t hear myself in those people. I was more comfortable singing along to Whitney Houston tracks. During my senior year, my choir teacher invited the opera singer Joy Davidson to work with us. Davidson heard my voice, and she told me if I took lessons, I could get a full scholarship at any music school. (I remember thinking, “Lessons? Is there something wrong with my voice?”) But she worked with me, and I started auditioning, and I wound up studying with her at the New World School of the Arts in Miami.

Things moved fast for me. I discovered I could sing loud and high, and that those are two things that people like in tenor voices. In my first ever production, I sang in the chorus for The Barber of Seville, and my first role was as Alfred in an English version of Der Fledermaus. And a couple of years after college, I became a Lindemann Young Artist at the Metropolitan Opera.

To this day, seeing the chandeliers at the Met still gives me goosebumps, even after all these years. I don’t take it for granted. But I also think if you have a passion for opera, there are wonderful career options not on stage, and that’s something young singers aren’t told enough. Yes, we all want to be on stage, but the fact of the matter is not all of us will have that opportunity. So, if you have a passion for opera, develop a skill set and explore a career that could keep you involved in opera. Even if I weren’t an opera singer — actually, it’s a goal of mine, now — I would want to run an opera company and help the art form thrive.