Biography
Baritone Jonathan Wilson is a dedicated performer of vocal music from opera to concert works and musical theater. He has been praised by the Chicago Classical Review as a “superb actor” with a “resounding and luxurious” voice.
Most recently, Jonathan performed in Opera Festival Chicago’s summer 2024 season including a Puccini Forever concert and productions of Puccini’s Manon Lescaut (Lescaut cover with orchestra dress rehearsal), Menotti’s La Medium (Sig. Gobineau) performed in Italian, and Dallapiccola’s Il Prigioniero (Secondo Sacerdote). In recent seasons, Jonathan sang as baritone soloist with the Lyric Opera of Chicago in their performances of Mozart’s Thamos, King of Egypt, sang the role of Usher in Verdi's Rigoletto, and sang the role of Jailer in one performance of Puccini's Tosca. Other notable roles in Jonathan’s repertoire include the titular role in Eugene Onegin, Dottore Malatesta in Don Pasquale, Pelléas in Pelléas et Mélisande, and John Brooke in Adamo’s Little Women.
Also an avid performer of contemporary and chamber opera, Jonathan has sung roles for many regional premieres in the Chicago area. Recent chamber opera roles include Manfred in Two Remain (Heggie, Scheer), Hannah-before in As One (Kaminsky, Campbell, Reed), and the titular character in a Tom Waits adaptation of Woyzeck, each as part of critically-lauded productions with Chicago Fringe Opera. His appearances as The Poet in When Adonis Calls (Borzoni, de los Santos, Dillard) and as Robert Dziekański in I will fly like a bird (Plant, Wainwright) with Chicago-based Thompson Street Opera Company also received critical acclaim.
On the concert stage, Jonathan regularly sings with many of Chicagoland’s top symphonic and choral ensembles. As a soloist, he has performed with the Northwest Indiana Symphony Orchestra, the New Philharmonic Orchestra, the South Shore Orchestra, and many Chicago-area sacred organizations. This winter he will return as a soloist with the New Philharmonic to sing Belcore in L’elisir d’amore. He also routinely sings as part of the Lyric Opera Chorus, the Chicago Symphony Chorus, and the Grant Park Chorus.