Tenor Chauncey Packer performs Handel’s Messiah and Holiday Pops on December 2-3, 2024.

Chauncey Packer is an exciting American tenor hailing from southern Alabama. In the 2022-2023 season, Mr. Packer returns to The Metropolitan Opera to sing Bardolfo in Falstaff and Luis Rodrigo Griffith in Champion. He also makes his role debut as the Witch in Hansel and Gretel at New Orleans Opera and brings his celebrated Sportin’ Life in Porgy and Bess to Germany’s NDR Elbphilharmonic Orchestra. Mr. Packer recently made his role debut as Cavaradossi in Tosca and as Jo the Loiterer in Mother of us All at Chatauqua Opera, returned to The Metropolitan Opera as Robbins & Crab Man and Spinner in Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in my Bones, a role he reprised in 2022 with Lyric Opera of Chicago, Scalia in Scalia/Ginsberg at Chautauqua Opera, as well as postponed or cancelled performances as Robbins & Crab Man in Porgy and Bess with Greensboro Opera and Howard Boucher in Dead Man Walking with The Metropolitan Opera.

His 2019-2020 engagements included his Metropolitan Opera debut in the roles of Sportin’ Life, Robbins, and Crabman in Porgy and Bess, soloist in Mozart’s Requiem with the Colour of Music Festival, concerts with the Saint-George International Music Festival and the Harrisburg Symphony, Sportin’ Life with New York Harlem’s Porgy and Bess at Teatro Regio in Torino, Italy, and Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly at Soo Theatre Project in Michigan.

Mr. Packer has performed with Nashville Opera, Mobile Opera, Pensacola Opera, Utah Festival Opera, Opera Grand Rapids, Des Moines Metro Opera, Opera Pacific, and New Orleans Opera. He has sung the roles of Rodolfo (La bohème), Alfredo (La Traviata), Pong (Turandot), Werther, Pinkerton (Madama Butterfly), Sam (Susannah), Ruggero (La rondine), Dr. Blind (Die Fledermaus), Tamino (The Magic Flute), Arturo (Lucia di Lammermoor), Amon (Akhnaten), and Sportin’ Life, Mingo, and Robbins (Porgy and Bess). Of his Sportin’ Life the Atlanta Journal proclaimed “Here Chauncey Packer was the complete entertainer…” He has performed the role in his 2008 debut with Paris’ Opera Comique, his 2016 debut at Teatro alla Scala, as well as with Tulsa Opera, Atlanta Opera, Opera Birmingham, San Francisco Opera, and a tour throughout Europe with New York Harlem Theatre.

On the concert platform, he has joined Edmonton Opera, Baton Rouge Symphony, Nashville Symphony, Mobile Symphony, Gulf Coast Opera, Shreveport Opera, Grand Rapids Symphony, Pensacola Symphony, Arkansas Symphony, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfonica de Mineria, Louisiana Philharmonic, Signature Symphony, and Torun Symphony Orchestra. He was also featured in a concert at Théâtre des Champs-Élysées with the Orchestre Symphonique de la Garde Républicaine benefiting the organization Women of Africa.

This versatile tenor honed his craft in theater and musical theater productions including Baby, The Wizard of Oz, School House Rock Live, and Big River. He performed in Paris’ Louvre Museum in controversial and provocative European choreographer/director Robyn Orlin’s Babysitting Petit Louis. In 2013-2014, he was cast in the First National Broadway Tour of The Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess as the Honey Man and Sportin’ Life cover. Mr. Packer is featured on several commercial recording releases including Nashville Symphony’s Porgy and Bess on Decca Records and Paragon Ragtime Symphony’s Treemonisha and Black Manhattan Volume 3, both on New World Records. He is featured to critical acclaim in San Francisco Opera’s DVD release of Francesca Zambello’s Porgy and Bess. He did apprenticeships with Des Moines Metro Opera and Utah Festival Opera, received his bachelor’s degree from University of Mobile, pursued a Master of Music from University of New Orleans, and postgraduate studies at Louisiana State University in music and theater.