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Long based in Europe, Australian-American bass Joshua Bloom is acknowledged as an exceptional singing actor across a remarkable variety of repertoire from Mozart, to Wagner and Strauss, to world premiere works by Gerald Barry and Richard Ayres. He has sung principal roles with Metropolitan Opera, the Royal Opera, Wiener Staatsoper, Oper Köln, English National Opera, San Francisco Opera, Wiener Staatsoper, LA Opera, Opera Australia, Washington National Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Badisches Staatstheater, Irish National Opera, and New Israeli Opera, among others.
This season, Joshua Bloom’s engagements include his debut at the Staatsoper Stuttgart as Trinity Moses in a new production of The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny and he returns to Opera Colorado as Leporello Don Giovanni and to the Teatro Sao Carlos, Lisbon as Rocco in a new production of Fidelio.
In the 2022/23 season, Joshua made multiple house debuts: as The Ghost of Old Hamlet/Player King/Gravedigger in Brett Dean's Hamlet at the Bayerische Staatsoper conducted by Vladimir Jurowski; as Cadmus Semele for Opera de Lille and at the Komische Oper Berlin; Bottom A Midsummer Night’s Dream for Opéra de Rouen Normandie and as Henry Kissinger Nixon in China for Opéra national de Paris and for the Staatsoper Hannover. On the concert platform, he appeared in Handel’s Messiah with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and also at the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival and Rambo The Death of Klinghoffer at The Concertgebouw, Amsterdam with the Dutch Radio Orchestra.
Highlights of previous seasons include Ratefreund Die Vögel and Vodnik Rusalka for Opera Köln, Ramfis and The King Aida for New Israeli Opera, Leporello Don Giovanni for Welsh National Opera, performances of The Garden by Richard Ayres, the opera written for him for solo Bass, Orchestra, and Electronics, both in the premiere with the London Sinfonietta and Asko Schoenberg and at New Days Opera in Ostrava; the title role of Le nozze di Figaro and the Tutor in Rossini Le Comte Ory with Garsington Opera for Cal McCrystal’s new production; Méphistophélès in Berlioz Le Damnation de Faust, with Edward Gardner at the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra; Hunding in Wagner Die Walküre with Graeme Jenkins in Lisbon; The Ghost of Old Hamlet/Player King/Gravedigger in a new production of Brett Dean’s acclaimed Hamlet, Faraone in Rossini Mosè in Egitto for Oper Köln; Swallow in Britten Peter Grimes for the International Enescu Festival; Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream with English National Opera in the iconic Robert Carsen production; title role in Bartok Bluebeard’s Castle, in a new production by Enda Walsh; a house debut at the Royal Opera House in the world premiere production of Gerald Barry Alice’s Adventures Underground, returning as Publio in Richard Jones' new production of La Clemenza di Tito and Kaspar in Der Freischütz in the International Hyogo Festival of the Performing Arts, Japan.
In concert, Joshua has also appeared on the concert stage with the Berlin Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, all of the major London orchestras, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia, the Auckland Philharmonia and the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group as well as the Melbourne, Queensland, Adelaide and Western Australian Symphonies.
Joshua appears on NMC’s Grammy nominated recording of Gerald Barry The Importance of Being Earnest, conducted by Thomas Adès; the New York Philharmonic’s live recording of Janáček The Cunning Little Vixen, conducted by Alan Gilbert; The Metropolitan Opera’s HD Broadcast of Mozart Don Giovanni, conducted by Fabio Luisi; the Berlin Philharmonic’s Digital Concert Hall broadcast of Ligeti Le Grand Macabre, and the LSO Live recording of Debussy Pelléas et Mélisande both conducted by Sir Simon Rattle.
Joshua was born in Australia to musician parents and studied cello and double-bass as well as being a chorister at St Paul’s Cathedral, Melbourne. He went on to study History at the University of Melbourne and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts.His professional debut in opera was in an OzOpera touring production of The Barber of Seville, after which he joined the Young Artist Programme of Opera Australia in Sydney, and later the Merola and Adler Fellowship Programmes at the San Francisco Opera.
Biography not for publication, for an up to date version please contact Oliver Clarke.
"Joshua Bloom, in Kissinger, gratifies us with a deep and rich bass voice. The singer knows how to navigate between the seriousness of his character and his moment of madness, particularly incongruous, when he – or his double – intervenes on the stage of the Peking opera during Act II."
Forum Opera
"Joshua Bloom was a hard-hitting Henry Kissinger, brilliant in his grotesque ping-pong match with Mao, in the second act."
Platea Magazine
"Joshua Bloom takes on the blue suit of Henry Kissinger who in return borrows his deep, deep voice and his well-oiled acting"
Olyrix.com
"Joshua Bloom makes the most of the sacrificed role of Kissinger"
concertclassic.com
"Joshua Bloom devilishly good as [Don Giovanni's] servant and partner in crime, Leporello."
The Article
"As the Tutor given the slip by his ne’er-do-well charge, Joshua Bloom commands the stage – his patrician bass is as mellow as melted chocolate"
Opera Today
"Bloom gives a sonorous and unstrained account of the role providing a point of musical gravitas"
Seen and Head International
"Bloom was a magnificent Méphistophélès, providing a rich characterisation which was generally gleefully diabolical rather than malignantly evil. He wandered on stage with hands in pockets, dressed all in black opposite Pirgu’s tails, and from the outset filled the hall with a huge sound and a sardonic delight."
Bachtrack
"Possessing a commanding bass, as well as charm and expression to spare, Bloom is clearly in his devilish element throughout. A charismatic performer, he commands the hall and leads the men of the CBSO chorus, who are given a real showcase in Berlioz’s characterful writing in several scenes of utterly thrilling choral performanc"
Reviews Hub
"Singing with sonorous magnetism, Joshua Bloom was unafraid to send-up Mephistophélès – whether in the bravura of Song of the Flea or ironic slyness of Serenade – yet there was no doubting the veracity of this portrayal in his address to the infernal residents after the descent into Hell.”
Classical Source
"Joshua Bloom’s splendidly sung Bottom is wickedly suggestive.”
The Independent
"Joshua Bloom’s splendidly sung Bottom is wickedly suggestive.”
The Stage
"Among a seasoned bunch of mechanicals Joshua Bloom has a ball as a bumptious Bottom.”
The Times
"Armed with a physically relaxed presence and a rich, beautifully produced bass, Joshua Bloom pulls off the considerable trick of tastefully playing a character who has no taste. It’s easy to go for broke as Bottom but Bloom stays truthful while maximising laughs.”
The Art's Desk
"As Faraone, Joshua Bloom has a dark and powerful bass that radiates enormous authority. He shines in his extraordinary aria in the first act.”
Musik Magazine
"Joshua Bloom’s impressive Pharaoh was outstanding."
General Anzeiger Bonn
"Among the apprentice actors, Joshua Bloom’s Bottom pulls ahead, with his deep bass and irresistible comic eloquence.”
ResMusica
"The sextet of craftsmen is led, with all the required panache and the smugness that goes with it, by Joshua Bloom's Bottom, an imposing voice with cavernous bass."
Olyrix
"The Australian Joshua Bloom… as Ratefreund, was exactly the singer-actor that Braunfels could have imagined for this complex role, in which even – unusual for the time – coloratura is required. Bloom explored all facets of the role interpretation desired here via a beautifully timbrated, powerful bass with good resonance and strong expressiveness as well as an extremely intensive playing in the second act. Incidentally, he also devotes himself to the modern and contemporary repertoire."
Opera Online
"Joshua Bloom as Ratefreund, an internationally renowned bass-baritone of a special class, seduces the birds into founding their “cloud cuckoo land” and convinces them that they are superior to men and gods. As a Rossini expert, he also masters the complicated coloratura that the score demands of him, and mutates with a winged arm to become the head of government of the bird state. He also wins over the audience with his charisma.”
Das Opernmagazin
"One could not have possibly imagined two better interpreters than Joshua Bloom and Paula Murrihy for the roles of Bluebeard and Judith. Bloom was a tormented Bluebeard, with a wonderfully dark bass. Faithful to both text and score, he aroused pity rather than fear and indignation."
Bachtrack
"Bass Joshua Bloom, and mezzo-soprano Paula Murrihy, are both outstanding, mastering the demands of singing in Hungarian as if it were a second language, as well as negotiating the demands of Bartok’s endless recitativo. Bloom, like a weakened panther, is awaiting his moments, striking with power and precision when they arrive."
The Art's Review
"Duke Bluebeard was well characterised by Joshua Bloom. His warm timbre was underpinned by a steely defiance that managed not only to be menacing, but seductive and even loving, particularly when describing the qualities of his three previous wives. The results were thrilling and chilling."
Opera Journal
"The other big voice of the evening was bass Joshua Bloom as Kecal. It’s a huge voice in the middle and upper parts of the register, a voice with which Bloom stamped authority on proceedings: how can anyone imagine that things won’t turn out as Kecal plans? Bloom did a fine job of the rapid-fire patter numbers"
Bachtrack
"the extraordinary Ondin of the Australian bass Joshua Bloom , a full voice, superbly timbred and projected, superlative in expression"
Opera Online
"Another impressive voice, that of the bass Joshua Bloom in the role of Cadmus (he also sings the high priest of Juno) fell magnificently, powerful and muscular, creating a great impact with each of its interventions."
Forum Opera
"The other big voice of the evening was bass Joshua Bloom as Kecal. It’s a huge voice in the middle and upper parts of the register, a voice with which Bloom stamped authority on proceedings: how can anyone imagine that things won’t turn out as Kecal plans? Bloom did a fine job of the rapid-fire patter numbers"
Bachtrack