Carl Ratner

Carl Ratner, Professor Emeritus of Voice and Opera, has taught Applied Voice, Vocal Literature, Opera Literature, Italian, French, German, Russian, and English Diction, and Opera Workshop, as well as directing the annual WMU Gilmore School of Music Opera Production.

 

He has performed the title roles in Verdi’s Falstaff and Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi, as well as the leading baritone roles of Papageno in The Magic Flute and John Proctor in The Crucible. With the Kalamazoo Symphony, he has performed the roles of the Marchese in La Traviata, Benoit in La Bohème, the Jailer in Tosca, and Ping in Turandot. With the Battle Creek Symphony he sang the role of Sharpless in Madama Butterfly. Most recently he created roles in new operas by David Shenton and Marjorie Rusche for Bellissima Opera of Chicago and South Bend Lyric Opera. A frequent soloist for oratorio, he has sung the bass solos in Handel’s Messiah and Bach’s Magnificat with The Bach Ensemble of Naples (Florida) and Dona Nobis Pacem by Ralph Vaughan Williams and Aaron Copland’s Old American Songs with the Cedar Rapids Concert Chorale. A noted recitalist, he has sung in 15 languages and performed in 10 states and 6 European countries. 

 

Ratner began his career as an opera director/stage manager and learned his craft assisting directors, including John Copley and eminent composer Gian Carlo Menotti, at the world’s major opera houses, including the Royal Opera (Covent Garden) in London, the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the Munich Opera, the Spoleto Festival in Italy, Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, New York City Opera and the Santa Fe Opera, among others. He served as Artistic Director of Chicago Opera Theater from 1994-1999 and previously held the same post at Chamber Opera Chicago from 1985-1993. From 2001 to 2022 he was Director of Opera and Professor of Voice at Western Michigan University. He currently serves as Associate Artistic Director of Bellissima Opera in the Chicago area.

 

He received a Fulbright grant to teach and study at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory in Russia, where he directed an American chamber opera, gave master classes and lectures, coached voice students in multiple languages, and performed a recital of songs by Russian, American, and Russian American composers. He subsequently toured this program around the Eastern United States, performing it at the Russian Cultural Center in Washington and the Chicago Cultural Center as part of a seminar called The Soviet Experience.