BARITONE

In 2013-2014, Carl Ratner staged La Bohème for Harbor Country Opera in New Buffalo Michigan, and sang the roles of Benoit and Alcindoro. He returned to the Twin Cities for Russian Seasons of Minnesota’s collaboration with Voices of Vienna, an evening of “Russian Inspiration in Viennese Operetta,” performing music of Lehár, Kálmán, and Johann Strauss II. In 2014 he is scheduled to sing recitals of Russian song in Washington DC and at Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona, Florida, where he will also give a master class. “His performance as Puccini’s [Gianni Schicchi] was a delight—charming, indeed lovable, and nicely sung, too” – Opera Canada  

In 2012-2013, Ratner was the featured soloist in a concert honoring the Russian Ambassador to the United States as part of a “Russia Day” celebration in Chicago. He returned to Naples, Florida, to perform the role of Pilate in Bach’s Saint John Passion, as well as the Bass solos in Cantatas 78 and 106 with The Bach Ensemble of Naples. He performed the cycle American Pierrot: A Langston Hughes Songbook, written for him by eminent composer Robert Patterson, at the Belvedere Chamber Music Festival in Memphis, Tennessee, having given the world premiere of the cycle at Western Michigan University the previous year. He directed Pagliacci for Opera at the Acorn in Three Oaks, Michigan and sang the bass solo in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with BeethovenFest in Kalamazoo and Messiah with the Kalamazoo Oratorio Society.

In 2011-2012, Baritone Carl Ratner performed the role of the Marquis in La Traviata with the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra, Marullo in Rigoletto for Opera at the Acorn, and the Captain in Eugene Onegin with Opera Naples and the Naples Philharmonic. He sang a program Shostakovich songs at the Russian Cultural Center in Washington DC, and gave recitals in St. Paul, Ft. Myers, and Kalamazoo. He gave master classes at Florida Gulf Coast University, Wheaton College, Chamber Opera Chicago, and at Perugia Summer Music in Italy. He was baritone soloist for the Mass in B-minor with The Bach Ensemble of Naples, Florida.

Ratner was awarded a 2010-2011 Fulbright grant to perform in recital, give lectures and master classes, direct an American chamber opera, and research Russian art song at the St. Petersburg Conservatory in the Russian Federation. Upon his return, he toured the United States with a recital of Russian and American songs, including a performance at the Chicago Cultural Center as part of “The Soviet Arts Experience,” a multi-event collaboration organized by the University of Chicago. In 2011 he also returned to the Bach Ensemble of Naples Florida for a mixed program of sacred music as well as two performances of Messiah.

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Stage Director

Carl J. Ratner’s career includes over two decades of experience as an opera director. He learned his craft assisting directors at major opera houses including Covent Garden, the Metropolitan Opera, Munich Opera, San Francisco Opera, English National Opera, New York City Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Santa Fe Opera, and the Spoleto Festival in Italy, where he worked with eminent composer Gian Carlo Menotti.

He is the recipient of a 2010-2011 Fulbright lecture-research grant to the Russian Federation; he directed Menotti’s opera The Old Maid and the Thief, lectured on American art song, led master classes and appeared in recital at the St. Petersburg Conservatory of Music. In 2012 and 2013 he directed Pagliacci and La Bohème for Harbor Country Opera in Michigan, also performing the roles of Benoit and Alcindoro. “I left with a feeling of exultation….[The production] renews [one’s] faith in the vitality and immortal relevance of opera for the modern world.” – Opera Monthly  (Cosi fan tutte) 

In 2010, he returned to Opera Naples to direct The Magic Flute, conducted by Lucy Arner of the Metropolitan Opera. He has previously directed Rigoletto, Madama Butterfly, L’enfant prodigue, and Amahl and the Night Visitors for the company.

In 2009, he served as resident opera director for the Bay View Music Festival, staging a critically acclaimed production of The Marriage of Figaro. His much-admired staging of Madama Butterfly has been presented by Cedar Rapids Opera Opera Theatre, the Battle Creek Symphony, Opera at the Acorn in Three Oaks Michigan, and Bellissima Opera as well as Opera Naples.

Other productions include The Marriage of Figaro and La Bohème for Cedar Rapids Opera Theater and Susannah for Dupage Opera Theater. Of his staging of Susannah, the local critic wrote, “The production’s dramatic power owes itself to Carl Ratner’s decisive stage direction which never wavers in getting directly to the point….The stage direction becomes a tool to evoke the richly textured life of a town brimming with activity.”

From 1994 to 1999 Ratner served as Artistic Director of Chicago Opera Theater, staging numerous productions for the company including The Italian Girl in Algiers, The Tales of Hoffmann, The Grand Duchess of Gérolstein, Ariadne auf Naxos, Gianni Schicchi, The Ballad of Baby Doe, Bon Appétit, and Michael Ching’s brilliant sequel to Gianni Schicchi, Buoso’s Ghost. William Shackelford, critic for the international magazine Opera, called his direction of The Tales of Hoffmann “flawless” and stated that his staging of The Italian Girl in Algiers “revealed a genius for comic timing…. Rossini would have approved.”

From 1984 to 1993, he was Artistic Director of Chamber Opera Chicago, staging many repertory staples by Mozart, Verdi and Puccini, as well as more unusual fare such as Haydn’s World of the Moon, Bartok’s Bluebeard’s Castle, and Lawrence Rapchak’s The Lifework of Juan Diaz, for which Ratner adapted the libretto from the short story and teleplay by Ray Bardbury. Of his staging for the company of Cosi fan tutte, the critic for Opera Monthly magazine wrote, “”I left with a feeling of exultation….[This production] renews [one’s] faith in the vitality and immortal relevance of opera for the modern world.”

He currently serves as Director of Opera and Associate Professor of Voice for the School of Music at Western Michigan University, where he directs the annual opera production and teaches applied voice, opera workshop, vocal literature, and French and German diction. He received his Bachelor of Music degree in music history from the Oberlin Conservatory in Ohio and also participated in an internship in opera, dance, and drama production at The Juilliard School in New York City. He earned a Master of Arts in vocal pedagogy at Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago and his Doctor of Music degree in Vocal Performance from the School of Music at Northwestern University.