He was born in New Orleans (USA). He studied voice at the Loyola University (New Orleans) and the Juilliard School. He first appeared in 1980 in the Houston Grand Opera as 1st armoured man (Die Zauberflöte). He became famous in the 1980s as Escamillo, when he participated in the international tour of the production La tragédie de Carmen (an adaptation of Carmen, directed by Peter Brook). He has a 30-year career, appearing in major operas worldwide, including the Chicago Lyric Opera, New Orleans and San Francisco Opera, Opera de Bellas Artes in Mexico, Opera of Caracas (Venezuela), Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Prague National Theatre, Royal Danish Opera, Scottish Opera, Bregenz Festival (Austria). He has especially excelled in Wagnerian roles. He has sung the role of Wotan (Das Rheingold), Die Walküre at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, the Deutsche Oper Berlin and Tokyo’s Nikikai Opera Foundation. He has also interpreted the same role in complete cycles of Wagner’s tetralogy Der Ring des Nibelungen at the Metropolitan Opera House of New York, the Seattle Opera (three times in the last decade), Teatro La Fenice di Venezia, Oper Köln and on tour in Shanghai. He has also appeared as Kourvenal (Tristan und Isolde), Frederick of Telramund (Lohengrin), Amfortas (Parsifal) and the Dutchman (Der fliegende Holländer). His repertoire also includes roles such as Jochanaan (Salome), Don Pizarro (Fidelio), High Priest of Dagon (Samson et Dalila), Baron Scarpia (Tosca), Mephistopheles (Faust), Macbeth and Balstrode (Peter Grimes). In the GNO he performed once as Escamillo (Carmen, 1998-99, Odeon of Herodes Atticus). // Last update of the biography: March 2000 - The list of the productions below is complete.