Biography

With a career spanning more than two decades, James McLennan has been featured on opera and concert stages across Canada in a wide range of leading and supporting roles. Born and raised in Winnipeg, this past season James made his role debut as Little Bat in Susannah with Manitoba Opera. Prior to COVID‑19, his 2019-2020 calendar also included Remendado in Carmen at Pacific Opera Victoria, a debut with Opera on the Avalon as the Electrician in Powder Her Face and as Georgie in Ours at the National Arts Centre, and a performance as the tenor soloist in Beethoven’s Mass in C with the Winnipeg Philharmonic Choir and the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra.

James’ 2020-2021 season was to include appearances as Beadle Bamford in Sweeney Todd and Spoletta in Tosca with Manitoba Opera, a return to the Brandon AugustFest stage for an evening of opera and musical theatre, a performance of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with the CMU Festival Chorus, and a remounting of Li Keur, Riel’s Heart of the North with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra.

In 2018-2019 James performed Gastone in La Traviata with both Pacific Opera Victoria and Edmonton Opera, and he appeared as the tenor soloist in Handel’s Messiah with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra. In 2019 he also made his company debut with Dry Cold Productions as the “coldly sadistic prison warden” (CBC) in Kiss of the Spider Woman, and he appeared with the Regina Symphony as the tenor soloist in Riel, Heart of the North by Neil Weisensel and Suzanne M. Steele.

2017-2018 highlights included Goro in Madama Butterfly at Manitoba Opera and Luther Billis in South Pacific for Calgary Opera. That season also took him to Edmonton Opera for the critically acclaimed production of Les Feluettes as Jean Bilodeau, a role he originated for the world premiere at Montreal Opera in 2016. An avid performer of contemporary music, James’ concert appearances included a tour of Manitoba and Saskatchewan with A Prairie Boy’s Life, a new chamber work by John Greer. In 2018, James was awarded a grant from the Canada Council for the Arts for six weeks of study in France under internationally renowned clown and acting teacher, Philippe Gaulier.

Past opera credits include Brighella in Ariadne auf Naxos (Pacific Opera Victoria), Bardolfo in Falstaff (Manitoba Opera), Caïus in Falstaff (Hamilton Opera, Montreal Opera), Almaviva in The Barber of Seville (Edmonton Opera), Goro in Madama Butterfly (Montreal Opera, Pacific Opera Victoria), Pang in Turandot (Edmonton Opera), Triquet in Eugene Onegin (Vancouver Opera, Edmonton Opera), Gastone in La Traviata (Calgary Opera, Vancouver Opera), Spoletta in Tosca and Remendado in Carmen (Opera Lyra Ottawa), Beppe in Pagliacci (Hamilton Opera), and the title role in Candide (Toronto Operetta Theatre, Windsor Symphony).

On the concert stage, James has appeared with the Vancouver Bach Choir (Bach Mass in B Minor), the Amadeus Choir (Bach St. John Passion), the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra (Haydn’s Creation, Tavener Requiem), Toronto Mendelssohn Choir (Handel’s Israel in Egypt), the Grand Philharmonic Choir (Bach Magnificat), Toronto Classical Singers (Mozart Requiem), the Prince George Symphony (Carmina Burana), Pax Christi Choral (Mendelssohn’s Saint Paul Oratorio) and Ottawa’s Thirteen Strings (Britten’s The Company of Heaven, Haydn’s Saint Nicholas Mass).

James has been a voice instructor at the University of Manitoba’s Desautels Faculty of Music since 2017. He holds a Bachelor of Music from Brandon University, a Master of Music degree from the University of British Columbia, and a BA in Translation from York University. An alumnus of the Second City Training Centre in Toronto, James is also a certified French-to-English translator and a board member of the Association of Translators, Interpreters and Terminologists of Manitoba.

- August 2020