Lucas Meachem
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June 11, 1978
Lucas Meachem | |
|---|---|
| Born | John Lucas Meachem[1] June 11, 1978 |
| Citizenship | United States |
| Occupation | Lyric baritone |
| Known for | performing the role of Figaro in 2016 Los Angeles Opera's Ghosts of Versailles |
| Website | lucasmeachem |
John Lucas Meachem (born June 11, 1978), known professionally as Lucas Meachem, is an American lyric baritone best known for performing the role of Figaro in 2016 Los Angeles Opera's Ghosts of Versailles which earned him a Grammy Award.[2][3]
Lucas Meachem was born and raised in Carthage, North Carolina and grew up singing karaoke before discovering opera.[4] Meachem trained at the Adler Program artist residency at the San Francisco Opera from 2004 to 2005.[5] He had his big break soon after that in 2006, when he was discovered at a karaoke bar in Paris by acclaimed mezzo-soprano Susan Graham, who suggested he step in for Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride at the Lyric Opera of Chicago from which the international star baritone Simon Keenlyside had withdrawn.[5]
Career
Meachem made his Metropolitan Opera debut as General Rayevsky in War and Peace in 2008,[6] and has since performed at the Met as Mercutio in Roméo et Juliette, Silvio in Pagliacci, Marcello in La bohème.[7] He most recently sang the role of Sharpless in Madama Butterfly.
In 2016, Meachem won a Grammy for Los Angeles Opera's Ghosts of Versailles as Figaro.[8] Also in 2016, Meachem was voted as the inaugural Emerging Star by San Francisco Opera.[9][10]
In 2021, Meachem performed the role of Figaro in an abridged English-language adaptation of The Barber of Seville for the San Francisco Opera. The production was held as an open-air, drive-in event at the Marin Center due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[11][12]
Personal life
Meachem is married to pianist/opera coach, Irina Meachem.[13] They have a son, and live in Minneapolis.[12]
