With over 40 operatic roles to his credit, baritone Christopher Holmes has been featured by companies such as Austin Lyric Opera, Central City Opera, Eugene Opera, Opera Idaho, Phoenix Opera, Juneau Lyric Opera, and San Antonio Opera.
A "powerful, melodious baritone" with "soul and passion" is a small sample of enthusiastic reviews being received by Holmes. As a full-lyric baritone, Holmes is beginning to make his mark in the Verdi repertoire. As IAGO with Winter Opera St. Louis critics commented, Holmes sings Iago “with clarity and power, and with a skilled actor's ability to convey mood and character" and with “control and subtlety.” As RIGOLETTO at St. Petersburg Opera a critic indicates that Holmes “had me crying at points-- an incredibly beautiful lyric baritone with a very clear understanding of who this humiliated and terribly wronged man is.” His GERMONT was praised as “with crystal clear enunciation, truly polished, controlled, professional and superb.” But his versatility continues to make him adept at the bass-baritone roles of Mozart and Rossini such as DON ALFONSO in Così fan tutte and BARTOLO in Il barbiere di Siviglia.
Over the pandemic Holmes was able to support virtual efforts of opera organizations through performances with Intermountain Opera Bozeman and Ohio Light Opera. Additionally he recorded the role of ANSELMO in a new opera by William Call entitled El Curioso Impertinente and MICHELE in Il tabarrowith Social Distance Opera/Barn Opera. Activities in 2022 so far have included singing MARCELLO (Boheme) in the Noorda Center for the Performing Arts at Utah Valley University’s first inclusion of an opera in their professional concert/theater series, the baritone soloist in Dwight Bigler’s Mosaic for Earthperformed by the choirs and orchestras at Virginia Tech, and covering SCARPIA at Utah Symphony & Opera.
In 2018/19 he was seen as BARONE DOUPHOL in Utah Opera’s La traviata, CONTE ALMAVIVA in Utah Festival Opera’s Figaro, BELCORE in Opera Company of Middlebury’s production and subsequent tour of L'elisir d’amore, BARTOLO in Il barbiere di Siviglia atWestern Plains Opera, ESCAMILLO in Carmen with the Pine Mountain Music Festival, and the PIRATE KING in The Pirates of Penzance at Rimrock Opera/NOVA. Previously he was seen with Cleveland Opera Theater as FIGARO in Le nozze di Figaro and made a return to Gulfshore Opera in their production of Speed Dating (M. Ching) and in their tour of "Grand Opera Nights" singing the roles of FIGARO (Il barbiere di Siviglia), MARCELLO (La Boheme), GERMONT (La Traviata), and the title role of RIGOLETTO.
Mr. Holmes remains active as a concert artist having sung such works as Bach’s St. Matthew Passion and St. John Passion, Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, Brahms' A German Requiem, Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, Handel’s Messiah, Orff’s Carmina Burana, the Faure Requiem, Mozart's Mass in C Minor and Requiem, Schubert’s Mass in G Major, Vaughan Williams’ Dona nobis pacem, and Verdi's Messa di Requiem.