Bass-baritone James Demler is known for his “versatile and tender” portrayals with “dark, imposing tones” in repertory spanning the operatic, oratorio, concert, and popular music genres (The New Criterion, Boston Musical Intelligencer). In the 2023-2024 season, Mr. Demler joined Boston Lyric Opera to sing Alidoro in La Cenerentola, showing “vocal gravitas…he gained audiences precisely through a charming clumsiness similar to Merlin in The Sword in the Stone” (Operawire). He made his Opera Orlando debut as Vodnik in Rusalka, joined the Rhode Island Civic Chorale & Orchestra in the title role in Elijah, and appeared with Opera Company of Middlebury as Sergeant Sulpice in La fille du régiment.  In the current season, he returns to the Metropolitan Opera covering Benoit and Alcindoro in La bohème, and appears in the foley chamber opera Silent Light with National Sawdust.

 

In recent seasons, Mr. Demler joined the roster of The Metropolitan Opera to cover the Notary in Der Rosenkavalier, sang Don Alfonso in Così fan tutte with the Newport Classical Music Festival, and returned to the Berkshire Opera Festival as Benoit/Alcindoro in La bohème. Roles include Pistol in Sir John in Love, Jov in Dimitrij, Pietro de Wissant in L’Assedio di Calais, Geronte in Le Medecin Malgre Lui, and Gualtiero in Maria, Regina D’Inghilterra (Odyssey Opera), the title role in Verdi’s Macbeth, Dikoy in Katya Kabanova, Le Bailli inWerther (Boston Lyric Opera), Don Alfonso in Così fan tutte (Tuscia Opera Festival), Moralès in Carmen, De Bretigny in Manon, and Peter in Hansel and Gretel (Houston Grand Opera), Sharpless in Madama Butterfly (Edmonton Opera, Anchorage Opera), Marcello in La bohème (Anchorage Opera), Valentin in Faust (Anchorage Opera, West Virginia Symphony), and Maestro in Salieri’s Prima la musica, poi le parole (Houston Symphony).  He made his Carnegie Hall debut with Opera Orchestra of New York as Dikson in Boieldieu’s La Dame Blanche, and has returned in prominent roles in Roberto Devereux, Der Freischutz and La Wally.  Other roles include Pish-Tush in The Mikado (Chautauqua Opera), Danilo in The Merry Widow (Palm Beach Opera), Silvio in Pagliacci (Chattanooga Opera), and Aeneas in Dido and Aeneas and Bartley in Riders to the Sea (Long Beach Opera).

 

In contemporary works, Mr. Demler recently made his company and role debut as a “menacing” and “most unheroic” Odysseus in Mary Prescott/Cerise Lim Jacobs’ A Survivor’s Odyssey: The Journey of Penelope and Circe with White Snake Projects (Seen and Heard International), covered Howie Albert in Champion with Boston Lyric Opera, and sang Caterpillar and King in the world premiere of ALICE, An Operatic Wonderland. Mr. Demler sang Earl of Arundel in the world premiere of Arnold Rosner’s The Chronicle of Nine, a co-production with the Grammy Award-winning BMOP Orchestra of Boston. He has premiered several works of Daron Hagen including Shining Brow, Bandanna, and The Antient Concert, created the role of Sgt. John Regan in Eric Sawyer’s The Scarlet Professor for the Five College Festival, and premiered Sawyer’s new musical My Evil Twin at the Ko Theatre Festival with his identical twin John.

 

In concert, Mr. Demler has performed as the bass soloist in Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with Reno Philharmonic and in Verdi’s Requiem with the Concertgebouw in Bruges and the Liederhalle in Stuttgart.  He has been featured as a soloist with the Muir String Quartet, Carolina Philharmonic, Boston Pops and Boston University Symphony Orchestra, the Anchorage Symphony, NYC Chamber Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, the Back Bay Chorale, Hartford Symphony, St. Petersburg Cathedral, and the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra.

 

Mr. Demler made his film debut as Noah in Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom which opened the 2012 Cannes Film Festival.  He was also a guest Public Address Announcer for the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park.

 

Mr. Demler is featured in Odyssey Opera’s 2019 recording of The Importance of Being Ernest, Las Vegas Wind Orchestra’s 2000 recording of Bandanna with Albany Records, Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus and Orchestra’s 2009 Naxos recording of Shining Brow, the Boston Secession’s 2005 Brave Records recording of Totentanz, and Camerata New York’s 1995 Newport Classics recording of The Consul. He has also been featured in Boston Pops and Tanglewood Festival Chorus’s 2012 Live Radio Broadcast of Vaughn Williams’s Fantasia on Christmas Carols, played on WGBH. 

 

Mr. Demler is an Assistant Professor of Voice at Boston University.