Samuel Dundas’ performance experience encompasses opera, music theatre, oratorio and recital. He has sung in concert throughout Australia and New Zealand, including with the Sydney, Adelaide, Melbourne, Tasmanian, Queensland and West Australian Symphony Orchestras, the Australian Youth Orchestra and the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra.
Major role debuts again feature prominently in Samuel Dundas’ calendar this year, as he takes on the title role in Eugen Onegin for West Australian Opera and Nerone (The Coronation of Poppea, Kats-Chernin) for Victorian Opera. He also returns to Opera Australia as Sharpless (Madama Butterfly), to the Sydney Symphony as Gunther (Die Götterdämmerung) and to Sydney Philharmonia Choirs as Christus (St. John Passion).
Samuel Dundas’ recent engagements include the role of Cave in Eucalyptus (Jonathan Mills) for Perth and Brisbane Festivals and for Victorian Opera; Figaro (Il Barbiere di Siviglia), Horatio (Hamlet: Dean) and his role debut as Wolfram (Tannhäuser) for Opera Australia; Dandini (La Cenerentola) and Enrico (Lucia di Lammermoor) for Opera Queensland; the Count (Capriccio) and the title role in Galileo (Richard Mills) for Victorian Opera; Marcello (La bohème) and Sharpless for West Australian Opera, Opera Queensland and New Zealand Opera; Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and Donner (Das Rheingold) for Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Simone Young conducting. On the concert platform he has also been heard as Dr Falke (Die Fledermaus), in Beethoven 9 and Faure’s Requiem with West Australian Symphony, Faure’s Requiem, Haydn’s Harmony Mass and the Christmas Gala concert for Tasmanian Symphony and in the opening concert of Perth Festival, Music of the Spheres.
Samuel has also appeared in the role of Aphron in The Golden Cockerel for Adelaide Festival, as Marcello and the title role in Voss for State Opera South Australia, Marcello also for Opera Australia, Carmina Burana for Festival of Voices, Hobart and Adelaide Symphony, Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol for Victorian Opera, and given recitals including The Wanderer’s Life in Burnie, for the Ten Days on the Island Festival, for Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, and in the Chamber Landscapes series at Ukaria for Adelaide Festival.
Samuel joined Opera Australia as a member of the Moffatt Oxenbould Young Artist Program and subsequently became a principal artist with the company, where his many roles have included Marcello, Guglielmo (Così fan tutte), Papageno and Priest (The Magic Flute), Dr Malatesta (Don Pasquale), Belcore (The Elixir of Love), Silvio (Pagliacci), Marquis (La Traviata), Prosdocimo (Il turco in Italia), Yamadori (Madama Butterfly), Masetto (Don Giovanni), Ceprano (Rigoletto), Pish Tush (The Mikado), Morales (Carmen), Gaoler (Tosca), Sid (Albert Herring), Fiorello, Ambrogio and Notary (The Barber of Seville), Doctor/Inquisitor/Judge/Stanislaus (Candide), Handsome (La Fanciulla del West), Cascada (The Merry Widow) and Starveling (A Midsummer Night’s Dream). He has also taken the title role in Opera Australia’s Regional Tour of Don Giovanni and the roles of the High Priest, Politician and The Reporter in Sydney Opera House: The Opera, celebrating Opera Australia’s 60th Anniversary Season on the steps of the Sydney Opera House.
Further opera engagements include the title role in Ned Kelly (Styles) commissioned by Lost & Found Opera and Perth Festival; Dancairo and Morales in Carmen for State Opera South Australia; Count Carl Magnus Malcolm in A Little Night Music for Victorian Opera; Papageno for New Zealand Opera; Marcello for Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour and in Hanoi, Vietnam; Enrico, Count Almaviva (The Marriage of Figaro) and Valentin (Faust) for West Australian Opera; Morales and Mercutio (Romeo and Juliet) in concert performances with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra.
After making his operatic debut with Opera Queensland in 2005, Samuel went on to become a member of Victorian Opera’s Artist Development program. He has since performed the title role in Don Giovanni, Papageno, Golaud (Pelléas et Mélisande), Harasta (The Cunning Little Vixen), Guglielmo, Belcore, Harlequin (Ariadne auf Naxos), the Second Soldier (The Love of the Nightingale), Creon/The Messenger (Oedipus Rex) and Chief Clerk (Metamorphosis), as well as Schaunard in the Puccini: The Sacred and Profane Gala concert for the company.
Further concert engagements have included Fauré Requiem with the Sydney and Melbourne Symphony Orchestras, Carmina Burana with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, Brahms Requiem with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Chorus and Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, Opera Under The Stars, Broome, and the inaugural concert at the Melbourne Recital Centre in Vaughan Williams’ Serenade to Music.
Samuel Dundas is a graduate of the Melba Conservatorium of Music, winner of the Lady Fairfax New York Scholarship and was the proud recipient of the inaugural Dame Heather Begg Award. He is formerly a member of the vocal faculty at Hobart Conservatorium of Music.