John Ames
Mr. Ames began his career at Nevada Opera while a student of founding director Ted Puffer.
His many roles with Nevada opera include Ferrando in Il Trovatore, Colline in La Boheme and Sarastro in The Magic Flute. His most recent appearance in Madame Butterfly as The Bonze and the Judge in Sweeny Todd. As a recipient of the Elsie Sweeney Scholarship, Mr. Ames spent two years in Indiana studying with the Great Bass Gorgio Tossi, where his credits include Sparafucile in Rigoletto and the Commendatore in Don Giovanni. During his tenure as an Adler Fellow with the San Francisco Opera Mr. Ames made his debut in the role of Count Horn in Un Ballo in Maschera.
Since then he has performed almost two dozen roles for the company, most notably, Colline in La Boheme and Warden George Benton in the world premiere of Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking.
Mr. Ames has enjoyed successes in dozens of roles in opera and concerts throughout the Unites States and overseas, most recently in Bangkok Thailand. A few of his concert credits include Mozart’s "Coronation" Mass and Requiem with the Reno Philharmonic and a concert with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Here he can be heard singing an A1 at the end of the opera "Ayodhya" by Somtow in the role of Ravan, specially composed for him.