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Bass-baritone Bojan Knezevic has received critical acclaim for his many operatic portrayals in opera houses in America and in Europe. This past season Bojan sang a heralded Wozzeck (“The cast was top-notch, led by Bojan Knezevic in a knowing and musically focused performance in the title role” – San Francisco Chronicle) for San Francisco’s Ensemble Parallele as well as Salome with the San Francisco Opera, where he returns next season for Werther, Le Nozze di Figaro, Madama Butterfly and Cyrano. Recent highlights include Harasta in The Cunning Little Vixen and Hali in L’Italiana in Algeri with San Francisco Opera, Figaro in Le Nozze di Figaro with the New National Theatre in Tokyo and Sarasota Opera. He has sung Scarpia in Tosca, Marcello, Schaunard, Colline and Benoit/Alcindoro in La Boheme, the four Villains in The Tales of Hoffman, Leporello in Don Giovanni, Don Alfonso in Cosi Fan Tutte, Don Pasquale in Don Pasquale, and Don Bartolo in Il Barbiere di Siviliglia. Other highlights include: Emile de Becque in South Pacific with Utah Festival Opera, as well as appearing as Frosch in Die Fledermaus with Chicago Lyric Opera, directed by John Copley. He began his operatic career singing in all the major opera companies in the former Yugoslavia, including Belgrade, Zagreb and Ljubljana. He then performed concerts in Greece, Romania and in Belgium, where he sang Figaro in Le Nozze di Figaro, which brought him to the United States and to San Francisco, where he currently resides. Mr. Knezevic's association with San Francisco Opera started in 1992, where he participated in the Merola Program (1992-94), Western Opera Theater national tours (1992-94) and as a 1995 Adler Fellow. There, he received accolades for portrayals of Dr. Dulcamara in L’Elixir d’Amore, the Sacristan in Tosca, and Don Magnifico in La Cenerentola. He has sung many other roles as well as covered numerous major roles for San Francisco Opera. He has enjoyed working with Chicago Lyric Opera, covering Alberich in Wagner’s Das Rheingold in 2004 and the entire Ring Cycle in 2005. The artist's credits also include Carnegie Hall performances of Mozart's Coronation Mass and Great Mass in C Minor, as well as the U.S. premiere of Mascagni's Silvano (available on CD by Elysium). In 1997, he performed the role of Papageno in Die Zauberflöte with Minnesota Opera under the baton of Richard Bonynge, following his success as Leporello in their 1996 production of Don Giovanni. In addition to singing Figaro in Le Nozze di Figaro and Oroveso in Norma, he has had much success singing the roles of Escamillo in Carmen and the King in Aida with Fort Worth Opera, as well as inaugurating their new opera house as Colline in La Boheme in 1998. He has sung Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and Mendelssohn’s Elijah with the Berkeley Symphony, Schumann’s Das Paradise und die Peri with San Francisco Symphony and the Verdi Requiem with Modesto Symphony and Sacramento Choral Society. Last spring, he sang Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle on the Gilmore Piano Festival in Michigan.
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