Collier directs barn opera’s new production of Rossini’s la Cenerentola (The barn opera house - October 13 & 14, 2023)

Mozart’s THE MAGIC FLUTE- BARN OPERA 2018

American tenor, Joshua Collier, praised for his “thrilling high range” and “passionate commitment to character,” was hailed as “a great Italian tenor on the make” by Boston’s Classical Scene in his June 2016 role debut as Roméo in Roméo et Juliette.

A graduate of The University of North Carolina School of the Arts (Bachelor in Music - Vocal Performance) and The New England Conservatory (Masters in Music - Vocal Performance), he has performed throughout New England and beyond in many of the romantic tenor roles. However, performing was not the only avenue for Collier’s artistic expression.

In 2013, he founded the Bostonian opera company “Opera Brittenica” championing the works of British composer Benjamin Britten. Over the next 4 years, he produced rarely produced works of Britten, and became deeply interested in the production element of the operatic medium.

After honing skills as a producer for 4 years, Collier relocated to Brandon, Vermont, and subsequently founded an opera company in a renovated barn, aptly called BARN OPERA. BARN OPERA was a project under the Compass Music and Arts Foundation for 3 years, where it produced 3 seasons of 4 full operatic productions annually, all conceived and directed by Collier.

Each of the 12 operas that BARN OPERA did pre-pandemic were warhorses of the operatic tradition, and yet, each of them were viewed through different lenses, ranging from contemporary to traditional, but always acknowledging the historical precedent - and then actively challenging why tradition is tradition.

Mr. Collier’s directorial philosophy does not encourage or support recreating the wheel for simple novelty, but rather to try glean meaning and perspective from the masterworks of the operatic tradition, and to say something about these works that have not been said. Collier’s staging has been referred to as “Innovative and witty;” “Comical and heartbreaking;” and most importantly, “Painfully true.”

Without the trappings of massive theatrical trappings, Collier seeks to distill the essence of the story and the music by stripping away the superficial, leaving the theatrical treatment of the ultimate truth.

*At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Collier and BARN OPERA created the first socially distanced operatic recordings by creating the Social Distance Opera, which saw the recording of 6 full-length operas, virtually recorded, without geographic restriction. For more info, visit www.socialdistanceopera.com*