Born in 1954 in Lynn, Massachusetts, baritone James Maddalena is a graduate of the New England Conservatory. He made his début with the Boston Pops Orchestra in 1974 and in 1981 began an association with director Peter Sellars, appearing in his productions of operas by Mozart, Haydn, and Handel. Maddalena first gained international recognition in 1987 for his portrayal of Richard Nixon in the Houston Grand Opera première of John Adams’s Nixon in China. Maddalena has also created a number of other notable operatic rôles, including the Captain in Adams’s The Death of Klinghoffer at the Monnaie in Brussels, 1991; and Hobson in David Carlson’s The Midnight Angel in St. Louis, 1993. Maddalena sings a concert repertoire ranging from Bach to Hindemith. In 1995 he appeared in the première and recording of Elliot Goldenthal’s Vietnam oratorio Fire Water Paper.