Renée Tatum

Mezzo-soprano Renée Tatum has garnered recognition in the most demanding of operatic repertoire. In the 2023-24 season, Tatum joined the Knoxville Opera as Dame Quickly in Falstaff, the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra as a soloist for Verdi’s Requiem, and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra as both Grimgerde in Die Walküre and Flosshilde in Das Rheingold. Highlights of her 2022-23 season included her continued relationship with the Metropolitan Opera in their new production of Rigoletto, and her company debut at Palm Beach Opera singing Suzuki in Madama Butterfly. Tatum’s relationship with the Met spans 10 years and has included nearly 100 performances including Fenena in Nabucco, Third Lady and Second Lady in Die Zauberflöte, Emilia in Otello, Inez in Il Trovatore, Adonella in Francesca da Rimini, and Waltraute and Flosshilde in Robert LePage’s famed production of Der Ring des Nibelungen. Future performances include Rigoletto with the Metropolitan Opera, Die Walküre with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Mahler’s Rückert Lieder with the Concord Orchestra, and Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra.

Tatum began the 2019-20 season as Flosshilde in Wagner’s Götterdämmerung with the National Theater in Taiwan, followed by her role debut as Kundry in Parsifal for the Indiana University Opera Theatre. She also returned to the Metropolitan Opera as Third Lady in Magic Flute, made her role debut as Azucena in Il Trovatore with the Pensacola Opera, and joined the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra for Mother of Us All.

Performances in that season and in the 2020-21 season included Giulio Cesare and The Champion with Boston Lyric Opera, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with both the Jacksonville Symphony and Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Maddalena in Rigoletto with Mill City Summer Opera, and productions of Giulio Cesare and The Magic Flute at the Met. She has been heard as Flosshilde and Waltraute in San Francisco Opera’s Der Ring des Nibelungen, the Mother in Amahl and the Night Visitors with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Flosshilde in Das Rheingold at Tanglewood, Francisca in West Side Story at Grand Tetons Music Festival with Donald Runnicles, Jenny in Threepenny Opera at Boston Lyric Opera, and as a Flower Maiden in Parsifal at the Metropolitan Opera with new music director Yannick Nezet-Seguin. Concert performances included Penderecki’s Credo with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Duruflé’s Requiem with the Back Bay Chorale, and Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with the Cecelia Chorus of New York.

Tatum was also heard in concert with Warren Jones at Manchester Music Festival and in a concert presentation of Das Rheingold with the New York Philharmonic. Other recent performances include the role of Gabriele Bertolier for the Romantic Century’s production of Van Gogh’s Ear at the Pershing Square Signature Center in New York City; and a concert entitled “Opera Italiana Forever Young” for Central Park Summer Concerts. Previously she was heard as Flosshilde in Götterdämmerung in her return to the Houston Grand Opera and at the National Taichung Theatre; Olga in Eugene Onegin with the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra; Handel’s Messiah with the Pacific Symphony; Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with the Pacific Chorale; Mozart’s Requiem with the Omaha Symphony and Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra; and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the San Diego Symphony. Additionally, she has been heard as Suzuki in Madama Butterfly with the Toledo Opera; Flosshilde and Waltraute for the Washington National Opera; Flosshilde in Götterdämmerung with Teatro Massimo di Palermo; Second Lady in Julie Taymor’s The Magic Flute at the Metropolitan Opera; Third Lady in The Magic Flute and Grimgerde in Die Walküre at the Houston Grand Opera.

Tatum also joined an international cast in Japan as Flora in Verdi’s La Traviata, sang in Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony and Mozart’s Requiem with the Eastern Music Festival, and in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood. Additional concert appearances include the Page in Salome with Andris Nelsons and the Boston Symphony Orchestra; Mozart’s Requiem with the Santa Cruz Symphony; and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, and Philharmonic Society of Orange County. Tatum holds degrees from Juilliard, Manhattan School of Music, and California State University Fullerton. She was also an Adler Fellow with the San Francisco Opera and is an alumna of the Lindemann Young Artists Program at the Metropolitan Opera.