Chris Merritt (born 1952, Oklahoma City) is an opera singer. He studied piano, singing, dance and drama at Oklahoma City University where he made his first stage appearance in Jacques Offenbach's Les contes d'Hoffmann in a university production. At age 21, he was accepted into the summer season Apprentice Program for Singers at the Santa Fe Opera. His principle voice teachers in Oklahoma were Jack Harrold and Florence Birdwell.
His high-lyrical tenor voice makes him well-suited to the bel canto roles, such as those by Rossini.
He made his official debut in 1975, as Caius in Verdi's Falstaff. Auditions at the Metropolitan Opera won him a part in I Puritani in 1981, and that was the performance which brought him international attention and marked the beginning of a very successful career.
His Met debut took place on November 30, 1990, when he sang the role of Idreno in Rossini's Semiramide which was not very successful, however.[1] He much improved the next year when he sang there the role of Arturo in I puritani along with Edita Gruberova. Successively he performed at the Met also in principal roles in Rusalka (in 1997), and Káťa Kabanová (in 2005, being, so far, his last appearance at the Met).
In other places, he debuted at the Royal Opera House in La donna del lago on June 27, 1985, and sang there also the role of Arnold in Guillaume Tell (in 1990).[2] At the San Francisco Opera he sang in Maometto II (debut in 1988), and also in the role of Arnold in Guillaume Tell in 1992 and 1997/98 season.[3] On August 6, 1993, he sang the title role in Sigurd at the sole performance of that rarely performed opera at the Festival Montpellier. He opened twice (1988 and 1989) the opera season in La Scala, with Guillaume Tell and I Vespri Siciliani, both conducted by Riccardo Muti.
Most recently in 2006, Merritt has appeared in the American premiere production of Thomas Adès' The Tempest at the Santa Fe Opera.