Michael Adams takes top honors at Met regional

Michael Adams at a Barihunks lunch in Ft. Worth (left)

Barihunk Michael Adams took top honors at the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions Gulf Coast regional finals held in New Orleans. The 24-year-old Texas native wowed the judges with performances of Tomsky's aria from Tchaikovsky's Pique Dame and Schaunard's aria from Puccini's La bohème.

Adams is a second year Resident Artist at the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia, where he has performed Taddeo in Rossini's L'italiana in Algeri, Lescaut in Massenet's Manon, Germont/Marquis and Verdi's La traviata, Count Tomsky in Tchaikovsky's Pique Dame and Guglielmo in Mozart's Così fan tutte. Last year, he won First Place in the Mario Lanza Institute Scholarship Competition.

Adams went to school at Texas Christian University (TCU), where he originally was pursuing a career in baseball. A torn Achilles tendon led him to pursue a career in singing. 

Adams wasn't the only baritone who fared well in the Big Easy, as Leroy Davis took Second Place and Ricardo Rivera shared Third Place with tenor Casey Candebat.