In recent years, Hawaiian baritone Jordan Shanahan has made a name for himself internationally with his charismatic interpretations of dramatic roles. In the 2024/25 season, the artist sang Monterone in "Rigoletto" at the Metropolitan Opera, his debut in Portugal at the Casa da Música in Porto with Zemlinsky's "Lyric Symphony", a new production of "Die Frau ohne Schatten" as Barak at the Deutsche Oper Berlin (Sir Donald Runnicles & Tobias Kratzer) and his house debut at the Vienna State Opera as Telramund in "Lohengrin" (under Christian Thielemann) and Amfortas in "Parsifal" (under Axel Kober). He also returned to the Bayreuth Festival in the summer of 2025 with three roles: Klingsor in "Parsifal", Kothner in "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg" and Kurwenal in "Tristan und Isolde".
Future projects from the 2025/26 season include his role debut as Wotan in Wagner's "Ring" at the Cologne Opera, Holländer in "Der fliegende Holländer" at the Hamburg State Opera, Kurwenal in "Tristan und Isolde" at the Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam and a concert with Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with Vladimir Jurowski at the Konzerthaus Berlin with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin.
In 2002, Jordan Shanahan made his professional opera debut as Silvio in "Pagliacci" at the Natchez Opera Festival in the USA. His repertoire is wide-ranging and includes roles such as Mozart's Figaro, bel canto repertoire such as Donizetti's Belcore in "L'elisir d'amore" or Enrico in "Lucia di Lammermoor", but also Tchaikovsky's Onegin in "Eugen Onegin" or Yeletsky in "Pique Dame". Recently, he has been engaged by the major opera houses above all for the dramatic repertoire of Wagner, R. Strauss or Korngold, e. g. as Telramund in "Lohengrin", Alberich in the "Ring", Jochanaan in "Salome", Barak in "Die Frau ohne Schatten", der Herrscher in "Das Wunder der Heliane". But the Italian repertoire is not neglected either with Rigoletto, Amonasro in "Aida" or Scarpia in "Tosca".
In addition to the standard repertoire, Jordan Shanahan has also made a name for himself in contemporary repertoire with roles such as Joseph de Rocher in "Dead Man Walking", Robert Oppenheimer in "Dr. Atomic", The Protector in "Wirtten on Skin" and Il Uomo in "Senza sangue", many of the most important composers of our time have placed their trust in him.
His roles have included Don Carlo di Vargas "La forza del destino" at the Graz Opera, Escamillo in "Carmen"at the Wiesbaden State Theatre, Alberich in "Das Rheingold", "Siegfried" and "Götterdämmerung" and Telramund in "Lohengrin" at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Rodrigo "Don Carlos" at the Aalto Theater in Essen, as well as Monterone and Rigoletto at the Bregenz Festival. This was followed by his house debuts as Donner in "Das Rheingold" at the Zurich Opera House, Jochanaan in "Salome" at the Royal Opera House – Covent Garden in London, Monterone in "Rigoletto" at the Teatro Real in Madrid, and Klingsor in "Parsifal" at the Bayreuth Festival.
Jordan Shanahan regularly works with famous conductors such as Marc Albrecht, Semyon Bychkov, Pablo Heras-Casado, Daniele Gatti, Christian Thielemann, Sir Donald Runncles, Axel Kober, James Conlon and Stefan Blunier.
On the concert stage, Jordan Shanahan has also enjoyed great success in a wide range of repertoire: from Handel's "Messiah", Mendelssohn's "Elias", Stravinsky's "Oedipus Rex", to Verdi's Requiem; be it at the Palace of Arts in Budapest, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, or with other major orchestras throughout Europe (most recently in 2023 with Daniele Gatti with Santa Cecilia in Rome) and at Carnegie Hall in the United States of America.
Jordan Shanahan now lives in Switzerland and performs regularly in Europe, North America, Asia and, of course, in his native Hawaii.