Vern Sutton

Vern Sutton (born April 8, 1938) is an American operatic tenor, opera director, and academic. A founding member of the Minnesota Opera, he has created roles in the world premieres of several contemporary operas with that company; including works composed for his voice by Dominick Argento, Libby Larsen, Eric Stokes, Conrad Susa, and Robert Ward. He was also a regularly featured singer on Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion for three decades, beginning with its first broadcast in 1974.

From 2002 to 2005 he was director of Opera in the Ozarks at Inspiration Point. For 36 years he taught on the voice faculty and for 30 years he directed the opera program of the music school at the University of Minnesota.

Raised in Oklahoma City, Sutton earned a Bachelor of Music degree from Austin College in 1960 where he was a voice student of Ethel Rader and Bruce Lunkley. He then pursued graduate studies in musicology at the University of Minnesota (UM) where he earned both a M.A. in Music and Doctorate of Music. At the UM he studied voice with Roy Schuessler, and later studied singing at the Rome Opera House with Luigi Ricci through a Fulbright scholarship in 1966–1967.

While a student at the UM, Sutton created the role of the Lord in the world premiere of Argento's Christopher Sly at the Scott Hall Theater on 31 May 1963. That same year he began performing with the newly formed Minnesota Opera. His performances with the company have included roles in several world premieres, including Argento's The Masque of Angels (1964), Argento's The Revelation of Saint John the Divine (1967), Argento's Postcard from Morocco (1971), Susa's Transformations (1973), Susa's Black River (1975), Argento's The Voyage of Edgar Allen Poe (1976), Argento's Water Bird Talk (1977), Hiram Titus' Rosina (1978), Ward's Hedda Gabler (1978), Stokes' The Jealous Cellist (1979), Lars Johan Werle's Animalen (1985), and Argento's Casanova's Homecoming (1985) among others.

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