Benjamin Werley— praised as having a “gleaming, flexible tenor” (Opera News)—was first bitten by the opera bug while attending a performance of Tosca. He has been pursuing an operatic career ever since. Recent engagements have included Don José in Carmen with Anchorage Opera; Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor with New Jersey Festival Orchestra; Cavaradossi in Tosca with St. Petersburg Opera; Nemorino in L’elisir d’amore with Dayton Opera; and Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni with Indianapolis Opera. Upcoming engagements include Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor with St. Petersburg Opera; and Des Grieux in Manon Lescaut with Opera Festival of Chicago.
A graduate of the Jacob’s School of Music at Indiana University, Werley was one of twenty singers nationwide selected to sing in the semi-finals of the 2012-2013 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in New York City. He has since participated in many prestigious young artist programs, including the Merola Opera Program, Santa Fe Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Virginia Opera, Opera Colorado, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, and Martina Arroyo’s Prelude to Performance. During that time, he sang Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni (Merola), Farmer in the world premiere of The Scarlet Letter by Lori Laitman (Opera Colorado), Courier in La fanciulla del West and Deiner 3 in Capriccio (Santa Fe Opera), Don José in Carmen (Martina Arroyo’s Prelude to Performance), Arturo in Lucia di Lammermoor, and Narraboth in Salome (Florida Grand Opera). He has also been a soloist with the Dayton Philharmonic, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, The Western Piedmont Symphony, and the Queens Symphony Orchestra.
In 2018, Werley returned to Virginia Opera in their first ever production of Kurt Weill’s Street Scene as Lippo Fiorentino. He then made his Cleveland Opera Theater and role debut as Alfredo in La traviata, and made his Central City Opera debut as Red Whiskers in Billy Budd, also covering Captain Vere. 2019 marked his role and company debut as Canio for Salt Marsh Opera’s Pagliacci, a return to Dayton Opera for a New Year’s Eve Gala, and role and company debuts with St. Pete Opera as il Duca (Rigoletto).