Biography
Clarke Ruth is a bass singer from Toronto, Canada. Clarke is a member of the Stadttheater Gießen Ensemble since the 2022/23 season. In the 2026/27 season he’s excited to perform the role of the four villains in Offenbach’s “The Tales of Hoffmann”, as well as Der Riese in Elena Kats-Cherin’s children’s opera, “Der herzlose Riese”. He’ll also be performing as the Sorcerer in Purcell’s “Dido and Aeneas”, Rambaldo in Germany’s first ever production of Donizetti’s “Maria de Rudenz”, as well as singing Elias in Mendelssohn’s oratorio, “Elias”.
Clarke is looking forward to his debut in Teatro Verdi in Trieste, where he’ll be performing the role of Colline in “La bohème” in March 2027.
In the 2025/26 season he performed the role of Dulcamara in Donizetti’s “L’elisir d’amore”, the Dottore in Verdi’s “La traviata”, Plumkett in Flotow’s “Martha”, and lastly Nick Shadow in Stravinsky’s “The Rake’s Progress”. HR2 said of Clarke’s Nick Shadow, “Very excellent was the Canadian bass Clarke Ruth, who embodied the role with great enjoyment and enthusiasm as an actor. You can hear a lot of power behind his voice.”
In the 2024/25 season Clarke sang the role of Graf Waldner in Strauss’ “Arabella”, as well as the Pharaoh in Rossini’s “Mosè in Egitto” and Ferrando in Verdi’s “Il trovatore”. He also sang the title role in Gershwin’s musical “Wintergreen for President”.
In the 2023/24 Season Clarke made a couple exciting role debuts as Sparafucile in Verdi’s “Rigoletto” and as Prince Gremin in Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin”. He also sang his first baroque role as Ariodate in Handel’s opera “Xerxes”. Some other role debuts in 2024 were Nourabad in Bizet’s “Les pêcheurs de perles”, the Abbot in Britten’s “Curlew River”, and Graf Jerzabinka in Lehár’s operetta “Mitislaw der Moderne”.
Clarke had some significant jump in’s in 2023. In May 2023 he sang in the Semperoper Dresden as Alessio in Bellini’s “La sonnambula”. In June 2023 he sang in the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf as Phanuel in Massenet’s “Hérodiade”. And in October 2023 he sang in Theater Ulm as Angelotti in Puccini’s “Tosca”.
In the 2022/23 season Clarke performed the roles of Mocenigo in Donizetti’s “Caterina Cornaro”, Quince in Britten’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, Angelotti in Puccini’s “Tosca”, and Publio in Mozart’s “La clemenza di Tito”. Opernwelt wrote of Clarke’s performance in “Caterina Cornaro”, “Convincing with lean, venomous bass, the Mocenigo from Clarke Ruth.”
Clarke has also sung in several oratorio concerts in Stadttheater Gießen. He sang the bass solo in Bach’s Weihnachtsoratorium, Bach’s Magnificat, and Mozart’s Requiem. He’s also sung the bass solo in Handel’s “Alexander’s Feast” and Brucker’s F-moll Messe.
In July 2021 Clarke won a prize in the ‘Concours International de Chant de Clermont-Ferrand’. This prize offered Clarke the opportunity to sing the role of Alessio in a touring production of Bellini’s “La Sonnambula” in the opera houses of Clermont-Ferrand, Vichy, Avignon, Metz and Reims.
In June 2022 Clarke was a finalist in the Wilhelm Stenhammer International Music Competition in Norrköping, Sweden. The final round was performed with orchestra in the Norrköping Concert Hall.
In the Summer of 2020 Clarke participated in the ‘Internationale Opernwerkstatt’ organized by Verena Keller. In the workshop Clarke worked with conductor Roland Böer and stage director Roger Vontobel on a variety of opera scenes which were then performed on a concert tour through Switzerland.
In 2019 Clarke was granted two scholarships. The first was from the Richard Wagner Verband in Cologne which allowed him to travel to the Bayreuter Festspiel to attend their world class Wagnerian productions. The second was the WDR Rundfunkchor scholarship, which gave him the opportunity to sing full time in the WDR Radio Choir for one year.
In the Summer of 2019 Clarke sang the role of Bartolo in the Opernakademie Bad Orb’s production of “Le nozze di Figaro” which was sung in German. Clarke has also often played the role of the Father in Humperdinck’s opera “Hänsel und Gretel”, most notably with the Hofgartenorchester Bonn in 2020.
Clarke finished his studies at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln in July 2022 with a Master’s in Voice. He studied in the studio of Christoph Prégardien. Clarke participated in two of the Hochschule’s main opera productions. In 2019 Clarke sang the role of Collatinus in Britten’s “Rape of Lucretia”, and in 2021 he sang Don Alfonso in Mozart’s “Così fan tutte”. Clarke also had the opportunity to participate in masterclasses from many esteemed members of the opera community including Peter Berne, Michael Hampe, Peter Konwitschny, Vittorio Parisi and Dietrich Hilsdorf.
In Canada, Clarke finished his studies at the University of Western Ontario in 2017 with a Bachelor of Music. His voice teachers were Brian McIntosh and John Mac Master. Clarke performed in many of the university’s opera productions. He sang Colline in Puccini’s “La bohéme”, Sarastro in Mozart’s “Die Zauberflöte”, Pistola in Verdi’s “Falstaff”, and Simone in Puccini’s “Gianni Schicchi”.
Clarke is also a passionate Lieder singer and Church musician. He has performed Pilatus and the arias in Bach’s Johannes Passion multiple times, as well as Dvořák’s Biblische Lieder. In the Summer of 2017 Clarke attended the Franz Schubert Institut for Poetry and Performance of the German Lied. There Clarke was able to work with such Lieder greats as Elly Ameling, Helmut Deutsch, Julius Drake, Robert Holl, Roger Vignoles, Birgid Steinberger, Wolfram Rieger and Andreas Schmidt.