If you read that Groves started to sing in 1991, that suppresses his appearances in the late 1980s in venues like the
Glimmerglass Opera (a summer festival near Cooperstown, NY, where Groves sang Fritz in La Grande-Duchesse de
Gérolstein in 1988), after completing his vocal studies at Louisiana State University and the Juilliard School of
Music.
But it's true that his career only took steam in 1991, when he won the Met Auditions. Now he made, in quick succession, his
debuts in Washington, St. Louis, at the Met (1992, Steuermann), Boston, Cardiff, Geneva, the Salzburg Festival (1995, Don
Ottavio), the Vienna Staatsoper and La Scala (both 1995), in Chicago or at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. To most of those places,
he was to return often, much more often than you would have expected from the quality of his singing. He pursued his
career into the 2020s.
His repertory included Belfiore (La finta giardiniera), Idamante, Ferrando, Tamino, Don Ottavio, Belmonte, Carlo
(Linda di Chamounix), Arturo (Puritani), Nemorino, Nadir, Massenet's des Grieux, Berlioz' Faust, Lenskij, Fenton,
Italienischer Sänger, Barinkay, but also Tom Rakewell.
Reference: Kutsch & Riemens
