Sean Panikkar
Tenor
Sean Panikkar is an American tenor of Sri Lankan heritage. In the 2025/26 season he made three role debuts: as Albert Gregor in Janáček’s The Makropulos Affair at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, as Sergei in Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District at the Komische Oper Berlin and as Jeník in Smetana’s The Bartered Bride at the Teatro Real in Madrid.
In the 2024/25 season he appeared as Loge (Das Rheingold) at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, as the Bridegroom in Kaija Saariaho’s Innocence at the Adelaide Festival, in the title role of Peter Grimes at the Opéra national de Lyon and in a concert with the London Symphony Orchestra under Antonio Pappano featuring Michael Tippett’s A Child of Our Time and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.
Other recent engagements have included Loge at Covent Garden, Alfred (Die Fledermaus) at the Bavarian State Opera, the title role of Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex at the Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam and Leonard Woolf in Kevin Puts’s The Hours at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.
Sean Panikkar has made an especial name for himself in the field of contemporary music. In 2018 he made his Salzburg Festival debut as Dionysus in Henze’s The Bassarids, returning in 2021 as Un emigrante (Intolleranza 1960) and in 2024 as Alexei Ivanovich (The Gambler). He has appeared at the Los Angeles Opera and the English National Opera as Gandhi in Philip Glass’s Satyagraha.
He made his debut at the Vienna State Opera under Philippe Jordan as Drum-Major (Wozzeck) and created the role of Adam in the world premiere of Giorgio Battistelli’s CO2 at La Scala, Milan. He has also sung Laertes in Brett Dean’s Hamlet at the Bavarian State Opera, Dionysus and Un emigrante at the Komische Oper Berlin, Tobby Higgins (Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny) at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence under Esa-Pekka Salonen, Don José (Carmen) at the English National Opera and Oedipus Rex with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra.
In concert he has performed the title role in Oedipus Rex with the Houston Symphony Orchestra under Juraj Valčuha, in Bruckner’s Te Deum both with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra under Xian Zhang and with the Philadelphia Orchestra under Yannick Nézet-Séguin, in Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg under Duncan Ward and in Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings with the Monterey Symphony Orchestra under Jayce Ogren.
Sean Panikkar studied at the University of Michigan and graduated from the Adler Fellowship Program of San Francisco Opera. He is a member of the tenor trio FORTE, with which, since their performance for America’s Got Talent in 2013, he has appeared at venues including Carnegie Hall in New York and the White House in Washington, D. C.
