Career
He made his formal debut with the Seattle Opera, in 1966. Since then, Duykers has appeared with the New York City Opera (Don José to Susanne Marsee"s Carmen), and the opera companies in Chicago (title part of Tannhäuser), San Francisco (The Hunchback in Die Frau ohne Schatten, with Dame Gwyneth Jones and Anja Silja), Houston (Aegisthus in Elektra), Santa Fe, Los Angeles (Iro in Il ritorno d"Ulisse in patria), San Diego (the villainous Enoch Pratt in Carlisle Floyd"s The Passion of Jonathan Wade), and Philadelphia (Prince Chouïsky in Boris Godunov, and Herodes in Salome). Abroad, he has been seen at Covent Garden, The Netherlands Opera, Grand Théâtre de Genève (title role in Benvenuto Cellini), Frankfurt Opera, Opéra de Marseilles (Mime in Siegfried) and the Canadian Opera Company.
He was also in the world premiere of O corvo branco ("White Raven"), by Robert Wilson and Philip Glass, in 1998.
He has also sung in Glass" Orphée (as Heurtebise) and the name part of Galileo Galilei. He appeared in San Francisco as the title (and sole) character in Erling Wold"s Mordake, and as the Captain in the new chamber-orchestra version of Alban Berg"s Wozzeck, and, for Long Beach Opera, reprising the role of Mao Tse-Tung.
Another of his successes has been in Sir Peter Maxwell Davies" Eight Songs for a Mad King.
