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Alan Opie
Baritone Alan Opie is a regular guest at the Metropolitan Opera New York, La Scala, Wiener Staatsoper, Bayerische Staatsoper Munich, Santa Fe Festival, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, English National Opera, Welsh National Opera and Royal Opera House Covent Garden. He has also performed at the Bayreuth Festival, singing Beckmesser — a role also repeated in Berlin, Amsterdam, Munich, Vienna and Turin. At ENO he was nominated for the ‘Outstanding Achievement in Opera’ Olivier Award for his performance of Falstaff.
He has performed Madama Butterfly with Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and Welsh National Opera; Candide with Teatro San Carlo in Naples; Rigoletto with Opera North and Opera Company of Philadelphia; Tosca with Canadian Opera Company in Toronto; the title role in The Death of Klinghoffer for ENO and the MET; a return to ROH in La Fille du Regiment as well as the leading role in the world premiere of Michael Berkeley’s opera For You at the Linbury Theatre, Covent Garden; Merry Widow at the MET; Kolenaty at La Scala in The Makropoulos Case and an appearance with the New York Philharmonic in staged performances of Janacek’s Cunning Little Vixen (The Forester).
His extensive concert work has included performances of Mendelssohn’s Elijah in San Francisco and Dallas; Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast in Dallas, Denver and Carnegie Hall; Britten’s War Requiem in Washington, Vaughan Williams’ Sea Symphony in Los Angeles, Elgar’s The Kingdom with the Halle Orchestra in honour of the 150th anniversary of Elgar’s birth The Apostles as part of the BBC Proms 2007 season, King Olavwith the Bergen Symphony Orchestra also recorded for Chandos and The Dream of Gerontius with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.
Alan Opie’s operatic appearances have also included leading roles for the Deutsche Staatsoper and Deutsche Oper Berlin, Paris Opera Bastille and Theatre Musical du Chatelet and the opera houses of Chicago, Los Angeles, San Diego, Opera Sydney, Amsterdam, Brussels, Florence, Cagliari, Spoleto, Strasbourg and Oslo among others. His roles with these companies have included Rigoletto, Giorgio Germont, Balstrode, Beckmesser, Fieramosca (Benvenuto Cell/n4, Scarpia, The Forester (Cunning Little Vixen), Sharpless, Napoleon, and Falstaff. He has performed in the world premieres of Berio’s Outis and Bright Sheng’s Chairman Mao, as well as Opera Holland Park’s production of Gianni Schicchi.
He has also appeared with many leading orchestras including the Symphony orchestras of Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Colorado, San Francisco as well as the Israel Philharmonic, Gothenburg Symphony, Dusseldorf Philharmonic, Sydney Symphony, Bergen Philharmonic, Royal Scottish National, RAI Turin, BBC Symphony, London Symphony, Philharmonia and BBC Philharmonic.
Alan Opie has recorded for CBS, EMI, Hyperion, Chandos, Naxos and Decca. Releases include “Alan Opie Sings Bel Canto Arias”, Britten’s Gloriana, Albert Herring, Peter Grimes for which he received a Grammy Award, Death in Venice, The Rape of Lucretia and The Beauty Stone, Delius’ Mass of Life, the title role in Dallapiccola’s Ulisse, Tonio / Pagliacci, Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor, Smirnov in Walton’s The Bear, Carlo in Ernani, di Luna in ll Trovatore, the title role in ll Barbiere di Siviglia and Beckmesser in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg under Sir Georg Solti for which he received his second Grammy award.
Recent performances include Balstrode with the London Philharmonic under Vladimir Jurowski, Accademia di Santa Cecilia under Sir Antonio Pappano and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra under Michael Tilson Thomas.
Alan Opie sang the title role in The Death of Klinghoffer at the Metropolitan Opera and recently returned there to sing Frank Die Fledermaus, Arbace Idomeneo and Gamekeeper Rusalka.
He opens the 2017⁄18 season at the English National Opera with Doctor Bartolo Barber of Seville and a new production of La Traviata by Daniel Kramer.