Phillip Addis has established himself as one of Canada’s finest and most versatile baritones. His range makes him at once “a superb Billy Budd…(whose) voice was virile, free and open” as well as “an impeccable antagonist” as Mozart’s Conte di Almaviva, while he is perhaps best known as “the ideal Pelléas of his generation” for his “erotically charged” performances as Debussy’s leading lover. Mr. Addis has performed on the world’s major stages, including l’Opéra National de Paris, LA Opera, the Canadian Opera Company, Semperoper Dresden, and the Hamburgischen Staatsoper, il Teatro Regio di Parma, il Teatro dell’ Opera di Roma, and the BBC Proms, lead by such distinguished conductors as Sir John Eliot Gardiner, James Conlon, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Seiji Ozawa, Kent Nagano, Carlo Rizzi, and Sylvain Cambreling.

In the 2022-23 season, Mr. Addis returned to cherished roles: Zurga in Bizet’s Les pêcheurs de perles with Vancouver Opera, and Pelléas with Teatro Municipale di Piacenza and Teatro Comunale di Modena. He also made exciting role debuts as Don Alfonso in Pacific Opera Victoria’s production of Così fan tutte and as Sharpless in Madama Butterfly with Opéra de Québec. Next season includes performances as Il Conte di Almaviva with Calgary Opera as well as his first Malatesta in Vancouver Opera’s Don Pasquale.

In 2021 Mr. Addis was featured as Il Conte in Le nozze di Figaro at Opéra de Lausanne and the Opéra Royal de Versailles. He also starred in the Rai5 live broadcast of the new Barbe&Doucet production of Pelléas et Mélisande from Teatro Regio di Parma.

Additional leading roles include Onegin at Calgary Opera, Don Giovanni with Edmonton Opera where he also performed as Figaro in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, as well as Papageno in Die Zauberflöte and Marcello in La Bohème with the Canadian Opera Company. Notable successes in the French repertoire include the title role in the baritone version of Werther with l’Opéra de Montréal, as Jaufré in L’amour de loin with the Festival d’Opéra de Québec and the Vlaamse Oper, as Zurga in Les pêcheurs de perles with Vancouver Opera and l’Opéra de Montréal, and as Frère Léon in the award-winning St. François d’Assise with the Yomiuri Nippon Orchestra.

Mr. Addis balances his operatic career with extensive concert experience. He was the baritone soloist for Carmina Burana with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra, and Britten’s War Requiem with the Cincinnati May Festival, and the Britten LA/100 Festival. as well as the world premiere of Scott Good’s The Sleepers with London Sinfonia. In 2022-23 he performed Handel’s Messiah with the Orchestre Classique de Montréal, Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra, Early Music Voices Concert Society in Calgary and Orchestre Symphonique de Trois-Rivières; as well as Bruckner’s Te Deum/Stephanie Martin’s Water with the Grand Philharmonic Choir.

With a passion for the art song repertoire, Addis has given recitals with Emily Hamper, pianist, at the l’Opéra National de Paris, the Canadian Opera Company, the Brisbane Music Festival, the Orford Arts Centre, the Vancouver International Song Institute, and the Canadian Art Song Project. From 2015-2022 Addis and Hamper were co-Artistic Directors of the Stratford Summer Music Vocal Academy.