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Baritone Alan Opie is a regular guest at the Metropolitan Opera New York, La Scala, Wiener Staatsoper, Bayerische Staatsoper Munich, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Santa Fe Festival, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, English National Opera and Royal Opera House Covent Garden. He has also sung 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; Candide with Teatro San Carlo in Naples; Falstaff with l’Opera du Rhin; Rigoletto with Opera North and Opera Company of Philadelphia and Tosca with Canadian Opera Company in Toronto.
His extensive concert work has included performances of Mendelssohn’s Elijah in San Francisco and Dallas; Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast in Dallas 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 and Apostles as part of the BBC Proms 2007 season. Alan Opie’s operatic
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Baritone Alan Opie is a regular guest at the Metropolitan Opera New York, La Scala, Wiener Staatsoper, Bayerische Staatsoper Munich, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Santa Fe Festival, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, English National Opera and Royal Opera House Covent Garden. He has also sung 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; Candide with Teatro San Carlo in Naples; Falstaff with l’Opera du Rhin; Rigoletto with Opera North and Opera Company of Philadelphia and Tosca with Canadian Opera Company in Toronto.
His extensive concert work has included performances of Mendelssohn’s Elijah in San Francisco and Dallas; Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast in Dallas 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 and Apostles as part of the BBC Proms 2007 season. Alan Opie’s operatic appearances have also included leading roles for the Bayreuth Festival, Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin, Paris Opéra Bastille and Théâtre Musical du Châtelet and the opera houses of Chicago, Los Angeles, Amsterdam, Brussels, Florence, Cagliari, Spoleto, Strasbourg and Oslo among others.
His roles with these companies have included Rigoletto, Giorgio Germont, Balstrode, Baritone roles (Death in Venice), Beckmesser, Fieramosca (Benvenuto Cellini), Scarpia, The Forester (Cunning Little Vixen), Sharpless, Napoleon, Falstaff and the world premieres of Berio’s Outis and Bright Sheng’s Chairman Mao. He has also appeared with many leading orchestras including the Symphony orchestras of Boston, Chicago, Dallas, San Francisco as well as the Israel Philharmonic, Gothenburg Symphony, Dusseldorf Philharmonic, Sydney Symphony, RAI Turin, BBC Symphony, London Symphony, Philharmonia and BBC Philharmonic. Alan Opie has recorded for CBS, EMI, Hyperion, Chandos, 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 and The Rape of Lucretia; the title role in Dallapiccola’s Ulisse; Tonio in I Pagliacci; Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor; Smirnov in Walton’s The Bear, Carlo in Ernani, di Luna in Il Trovatore, the title role in Il Barbiere di Siviglia and Beckmesser in Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg under Sir Georg Solti for which he received his second Grammy award.
Recent appearances have included the leading role in the world premiere of Michael Berkeley’s opera For You at the Linbury Theatre, Covent Garden and UK tour, his return to La Scala as Kolenaty in The Makropoulos Case, singing the title role in Falstaff for Opéra National du Rhin, Strasbourg and Washington National Opera, Germont (La traviata) for San Diego Opera, the title role in Rigoletto for Opera Australia, Frank in Die Fledermaus for Welsh National Opera and an appearance with the New York Philharmonic in staged performances of Janáček’s Cunning Little Vixen (The Forester).
Future plans include returns to ENO (The Death of Klinghoffer), ROH (La Fille du Régiment), Opera Holland Park who are mounting Gianni Schicchi for him in the summer of 2012 and Balstrode for the Aldeburgh Festival, 2013.
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Reviews
"Alan Opie offered a richly nuanced portrayal of the title role [of Falstaff], at once blustery and terribly vulnerable, and he was attuned to every subtlety of text and melodic contour."
Tim Smith, The Baltimore Sun
"Alan Opie [was also marvellous] as the much-mocked hunchback with suspicion and hate in his heart for everyone but Gilda, his only daughter. When he sings - and how – ‘the whole of my universe is you’, we believe him, his phrases swelling with pride. Opie's melodramatic relish of the role does not preclude a deeper conviction. His reproach of the Duke's henchmen in Act II collapses movingly into pitiful pleading, while his desperation is palpable by the end. And this opera really does stand or fall on the chemistry, the vocal frisson and the compatibility of the father-daughter relationship. Opie and Howarth did it for me."
Edward Seckerson, The Independent
"Exceptional singing from the three principals, Ben Heppner, Janice Watson and Alan Opie…..The real success of the night is Opie, fashioning what is surely the definitive Balstrode. Balstrode is everyman, the commonsense man of the world who understands the Borough’s prejudices without sharing all of them, while having the weight and caring spirit to counsel Grimes, though without success until the very end."
David Mellor, The Mail on Sunday
"Alan Opie's inspired characterisation has lost none of its edge with years. This Nabucco lurches from hubris to despair, vainglory to chastened regret, with a vast range of intermediary shadings. Opie can make sotto voce feel like fortissimo. The great Act III barney between king and usurper, set against almost baroque-sounding oboe and bassoon, revealed an astonishing variety of pathos-ridden tone and colour. ‘O God of Judah’ was stupendous."
Roderic Dunnet ,The Independent
"In the eponymous part, Alan Opie was everything that he has been for some time now, the finest British Verdi baritone since Peter Glossop. His vocal portrayal took in all the many facets of the character, from egocentric king through insanity to a particularly fine rendering of ‘Son pur questa’ when Nabucco prays to the god of Israel and regains his sanity. The earlier confrontation with his supposed daughter Abigaille was the hair raising histrionic and vocal highlight of the evening."
Robert J. Farr, Seen and Heard