ANDREW WATTS (Pleasure) was born in Middlesex and studied at the Royal Academy of Music with Geoffrey Mitchell. Watts' operatic engagements include appearances with the Royal Opera Covent Garden, English National Opera, Glyndebourne Festival and Touring Operas, the Almeida Festival, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and Broomhill Opera, and foreign engagements include the Staatsoper Berlin, the Komische Oper Berlin, the Teatro La Fenice, the De Vlaamse Opera, Sydney, the Vienna Festival, the Batignano Festival, Henze's Montepulciano Festival, Lautten Compagney at the Dresdner Musikfestspiele, the RIAS Kammerchor Berlin, the Banff Centre, the Graz Opera, Opéra National du Rhin, Canada, and Mexico. His repertoire includes Gluck's Orphée et Eurydice, Arsamenes in Xerxes, the title role in Orlando, Athamas in Semele, Andronico in Tamerlano, the Sorceress and Second Witch in Dido and Aeneas, Grace in Venus and Adonis, Nutrice in L'incoronazione di Poppea, Oberon in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus, James in Birtwistle's The Last Supper, Omar in The Death of Klinghoffer, Bishop Baldwin in Gawain and the Green Knight, Pleasure in Gerald Barry's Triumph of Beauty and Deceit, the world premieres of Olga Neuwirth's Bählamms Fest and Lost Highway and Guarnieri's Medea, Xicotencatle in Paul Barker's La Malinche, Celinda in L'Antiope, the world premiere of Lost Objects, Dimitri Smirnov's The Lamentations of Thel, Acmior in Ian McQueen's Line of Terror, and Camille in Michael Finnissey's Therese Raquin.

Concert engagements include the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the London Sinfonietta, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Ulster Orchestra, the Salzburg, Lucerne, Lausanne, Cernier, and Edinburgh Festivals, Vienna, New York, Cleveland, Budapest, Seville, Cologne, Brussels, France, Australia, and Italy. Repertoire includes the world premieres of Unsuk Chin's Cantatrix Sopranica, Birtwistle's Orpheus Elegies and The Shadow of Night, and works by Guarnieri and Manzoni, Olga Neuwirth's La Vie…Ulcerant and Five Daily Miniatures with Klangforum, Judas Maccabeus, Jephtha, St. John Passion, Bach Magnificat, The Indian Queen, and Charpentier Te Deum. He is featured on recordings for ASV of Boyce's Ode for St. Cecilia's Day and David's Lamentation with the Hanover Band and was heard in Sally Potter's film Orlando. He broadcasts regularly and television appearances include a cameo as Kathleen Ferrier in William and Mary.

Engagements in 2006 include Prince Go-go in Le Grand Macabre for the Graz Opera, the world premiere of Raymond Yiu's The Original Chinese Conjuror for Almeida Opera at the Aldeburgh Festival and in London, L'upupa for the Hamburgische Staatsoper, his debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and concerts throughout Europe. Subsequent engagements include the title role in Leonardo Vinci's Artaserse for the Musikwerkstatt Wien, the world premieres of Unsuk Chin's Alice in Wonderland at the Bayerische Staatsoper, München and Birtwistle's Minotaur with the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, a return to the Perth Festival, Australia, and further performances at the Hamburgische Staatsoper.

10/06