CHRISTOPHER GILLETT made his Covent Garden debut in 1984 and has sung many roles for the Royal Opera, English National Opera and Glyndebourne Opera. He has performed extensively abroad, particularly for the Netherlands Opera where most recently he performed Les Troyens and Red Whiskers Billy Budd. Recent appearances have also included debuts with the Berlin Philharmonic and the Cleveland and Philadelphia Orchestras and opera engagements in Los Angeles, Amsterdam, Madrid and La Scala.

Christopher’s operatic roles include Arnalta L’incoronazione di Poppea, Flute A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Basilio Le nozze di Figaro, Arbace Idomeneo, Triquet Eugene Onegin, Vicar Peter Grimes, Sheperd Oedipus Rex and Sellem The Rake’s Progress. In addition to the classical repertoire Christopher has sung in many operatic world premieres: Rosa, a horse opera (Andriesson/Greenaway), Broken Strings/Snatched by the Gods (Vir), Gassir the hero (Loevendie), Alice (Knaifel), for Netherlands Opera, A King Riding (de Vries), La Monnaie, Brussels, and TEA (Tan Dun) in Suntory Hall, Tokyo. He has performed in national premieres of Die Soldaten (Zimmerman, ENO), Die Wände (Hölsky, Frankfurt Opera) and What Next? (Carter, London Sinfonietta). Other 20th century roles include Dov The Knot Garden (ROH), Aschenbach Death in Venice (Genova), and Toni Elegy for Young Lovers (Amsterdam). Baroque performances include Scarlatti’s Il Telemaco (Opera de Nice), Provenzale’s La Stellidaura Vendicante (La Monnaie) and Cavalli’s La Didone (Lausanne and Montpellier). Recently he has performed Nutrice L’Incoronazione di Poppea in Amsterdam and Los Angeles, Pisandro Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Amsterdam, Antwerp, Lisbon, Sydney and New York and Flute A Midsummer Night’s Dream at La Scala, and Dr Atomic at the ENO.

Christopher is a noted interpreter of Bach and has sung the Evangelist in the Bach Choir’s annual performances of the St Matthew Passion in the RFH and in the Birmingham Symphony Hall for many years. He has also performed the part for the London Mozart Players, with King’s College Choir in Cambridge and at Cadogan Hall. As well as several Proms appearances, concert performances have included Henze’s Voices with Oliver Knussen at the QEH and the Concertgebouw, Britten’s Nocturne with Knussen and the Philadelphia Orchestra, Peter Grimes with the London Symphony Orchestra and Sir Colin Davis in New York, Maderna’s Venetian Journal with the ASKO ensemble, On Wenlock Edge in France for Les Journées Ravel and Andriesson’s De Materie conducted by Reinbert de Leeuw in New York. He has sung Britten’s War Requiem in Buenos Aires, Amsterdam, Stuttgart, Taipei, Brno and Bratislava.

Recent highlights include Le nozze di Figaro at the Royal Opera House with Sir Colin Davis, Cura in Catan’s Il Postino and Basilio Le nozze di Figaro for Los Angeles Opera, Elgar Light of Life with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Frank Martin’s Golgotha in King’s College, Cambridge, Britten War Requiem and Holst Savitri with the Rundfunk Chor, Berlin, Berlioz’ Te Deum with the Philharmonia Orchestra, Finzi’s Dies Natalis, Britten St Nicholas and Elijah with Northern Sinfonia, Henze Voices and Birtwistle The Mask of Orpheus at the BBC Proms, Flute A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Reggio Emilia and in Bari, Italy, Vaughan Williams Hodie at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, Britten’s Serenade for tenor, horn and strings for the Kymi Sinfonietta, Finland, Britten’s Les Illuminations with the RPO in Germany and with the Ensemble Symphonique de Neuchâtel, Sellem The Rake’s Progress with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and concerts with the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group.

Future engagements include the role of Mr Lovelace in the world premiere of A Harlot’s Progress by Iain Bell at the Theater an der Wien, Evangelist in Schütz’s The Christmas Story with The English Concert under Harry Bicket, and the roles of Cat-Milkman/High Voice of Ash Tree Higglety Pigglety Pop and Wild Thing with Beard Where the Wild Things Are in Aldeburgh and with the LA Philharmonic Orchestra under Gustavo Dudamel.

On CD/DVD, Christopher has recorded the title roles in Albert Herring and The Martyrdom of St Magnus to great acclaim, as well as roles in Billy Budd, The Beggar’s Opera, Peter Grimes, and operas by Oliver Knussen and Tan Dun. He has also filmed Britten’s The Journey of the Magi with Pierre Audi.

Christopher Gillett is represented by Intermusica. September 2011 / 681 words. Not to be altered without permission. Please destroy all previous biographical material.