GRAEME BROADBENT (Emil [Rooster Wild Thing]) was born in Halifax and studied at the Royal College of Music with Lyndon Vanderpump. He was invited by Yevgeny Nesterenko to study in Moscow, and entered the Tchaikovsky Conservatoire in 1990 with the assistance of scholarships from the British Council and the Soviet Government. He was awarded the Tchaikovsky Conservatoire Postgraduate Diploma in 1991.

Broadbent has appeared in recital and oratorio throughout the U.K. and abroad, at all the major London concert halls and at the Proms, in repertoire ranging from Monteverdi to Schoenberg. Opera engagements have included Basilio (The Barber of Seville) and Punch and Judy for the English National Opera, Gremin (Eugene Onegin), Nilakantha (Lakmé), Sulpice (La fille du régiment), Raleigh (Roberto Devereux), Sparafucile (Rigoletto), and Gremin for Opera Holland Park, the Commendatore (Don Giovanni) and Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg for the Glyndebourne Festival, Sarastro (Die Zauberflöte) for Glyndebourne on Tour, Pistola (Falstaff) in Baden-Baden, Seven Deadly Sins and La Calisto for the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Basilio and Father Trulove (The Rake’s Progress) for the Scottish Opera, Seven Deadly Sins for the Theater an der Wien, and Jonathan Dove’s Pinocchio for the Stuttgart Opera. He sang Thomas Adès’ Powder her Face for the Almeida and Aldeburgh Festivals, televised on Channel 4, and Mahagonny Songspiel in Bologna with the London Sinfonietta.

Graeme Broadbent has also appeared with the New Zealand Opera and Opera Comique, as well as with the theatres of Lyon, Montpellier, Nimes, Tourcoing, Caen, and Monte Carlo, and at the Lugano, Granada, Athens, Peralada and Spoleto Festivals. His many roles as a member of the Royal Opera included Colline (La bohème), Angelotti, Timur (Turandot), Dr. Grenvil (La Traviata), Nightwatchman (Meistersinger), Leone (Attila), King Marke (Tristan und Isolde), the King (Aida), and La Gioconda, and he has established close links with Opera North, where he has appeared in new productions of Zemlinsky’s Der Zwerg, Weill’s Seven Deadly Sins, Falla’s La vida breve, Pinocchio, Caronte in Monteverdi’s Orfeo, and Angelotti in Tosca.

His engagements this season include the Aldeburgh Festival’s production of Oliver Knussen’s Where the Wild Things Are with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel, and Pirates of Penzance for the Scottish Opera. He will return to the Glyndebourne Festival for both Meistersinger and La Traviata.