Christopher Gillett made his Covent Garden debut in 1984 at the age of 25, 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 in over 175 performances. Recent appearances have also included debuts with the Berlin Philharmonic and the Cleveland and Philadelphia Orchestras and opera engagements in Los Angeles, Amsterdam and Madrid.
Christopher’s key 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 and 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). He has performed Nutrice L’Incoronazione di Poppea in Amsterdam and New York, and Pisandro Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Amsterdam, Antwerp, Lisbon, Sydney and New York.
Christopher is a noted interpreter of Bach: the Evening Standard describing his Evangelist as “dramatic, sincere and utterly riveting”. He 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 times as for the London Mozart Players 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 LSO 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 performances include Berlioz’ Te Deum with the Philharmonia Orchestra, Finzi’s Die Natalis and Britten St Nicholas with Northern Sinfonia, Henze Voices at the BBC Proms with the London Sinfonietta and Oliver Knussen, Britten’s Serendade for tenor, horn and strings for the Kymi Sinfonietta, Finland, Britten’s Les Illuminations with the RPO in Germany and Sellem in Garsington Opera and in concert for the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.
Future plans include Captain James Nolan Dr. Atomic for English National Opera, Flute at La Scala, Evangelist St. Matthew Passion at Cadogan Hall and St. John Passion with King’s College Choir at Cambridge and Elijah with Northern Sinfonia.
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.
October 2008 / 547 words. Not to be altered without permission. Please destroy all previous biographical material.