Christopher Gillett was born in London, 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 Touring Opera.
Since 1990, he has performed extensively abroad, particularly for the Netherlands Opera in over 175 performances. Recent performances have included debuts with the Berlin Philharmonic and the Cleveland and Philadelphia Orchestras and opera engagements have included performances in Los Angeles and Amsterdam.
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.
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) - all with the Netherlands Opera - A King Riding (de Vries) with 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 sings the Evangelist in the Bach Choir's annual performances of the St Matthew Passion in the RFH and in the Birmingham Symphony Hall's Good Friday performances with the ECO. 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 Flute Midsummer Night's Dream at the Teatro Real in Madrid, Slender Sir John in Love with ENO, Arnalta Poppea with Los Angeles Opera, Don Curzio, The Marriage of Figaro for ENO, 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 and Britten's Les Illuminations with the RPO in Germany.
Future plans include Nutrice Poppea in Amsterdam with Christophe Rousset and Pierre Audi, Sellem The Rake's Progress, Garsington Opera and in concert for the CBSO, Goro, Madame Butterfly, English National Opera and the Evangelist, St Matthew Passion with the London Mozart Players and the English Chamber Orchestra.
Christopher Gillett is represented by Intermusica.
March 2007 / 529 words. Not to be altered without permission. Please destroy all previous biographical material.