He has performed in the world’s leading opera houses and concert halls, where his roles include Idomeneo, Tito, Belmonte, Alfredo, Matteo, David, Lensky (Metropolitan New York and Santa Fe); Alfredo, Italian tenor, Duke of Mantua, Des Grieux, Matteo, Flamand, Rodolfo (Royal Opera House); Ottavio, Ernesto (San Francisco), Ferrando, Ottavio, Tamino (Paris Mozart Festival), Belmonte, Tom Rakewell (Glyndebourne) and concert appearances with Karajan, Bernstein, Levine, Barenboim, Mehta, Ozawa and many other leading conductors. In recent years, he has moved into heavier repertory, including Gabriele Adorno (ENO, Glyndebourne, Frankfurt and Essen); Alvaro (ENO); Cavaradossi (ENO and Norway); Erik (ENO); Hoffmann (Bastille and Genoa); Werther (Leipzig); Oedipus Rex (Paris and Rome); Don Jose (Genoa and ENO); Luigi Il tabarro (ENO); Manolios The Greek Passion (BBC Symphony Orchestra); his first Canio in Portland US; his first Lohengrins in Nancy and Strasbourg; Gustavus III Un ballo in maschera at the Bregenz Festival; Canio in Milwaukee and for Welsh National Opera; and title role Otello and Faust in Boito’s Mefistofele (ENO).

Most recently David has sung Otello in Glyndebourne, Hamburg, Palermo, Santiago, for his debut at La Scala Milan, and at the Dresden Festival; Manrico Il trovatore in Copenhagen and for WNO; Erik Der fliegende Holländer for the Canadian Opera Company and in Bordeaux; Cavaradossi for Scottish Opera and in Valencia; Don Jose for ENO; Gustavus III for Hamburg and Copenhagen; Zivny in Janáček’s Osud in Amsterdam; Pinkerton for WNO, Canio I Pagliacci at the Royal Albert Hall; Tristan for ENO and in Tbilisi; Otello for La Scala in Japan; Prince Golitsyn Khovanshchina for ENO, Radames Aida in Copenhagen, Oedipe in Cagliari and Il Re Sakuntala in Rome On the concert platform, he has performed Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with Edo de Waart; Mahler’s Eighth Symphony with Kazushi Ono in Belfast; Dvorak’s Requiem with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius with LSO/Sir Colin Davis, also recorded, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and Mahler’s Song of the Earth for the Royal Ballet.

David Rendall’s many recordings include Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony (Walter Weller/Chandos), Bruckner’s Te Deum (Daniel Barenboim/Deutsche Grammophon), Elgar’s The Apostles (Richard Hickox/Chandos), Handel’s Ariodante (Raymond Leppard/Phillips), the world premiere recording of Korngold’s Die Kathrin (Martyn Brabbins/CPO), Mozart’s Requiem (Barenboim/EMI), Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte (Alain Lombard/Erato), Puccini’s La rondine (Lorin Maazel/Sony) and the musical comedies Kismet, Song of Norway and The Student Prince (all for That’s Entertainment Records). Video recordings include Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda (Charles Mackerras/English National Opera).

David Rendall is represented by Intermusica.

May 2010 / 433 words. Not to be altered without permission. Please destroy all previous biographical material.
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Riccardo (Gustavo) in Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera (last-minute stepping in)
Opera Holland Park / cond. Peter Robinson / dir. Martin Lloyd-Evans
“That the first night of Opera Holland Park’s Un ballo in maschera went as well as it did was a triumph over potential disaster because Rafael Rojas, who should have sung Gustavo was suffering from a chest infection, and a replacement was only found apparently at 3pm prior to the evening’s performance. The valiant tenor standing in the pit in front of the conductor singing whilst Rojas enthusiastically ‘walked’ and lip-synched his role was the veteran British tenor, David Rendall and it all worked surprisingly well. Rendall’s clarion heroic tenor voice had remarkable freshness for someone with such a long career and there was enough ease and control in his projection to show-up the more effortful contributions of some of his younger colleagues on stage.”
Jim Pritchard, MusicWeb International, July 2009

“Just four hours before curtain up leading tenor David Rendall stepped into the breach to sing the demanding role of Gustavo from the orchestra pit while Rojas acted, with mimed synchronisation, on stage. Surprisingly, it worked, as Rendall’s strong, dark voice became welded to Rojas’s performance and the two tenors took the curtain call to tumultuous applause.”
Claire Colvin, Scottish Sunday Express, July 2009

Gerontius in Elgar The Dream of Gerontius
LSO / cond. Colin Davis

"David Rendall's sense of the text is excellent. Prayerful in the opening statement, he becomes gradually more agonised in the Sanctus before his soul goes on its unknown journey in Part 2."
Dominic McHugh, MusicOMH.com, August 2006

"A fine solo contribution from David Rendall's intensely vulnerable Gerontius."
George Hall, The Observer, August 2006

“The Italianate spin of David Rendall’s upper register is thrilling.”
Anna Picard, The Independent, December 2005


Title role in Verdi Otello
Glyndebourne Festival / London Philharmonic Orchestra / cond. Vladimir Jurowski / dir. Peter Hall

“David Rendall is one of perhaps six heroic tenors in the world up to this very demanding role.”
Anthony Holden, The Observer, July 2005
 
“David Rendall is Glyndebourne's first choice to sing Otello.  A fine one, too.  The voice, strong and secure, is right on the nail from his difficult entry as he and his men return from defeating the Turks at sea.  And he charts with powerful conviction the progress of his character’s dangerous, simmering jealousy, his wounded pride, his emotional blindness.”
Stephen Pettitt, Evening Standard, July 2005


Manrico in Verdi Il Trovatore
Welsh National Opera / cond. Alberto Hold-Garrido / dir. Peter Watson

“David Rendall’s Manrico is infinitely finer.  Rendall’s combination of unforced lyricism and high-flying vocal athleticism is all the more remarkable given that he has recently been singing such taxing roles as Verdi’s Otello and Wagner’s Tristan.”
Tim Ashley, The Guardian, October 2003
 
“David Rendall’s dignified troubadour Manrico offers a range of refined expression and vocal colour, not to mention his brave, noble “Di quella pira”.”
David Murray, Financial Times, October 2003
 
“As Manrico, David Rendall once again emitted some splendid blasts of golden tenorial tone.”
Rupert Christiansen, The Daily Telegraph, October 2003
 
“Since Trovatore is more a freak-show of pathological emotion than a stage event, everything important is done purely vocally: something demonstrated brilliantly by Patricia Bardon as Azucena and David Rendall as Manrico.  These were performances soaked in dark Verdian colours, full of expression, with a kind of maddened wildness perfectly calculated to the unbearable burden of accumulated awfulness.”
Robert Thicknesse, The Times, October 2003

Tristan in Tristan and Isolde
English National Opera / cond. Dietfried Bernet / dir. David Alden
 
“David Rendall makes a splendid Tristan, notable as much for his clarion tone at climaxes as for a real sense of musical line.  This is some of ENO's strongest casting in a long time.  The audience, judging by its roars, knows it.”
John Allison, The Times, 27 May 2003
“David Rendall performs with a fortitude and stamina unusual even for Wagner.”
Andrew Pierce, The Times, May 2003
 
“David Rendall’s Tristan gets deep into his character’s Act 3 anguishes.”
David Murray, Financial Times, May 2003
 
“Rendall sings with a combination of beauty, steadiness and great heft.”
Tim Ashley, The Guardian, May 2003
 
 
Canio in Mascagni I Pagliacci
Raymond Gubbay Productions / Royal Philharmonic Orchestra / cond. Brad Cohen / dir. Martin Duncan

“There are strong performances here from Mary Hegarty, David Stephenson, and David Rendall, a tortured Canio.  The latter is suitably stirring in the big notes of his tragic aria.”
Edward Seckerson, The Independent, October 2002

Title role in Verdi Otello
Dresdner Musikfestspiele / MDR / cond. Oleg Caetani

“Both the male protagonists were astounding (David Rendall and Franz Grundheber), not only in full possession of their magnificent voices, but also masters of the stage and presenting very complex but understandable characters, intelligently shaped.”
Gerhard Böhm, DNN, June 2002
 
“We experienced a vigorous Otello in David Rendall, who made a deep impression as he covered the wide range of character from successful military leader through jealous tyrant to broken and soul-destroyed lover.”
Jens Daniel Schubert, Sächsische Zeitung, June 2002


Title role in Verdi Otello
Glyndebourne Festival / cond. Richard Farnes / dir. Sir Peter Hall

“David Rendall’s Otello is of considerable stature.  His opening lines make a grandiose impression, and he acts with a moving conviction.  There is something feral about him.  He moves with dignity and in the later acts conveys powerfully Otello’s bewildered pain and the violence it leads to.  His finest moment is in the great Act III monologue, delivered slowly, torn from him but always sung, not gasped.  He is hardly less noble in the final scene, again moving partly by virtue of its restraint.”
Michael Tanner, The Spectator, August 2001
 
“What I found most absorbing last weekend was the truthfulness of the acting performances Hall got from the remarkable trio of principals.  This Otello is David Rendall’s finest hour, both vocally and histrionically.  His lean-toned but burnished Italianate tenor was overwhelming, and he understands the psychology of the role as completely as any Otello – Domingo included – that I have seen.  He touches the heart in his almost childlike infatuation with Desdemona, is terrifying in his volcanic demand for the handkerchief in Act III, and brings tears to the eyes at his suicide.”
Hugh Canning, The Sunday Times, July 2001
 
“Rendall’s Otello is a fine piece of singing.  He sounded magnificent, and he never seemed strained.  His opening “Esultate!” was grandly delivered as the thrilling moment it should be and throughout he sustained the role with increasing pathos and musicality of tone, his final plea for one last kiss from
 
the murdered Desdemona heart-rendingly phrased.  His Otello is a plebeian, vulnerable figure, a man with greatness thrust upon him and so insecure that he is easy meat for Iago.”
Michael Kennedy, The Sunday Telegraph, July 2001
 
“David Rendall is probably giving the performance of his life as Otello.  Time and again, his authority is cruelly undermined by his vulnerability.  He really conveys that, not just physically but in his singing.  Here’s an Otello who doesn’t live only for the big notes, who doesn’t fudge the difficulties – like the rapt ascents of the love duet, the final line “Venus is aglow”, delivered pianissimo for a change, in his most tender head voice.  Together with Susan Chilcott, they make each phrase of that love duet so precious as to dramatically heighten the explicit brutality to come.”
Edward Seckerson, The Independent, July 2001
 
“As Otello, the tenor David Rendall brought a clarion voice and tormented volatility to his portrayal.”
Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times, July 2001
 
“David Rendall has surely done nothing better than this Moor.  He yielded precious little vocally to Galuzin, with his ringingly Italianate top and warmly coloured tone lower down, and he triumphed in the invectiveness of his handling of the text.  The variety of tone colour and volume in the Monologues, indeed throughout, were spellbinding.  And the growth of violence, the head-knocking gesture leading both to the near-rape of Desdemona at the end of their third-act duet, the backhander with which he floored her in public, and then total physical and mental collapse, all were quite terrifying.”
Rodney Milnes, The Times, July 2001
 

Manrico in Verdi Il Trovatore
Hallé Orchestra / BBC Proms / cond. Mark Elder

“David Rendall, hotfooting it from Otello at Glyndebourne to substitute for an indisposed Carlo Ventre, was a fearless and peerless Troubadour.”
Hilary Finch, The Times, July 2001
 
 
Cavaradossi in Puccini Tosca
Welsh National Opera / cond. Julian Smith / dir. Michael Blakemore
 
“David Rendall was equally vivid.  With other performers it might seem odd that Cavaradossi can rouse himself to a loud top A sharp saluting Napoleon’s victory minutes after fainting from pain in Scarpia’s torture chamber.  Rendall’s bohemian, fire burning in his belly, made it appear par for the course.”
Geoff Brown, The Times, May 2001
 
 
Verdi Requiem
Philharmonia Chorus / cond. Valery Gergiev

“All four soloists were impressive.  The ringing notes of David Rendall made their mark.”
David Fanning, The Daily Telegraph, May 2001
 

Don José in Bizet Carmen
English National Opera / cond. Brad Cohen / dir. Jonathan Miller

“In David Rendall, she has a José of frightening intensity, whose self-abasement is as harrowing as his singing is impassioned.  Burgess and Rendall make this Carmen unmissable.”
Hugh Canning, The Times, March 2001
 
 
Pinkerton in Puccini Madam Butterfly
English National Opera / cond. Michael Lloyd / dir. Graham Vick
 
“Butterfly was wooed, won and abandoned by the vocally seductive and highly experienced Pinkerton of David Rendall.  The first tenor to sing the role in this production, he has over the years honed his portrayal of the US navy lieutenant: smug and smirking as he entertains the Consul, sneering at Butterfly’s swarming relations, and condescending of her timid attempts to excuse her pathetic belongings.  Rendall is both familiar and at ease with the role’s vocal demands: his clarion tenor rang out with brash insouciance in Pinkerton’s boasting to Sharpless, but switched to honeyed tones for the love duet as the insensitive hero succumbs to the emotion so powerfully expressed in the music.  His singing throughout was finely controlled.”
Margaret Davies, Opera, August 2000
 
 
Gustav in Verdi Un ballo in maschera
Bregenz Festival / cond. Marcello Viotti / dir. David Pountney

“David Rendall’s bright, pingy lyrical tone came across the water well and whetted the appetite to see and hear his Gustav in a proper theatre.”
Hugh Canning, The Sunday Times, August 1999


Leicester in Donizetti Mary Stuart
English National Opera / cond. Charles Mackerras / dir. John Copley
(staged 1982, DVD: Warner / NVC Arts 50467 8028-2 7)

“David Rendall makes a plausible, dashing Earl of Leicester.  He handles the graceful vocal lines with real elegance.”
David J Baker, Opera News
 
“David Rendall makes an ardent and heroic Leicester.”
Christopher Cook, BBC Music Magazine
 
“David Rendall was most impressive as Leicester, showing the virtuosity and flexibility which have also pre-destined his voice for Rossini.  In contrast with the ‘stand and deliver’ method of acting of Italian tenors, Rendall’s Leicester is thoroughly believable as the mediator between the two rivals.”
W. Kutzschbach, Das Opernglas