One of today’s most sought-after lyric baritones on the international stage, Brett Polegato's artistic sensibility has earned him the highest praise from audiences and critics. The New York Times has praised him for his “burnished, well-focused voice” which he uses with “considerable intelligence and nuance.”

Since finishing first among the men at the 1995 Cardiff Singer of the World competition, his career has encompassed over fifty operatic roles in the world’s most prestigious venues including La Scala, l’Opéra National de Paris, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera, the Teatro Real, the Concertgebouw and the Carnegie Hall. He has made a name for himself in a number of dramatic roles, most notably Pelléas Pelléas et Mélisande, Il Conte Almaviva Le Nozze di Figaro and the title roles of Eugene Onegin and Don Giovanni.

Highlights of Polegato’s 2011/12 season include Guglielmo Cosi Fan Tutte at the Perm Opera and Ballet Theatre, Starbuck Moby Dick for Calgary Opera, Kurwenal Tristan und Isolde with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, a performance of Zemlinsky’s Lyrische Symphonie with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and his Orchestre Métropolitain, Vaughan Williams’ Five Mystical Songs and Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem in Winnipeg, and Sharpless Madama Butterfly with Seattle Opera.

Next season’s highlights include Dandini La Cenerentola with Seattle Opera and the title role of Eugene Onegin for Grange Park Opera. Looking further ahead, Polegato’s future roles include the title role of Wozzeck, Marquis de Posa Don Carlos, a reprise of Starbuck Moby Dick and Golaud Pelléas et Mélisande.

Brett Polegato is represented by Simon Goldstone at Intermusica. 
May 2012 / 252 words. Not to be altered without permission. Please destroy all previous biographical material.

Sharpless Madame Butterfly / Seattle Opera
“Canadian baritone Brett Polegato impressed us with his ample, rich voice, including easy tops and fine legato. He acted well the stressful situation of the great letter scene, which is for me the best moment in the opera. He was also a handsome figure and easily commanded the stage.”
Rod Parke, Seattle Gay News, May 2012

Kurwenal in Wagner Tristan und Isolde / CBSO
Cond. Andris Nelsons
“Brett Polegato’s Kurwenal was outstanding, portrayed with absolute dignity, a sorrowful tone and vocal perfection.”
Patrick George Montague, ResMusica, March 2012

“...Brett Polegato, whose lyric baritone carried magnificently and who had considerable presence."
Rian Evans, Classical Source, March 2012

“Always accurate, a beautiful tone… and a beautiful presence.”
Marie Torres, Artistikrezo, March 2012

“Brett Polegato stood out as a gallant and tender squire, mastering the phrasing perfectly – which is rare for singers playing the role of Kurwenal.”
Concerto Net, March 2012

Starbuck Moby Dick / Calgary Opera
Cond. Joseph Mechavich
“Brett Polegato goes from triumph to triumph, and I have never heard him so completely successful as in his very human and vocally superb rendition of Star-buck. The ovation for him at the end was spontaneous and entirely deserved.”
Kenneth Delong, Calgary Herald, January 2012

“There is a duet between Polegato and Heppner that shows these men's true humanity, which is chilling in its beauty.”
Louis Hobson, Calgary Sun, January 2012

Handel's Messiah / Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and Chamber Choir / Koerner Hall
Cond. Ivars Taurins
“Canadian baritone Brett Polegato brought his rich, dark voice to bear on Thus Saith the Lord.“
Colin Eatock, The Globe and Mail, December 2011

“Baritone Brett Polegato, sang as if his life — and soul — depended on every note and word being true.”
John Terauds, Toronto.com, December 2011

Papageno / Mozart Die Zauberflöte / Cincinnati Opera
“As Mathey’s companion, the birdcatcher Papageno, Brett Polegato was completely at ease as both singer and comic relief.”
Thomas Consolo, Music in Cincinnati, August 2011

“His partner in the quest, Papageno, was Canadian baritone and excellent comedian Brett Polegato. His cleverness, singing and acting were delightful.”
Burt Saidel, Oakwoodregister, August 2011

Soloist in Bach’s Mass in B minor
Toronto
“Polegato’s stunning achievements were his virtuoso solo at Et ascendit in coelum and his gorgeous articulate account, with oboe John Abberger and bassoon Teresi, of his aria Et in Spiritum sanctum.”
The Globe and Mail, February 2011

Soloist in Handel’s Messiah,
Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, Toronto cond. Ivars Taurins
"Baritone Brett Polegato... is at the peak of his vocal prime. Besides conveying the emotional message behind his arias... Polegato brought immense technical control on Wednesday night....[Polegato] didn’t miss a note."
John Terauds, Toronto Star, December 2010

Sharpless in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly
Canadian Opera Company
“There is also superb work from baritone Brett Polegato as the American consul Sharpless, who lends not only a powerful voice but a strong sense of humanity and compassion as well to the role of a good man caught in the middle of a mess he didn't create."
John Coulbourn, Toronto Sun, October 2009

“Brett Polegato played Sharpless as a man for whom diplomacy is both a profession and a curse. This fine baritone's understated expression of his qualms about Pinkerton's marriage was so carefully paced that his belated show of impatience with the big lug felt like a deliverance.”
Robert Everett-Green, The Globe and Mail, September 30, 2009

Soloist in Handel’s Messiah
Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, Toronto
"Baritone Brett Polegato was in fabulous voice and plumbed the full operatic possibilities in his dramatic arias [in Handel's Messiah]."

John Terrauds, The Toronto Star, December 2008

Title role in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin
Vancouver Opera
"Vocally, baritone Brett Polegato was a fabulous Onegin, incapable of a musical false step. Everything we need to know about Onegin was there to be heard: the elegance, the anger, the seductive power and callousness."
Elissa Poole, The Globe & Mail, November 2008

"The emotionally real performances also make this production feel modern. Baritone Brett Polegato’s Onegin is the consummate cool customer, dashing and remote, a man who refuses to kiss the ladies’ hands and spurns the young Tatyana for professing her love so openly to him. It’s a testament to Polegato’s range that when he finally meets Tatyana again, he’s a mess-burying his face in her lap and crying out in agony when she accuses him of desiring her because she’s joined high society. He’s a cad and a misfit, but you can’t help feeling for him in the end."
Janet Smith, Georgia Straight, November 2008

Title role in Mozart’s Don Giovanni
Canadian Opera Company
"Baritone Brett Polegato surpassed all expectations in the title role. Here was a Don Giovanni who was unquestionably the star of this Mozartean operatic domain. Slim and elegant in stylish black leather, Polegato both sang and acted his role to a fare-thee-well, projecting the Don as an indefatigable and ruthless predator, and at the same time as a man of fatal charm to his serial feminine victims.

His singing lay at the very centre of his characterization, so perfectly did it convey the dramatic sense of his actions, from the effervescent, hormonally driven call for wine, Finch' han dal vino, to the delicate, honeyed canzonetta Deh, vieni alla finestra, by which he entices Donna Elvira's pretty serving maid to the balcony window, to the innumerable adroitly inflected recitatives in which he insinuates himself into the affections of one woman after another, or cuts off her means of escape by cleverly banishing her protectors. He was superb."
Ken Winters, The Globe & Mail, October 2008

"Funnily enough, Polegato's performance was this production's best asset. He transcended these directorial attempts to annul his character. Polegato's acting was breathtaking as an imploding antihero, slipping into a boozy delirium, maudlin and reflective one moment, sinister and threatening the next. It was as if the Don's corrupted masculinity was poisoning him, which worked with the overall direction because his exaggerated manhood, which is the crux of the actual story's conflict, had been dismantled with nothing else to fill the vacuum.

Vocally, Polegato had the most volume among the cast, the most fluid and confident delivery. His steadily rising intensity throughout the show seemed to lift everything up."
John Keillor, National Post, October 2008

"Brett Polegato casts aside the familiar portrayal of the character as a loveable rake. His Giovanni is moody, sullen and prone to violence. He shows that Giovanni’s life of constant conquest is also a life of constant repetition that has lost its excitement. Nothing goes right for Giovanni now, as the libretto notes, and [director Robin] Guarino views his actions as self-destructive. Polegato’s good looks, his burnished baritone and his ability to communicate complex states of mind make him ideal in this role."
Christopher Hoile, Eye Weekly, October 2008

Title role in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin
Canadian Opera Company
"Toronto-based baritone Brett Polegato spends nearly the whole 2 1/2 hours onstage in the title role in this production, which begins at the very end so that the opera can be presented in flashback. Miraculously, the singer manages to keep Onegin fresh, despite the character being presented as a perpetually tortured Romantic soul, right down to trying to tug out his long, wavy locks.

This is the first time Polegato has sung the role of Onegin, yet he fully inhabits the character and made beautiful work of Tchaikovsky's long, long melodic lines. This is a spectacular piece of work from a terrifically accomplished singer."
John Terauds, The Toronto Star, April 2008

"Polegato looks and sounds every inch the doomed romantic hero, and his transformation from world-weary snob to impassioned lover is believable and moving."
Glenn Sumi, Now Magazine, April 2008