Alan Opie (born 22 March 1945) is a British baritone, primarily known as an opera singer.
Education Opie was born in Redruth, Cornwall, and attended Truro School. He went to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge University as a choral student in 1963. He also studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the London Opera Centre before joining the Sadler's Wells Opera (now the English National Opera, ENO). He became a Principal baritone there while still a student.
Opera career Opie has also sung with the other major UK opera companies Scottish Opera, Opera North, Welsh National Opera, Glyndebourne Festival Opera and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Internationally, he has performed in the opera houses of Paris, Amsterdam, Vienna, Brussels, Berlin, Chicago and Santa Fe and regularly appears at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich. In 1978, he sang Messias in Lyric Opera of Chicago's World Premiere production of Penderecki's Paradise Lost, which was also presented at La Scala in January 1979. He has also sung at the Bayreuth Festival. In 1996, Opie switched his status at the ENO from company member to regular guest, enabling him to make his début at La Scala, Milan. There he created the role of Outis in the opera of the same name by Luciano Berio.. In 2011 he performed Frank in Die Fledermaus for Welsh National Opera.
In March 2017, he performed the role of Arbace in Mozart's Idomeneo at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.
He has recorded for CBS, EMI, Hyperion, Chandos and Decca, winning Grammy Awards in 1996 and 1998 for his involvement in, respectively, recordings of Britten's Peter Grimes and Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.
Awards In 1997, his performance in the title role of Verdi's Falstaff earned Opie a nomination for the 1998 Laurence Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera. He was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2013 Birthday Honours for services to music.Notice of OBE award to Alan Opie, bbc.co.uk; accessed 15 March 2014.
Personal life Opie and his wife Kathleen (married since 1970) have a son and a daughter.
Operatic roles Performed and/or recorded, listed alphabetically:
Role Opera Composer Aristæus I The Mask of Orpheus Birtwistle various Death in Venice Britten Balstrode Peter Grimes Britten Beckmesser Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg Wagner Chairman Mao Madame Mao Bright Sheng Don Alfonso Così fan tutte Mozart Don Carlo Ernani Verdi Diomede Troilus and Cressida Walton Eisenstein, Falke Die Fledermaus Johann Strauss II Enrico Lucia di Lammermoor Donizetti Falstaff, Ford Falstaff Verdi Faninal Der Rosenkavalier Richard Strauss Faraone Mosè in Egitto Rossini Faust Doktor Faust Busoni Fieramosca Benvenuto Cellini Berlioz Figaro Il Barbiere di Siviglia Rossini Forester The Cunning Little Vixen Janáček Germont La Traviata Verdi Malatesta Don Pasquale Donizetti Marcello La Bohème Puccini Marquis de la Force Dialogues of the Carmelites Poulenc Melitone La Forza del Destino Verdi Messias Paradise Lost Penderecki Miller Luisa Miller Verdi Montano Otello Verdi Nabucco Nabucco Verdi Outis Outis Berio Papageno Die Zauberflöte Mozart Paolo Simon Boccanegra Verdi Rigoletto Rigoletto Verdi Sancho Panza Don Quichotte Massenet Sharpless Madam Butterfly Puccini Sid Albert Herring Britten Smirnov The Bear Walton Der Spielmann Königskinder Humperdinck Stiva Anna Karenina Hamilton Taddeo L'Italiana in Algeri Rossini Tonio Pagliacci Leoncavallo Ulisse Ulisse Dallapiccola Valentin Faust Gounod
Selected concert works (performed and/or recorded, listed alphabetically) Work Composer Ein Deutsches Requiem Brahms Das Klagende Lied Mahler Elijah Mendelssohn Ezio Handel Hugh the Drover Vaughan Williams Oedipus Rex Stravinsky Requiem Fauré The Dream of Gerontius Elgar Ultima Rerum Gerard Victory
Selected discography Grammy Award-winning recordings in bold. Year Work/s Composer/s Artists Label 1991 Otello Verdi Chicago Symphony Orchestra et al.cond. Sir Georg Solti Decca 1993 Bethlehem Boughton City of London Sinfonia et al.cond. Alan Melville Hyperion 1994 Hugh the Drover Vaughan Williams Corydon Orchestra and Singers et al.cond. Matthew Best Hyperion 1996 Peter Grimes Britten City of London Sinfonia et al.cond. Richard Hickox Chandos 1997 Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg Wagner Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus cond. Sir Georg Solti Decca 1998 Pagliacci Leoncavallo London Philharmonic Orchestra et al.cond. David Parry Chandos 2000 The Barber of Seville Rossini ENO Orchestra and Choruscond. Gabriele Bellini Chandos(recorded 1994) Rigoletto Verdi ENO Orchestra and Choruscond. Mark Elder Chandos 2002 Death in Venice Britten London Sinfoniettacond. Graeme Jenkins Kultur DVD 2003 Peter Grimes Britten ENO Orchestra and Choruscond. David Atherton Kultur DVD Classical Brubeck Dave Brubeck Dave Brubeck Quartet et al. Telarc 2004 Alan Opie sings Bel Canto Arias various Chandos
References
Sources
External links Rayfield Allied profile