Christopher Lemmings studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama under Johanna Peters and Margaret Lensky, and currently studies with Michelle Wegwart. Roles include for Covent Garden: Caliban in ThomasAdès’The Tempest (also for BBC television and at the Opéra du Rhin, Strasbourg), Stingo in Nicholas Maw’s Sophie’s Choice under Sir Simon Rattle, and Scaramuccio Ariadne auf Naxos; for Glyndebourne On Tour: Lechmere Owen Wingrave,Tito La Clemenza di Tito, Belmonte Die Entführung aus dem Serail; for Glyndebourne Festival: Bartholomew, a role he created, in Sir Harrison Birtwistle’s The Last Supper, premièred at the Staatsoper, Berlin underDaniel Barenboim, andDancing Master Manon Lescaut; for the Classical Opera Company: Don Basilio / Don Curzio in Le nozze di Figaro; Don Ottavio Don Giovanni (Cologne/Verona); Albert Albert Herring for English Touring Opera; L’abate di Chazeuil Adriana Lecouvreur and Ferrando Cosi Fan Tutte for Opera Holland Park.
With a strong reputation for his work in Twentieth Century and Contemporary music, Christopher Lemmings has collaborated with composers such as Thomas Adès, Sir Harrison Birtwistle and Nicholas Maw, singing roles including Molqi The Death of Klinghoffer for Finnish National Opera; Beauty in Gerald Barry’s The Triumph of Beauty and Deceit with the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group conducted by Thomas Adès for Almeida Opera in London and Berlin, as well as with the Ives Ensemble and for Radio France; Stoikus Golem for Angers – Nantes Opera, Perelà in Pascal Dusapin’s Perelà L’uomo di Fumo at the Opéra de Bastille and the Opéras de Montpellier; Sid Thatcher in Paul Frehner’sSirius on Earth, alsofor Almeida Opera; Neoptolemus in Edward Rushton’s Birds, Barks, Bones for The Opera Group and Edmund in Toshio Hosokawa’s King Lear for ROH2. For English National Opera, he sang The NihilistinLady Macbeth of Mtsensk and for Music Theatre Wales appeared as Dov in Sir Michael Tippett’s Knot Garden.
Opera in concert includes Molqi The Death of Klinghoffer, Hotel Porter Death in Venice and Lechmere Owen Wingrave for Vara Radio at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam; The Triumph of Beauty and Deceit with the Los Angeles Philharmonic; and Itulbo Il Pirata andL’abate / Un incredibile Andrea Chénier forChelsea Opera Group at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London. Other concert appearances have included: Finzi’s Intimations of Immortality with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra; Messiah with the English Chamber Orchestra; Haydn’s Stabat Mater with the Norwegian Radio Symphony Orchestra; Janacek’s Glagolitic Mass at the Brighton Festival; Rossini’s Stabat Mater with the RTE Concert Orchestra; and Stravinsky’s Pulcinellawith the Northern Sinfonia.
Highlights for 2008 / 2009 included Beauty The Triumph of Beauty and Deceit with Birmingham Contemporary Music Group at Carnegie Hall New York; creating Robin Fingest in Michael Berkley and Ian McEwan’s new opera For You with Music Theatre Wales; Bartholomew The Last Supper on tour with the London Sinfonietta; Sellem The Rake’s Progress for Anges / Nantes Opera; Die zweiter junge Offizier Die Soldaten with the Ruhrtriennale, Bochum, and at the New York Lincoln Centre Festival; whilst in 2009 / 2010, he returned to Strasbourg to sing Clarence / Tyrell in Batistelli’s Richard III and made debuts at the Theater Lübeck as Caliban The Tempest for the Theater Lübeck and at the Flanders Opera as Bob Boles Peter Grimes. During 2010 / 2011, he sang The Prince Seven Angels for The Opera Group, Hunchbacked Brother Die Frau ohne Schatten for the Flanders Opera, First Priest Il prigioniero for the Opéra de Limoges and Rossini Stabat Mater with the Israel Sinfonietta.
Current highlights include Clarence / Tyrell Richard III and Claude / Robinson Jean-Jacques Rousseau for Geneva Opera, Tichon Katya Kabanova for Longborough Festival Opera and a return to the Flanders Opera as Spoletta Tosca, the Landlord Der Rosenkavalier and Melot Tristan und Isolde.
Recent recordings include For You (Signum) and Rorem Auden Songs with Chamber Domaine (Black Box).
http://www.christopherlemmings.com
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