TENOR

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 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, and Dancing 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, He has also sung 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 Dutch 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’s Sirius on Earth, alsofor Almedia Opera; Neoptolemus in Edward Rushton’s Birds, Barks, Bones for The Opera Group at the Linbury Theatre, Covent Garden and Edmund in Toshio Hosokawa’s King Lear for ROH2. For English National Opera, he sang The Nihilistin Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk for ENO and appeared as Dov in Sir Michael Tippett’s Knot Garden in a joint production between the Royal Opera House and Music Theatre Wales to mark the centenary of the composer’s birth.

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, Queen Elizabeth Hall. Other concert appearances have included:  Finzi’s Intimations of Immortality with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra; Messiah in London and Madrid with the English Chamber Orchestra; Haydn’s Stabat Mater Norwegian Radio Symphony Orchestra; Janacek’s Glagolitic Mass at the Brighton Festival; Rossini’s Stabat Mater with the RTE Concert Orchestra; and Stravinsky’s Pulcinella with the Northern Sinfonia.

Highlights for 2008 / 2009 include 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; and a concert tour of Sweden with Chamber Domaine.

In Autumn 2009, he returns to Strasbourg to sing Clarence in Batistelli’s Richard III and current engagements further include Caliban The Tempest for the Theater Lübeck, Industrialist Seven Angels for The Opera Group, Bob Boles Peter Grimes for the Flanders Opera, First Priest Il prigoniero for the Opéra-Théâtre de Limoges and Rachmaninov Vespers at the Brighton Festival.

Recent recordings include the critically acclaimed Rorem Auden Songs with Chamber Domaine (Black Box) and a disc of lesser known music by the Italian born film composer Nino Rota.

www.christopherlemmings.com

Please note that this biography is not to be used for programmes. Current information is available on request.