Alan Opie


Alan Opie is an English baritone, primarily known as an opera singer.

Education

He attended Truro School and 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. He became a :wikt:principal|Principal Baritone there while still a student.

Opera career

Opie has also sung with the other major UK opera companies Scottish Opera, Opera North, 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. 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 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 in the 2013 Birthday Honours for services to music.

Personal life

Opie and his wife Kathleen have a son and a daughter.

Operatic roles

Performed and/or recorded, listed alphabetically:
RoleOperaComposer
Aristæus IThe Mask of OrpheusBirtwistle
variousDeath in VeniceBritten
BalstrodePeter GrimesBritten
BeckmesserDie Meistersinger von Nürnberg Wagner
Chairman MaoMadame MaoBright Sheng
Don AlfonsoCosì fan tutteMozart
Don CarloErnaniVerdi
DiomedeTroilus and CressidaWalton
Eisenstein, FalkeDie FledermausJohann Strauss II
EnricoLucia di LammermoorDonizetti
Falstaff, FordFalstaffVerdi
FaninalDer RosenkavalierRichard Strauss
FaraoneMosè in EgittoRossini
FaustDoktor FaustBusoni
FieramoscaBenvenuto CelliniBerlioz
FigaroIl Barbiere di SivigliaRossini
ForesterThe Cunning Little VixenJanáček
GermontLa TraviataVerdi
MalatestaDon PasqualeDonizetti
MarcelloLa BohèmePuccini
Marquis de la Force Dialogues of the CarmelitesPoulenc
MelitoneLa Forza del DestinoVerdi
MillerLuisa MillerVerdi
MontanoOtelloVerdi
NabuccoNabuccoVerdi
OutisOutisBerio
PapagenoDie ZauberflöteMozart
PaoloSimon BoccanegraVerdi
RigolettoRigolettoVerdi
Sancho PanzaDon QuichotteMassenet
SharplessMadam ButterflyPuccini
SidAlbert HerringBritten
SmirnovThe BearWalton
Der SpielmannKönigskinderHumperdinck
StivaAnna KareninaHamilton
TaddeoL'Italiana in AlgeriRossini
TonioPagliacciLeoncavallo
UlisseUlisseDallapiccola
ValentinFaustGounod

Selected concert works

WorkComposer
Ein Deutsches Requiem Brahms
Das Klagende LiedMahler
ElijahMendelssohn
EzioHandel
Hugh the DroverVaughan Williams
Oedipus RexStravinsky
RequiemFauré
The Dream of GerontiusElgar
Ultima RerumGerard Victory

Selected discography

Grammy Award-winning recordings in bold.