' ...an
instinctive performer, the voice
agile and
elegantly controlled, the tone always deeply expressive. He
promises great things.'
-
Opera magazine
|
Iestyn Davies has been praised throughout
the music press
for the power, fullness and sheer personality of his voice. He has also
won
accolades for musicianship of intelligence and maturity, and for his
acute
characterisation on the operatic stage.
A former choral
scholar at St John's College, Cambridge,
Iestyn Davies
studied at the Royal Academy of Music. At the outset of his career he
made a
big impression as a winner at the London Handel Festival Singing
Competition
broadcast on BBC Radio 3.
Recent operatic
roles have included
Ottone in
Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di
Poppea for Zürich Opera
(Harnoncourt), Corrado
in Vivaldi's Griselda with
Ensemble Matheus (Spinosi), Azul in
Nodaira's Madrugada for the
Schleswig-Holstein Festival (Nagano),
Hamor in Handel's Jephtha for
Welsh
National Opera and most recently solo countertenor in Purcell's King
Arthur for
English National Opera a role which he will also perform for the
Philharmonia
Baroque Orchestra at Zellerbach Auditorium in Berkeley (Glover). After
his
performance in Athalia, the
critic of The Scotsman wrote
'it was
countertenor
Iestyn Davies, as Joad, who stole the show with a beautifully nuanced
performance, authoritative, emotional and lusciously sung.'
Iestyn is an
accomplished concert singer,
having given
memorable performances of Bach, Handel, Purcell and Mozart among
others. In the UK
he has appeared at Wigmore Hall, Snape Maltings, Queen's Hall in Edinburgh and the Barbican; in Paris
at Cité de la Musique and the Théâtre des
Champs-Elysées; and at the Lateran
Church
in Rome as well as Dresden's Frauenkirke. Conductors he
has worked with in concert include
John Eliot
Gardiner, Robert King and Rinaldo Alessandrini.
Among his
current and forthcoming solo
appearances are
Handel's Messiah with the Academy
of Ancient Music
(Concertgebouw, Amsterdam),
Messiah and Bach's St John Passion
with Polyphony, Bach's St Matthew
Passion with the Bach Choir at the
Royal
Albert Hall and Britten Canticles at
the Wigmore as part of their
Britten
Festival, with John Mark Ainsley and Roger Vignoles.
2007 finds
Iestyn in great demand on the
operatic
stage. His most significant engagements
include Human Frailty / Pisander in Monteverdi's Ritorno d'Ulisse for
Welsh
National Opera; and Apollo in Britten's Death in Venice
for English National Opera.
Appearances too with Tom Koopman and the Amsterdam Baroque singing Bach
and Theodora with the
Scottish Chamber Orchestra.
Iestyn has
recently recorded Griselda with
Ensemble
Matheus for Naïve (BBC Music
magazine's Opera of the Year
2007) and Handel's Messiah
with the Academy
of Ancient Music and New
College Choir
for Naxos. He
is also to be heard on the soundtrack of
the Ridley Scott film epic Kingdom
of Heaven.
|
'...there were
very many stylish
contributions, but
perhaps none that augurs better for Baroque performance in the
immediate future
than that of countertenor Iestyn Davies. Milton's line juxtaposes
gorgeous with
tragedy, Davies' voice memorably combined
the
two.'
--
The Guardian
(Handel's L'Allegro, il
Penseroso ed il
Moderato)
|
This authorised
biography is for general use in the 2007-8 season.
Please do not
edit
without permission from here.
|
