Christopher Maltman

Winner of the Lieder Prize at the 1997 Cardiff Singer of the World Competition, Christopher Maltman read biochemistry at Warwick University and studied singing at the Royal Academy of Music.

On the opera stage, his recent appearances include the title role of Don Giovanni at the Salzburg Festival, at the Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich and in Cologne; and Papageno (Die Zauberflöte), Guglielmo (Così fan tutte), Forester (The Cunning Little Vixen), Marcello (La bohème) and Ramiro (L’heure espagnole) at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden. His roles at the Glyndebourne Festival have included Papageno, Figaro (Le nozze di Figaro) and Sid (Albert Herring). At the Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich, he has sung Tarquinius (The Rape of Lucretia), Guglielmo, Marcello and Albert (Werther). Other opera appearances in Europe include Šiškov (From the House of the Dead) at the Vienna State Opera; Il Conte (Le nozze di Figaro) at the Opéra National de Paris; Il Conte and Aeneas (Dido and Aeneas) at the Theater an der Wien; Figaro (Il barbiere di Siviglia) at the Deutsche Staatsoper, Berlin and Tarquinius at the Aldeburgh Festival and at the English National Opera. An acclaimed Billy Budd, he has sung the role at Welsh National Opera, Teatro Regio in Turin, Seattle, Frankfurt and in Munich.

In the U.S. he has appeared at the Metropolitan Opera, New York as Papageno, Harlekin (Ariadne auf Naxos) and Silvio (I Pagliacci); in San Francisco as Papageno; in Seattle as Guglielmo and in San Diego as Figaro (Il barbiere di Siviglia) and Laurent (Therese Raquin).

His future engagements include Il Conte at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and for Zurich Opera; Don Giovanni at the Deutsche Staatsoper, Berlin and in Toulouse; Posa (Don Carlo) for the Netherlands Opera and Frankfurt Opera, and returns to the Bayerischer Staatsoper and the Metropolitan Opera, New York.

His concert engagements have included the Cleveland Orchestra with Welser-Möst, Philharmonia Orchestra with von Dohnanyi, BBC Symphony Orchestra with John Adams, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment with Norrington, London Symphony Orchestra with Rattle, Otaka and Sir Colin Davis, Concentus Musicus Wien with Harnoncourt, Dresden Staatskapelle with Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Boston Symphony Orchestra with James Conlon and Sir Colin Davis, Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra with Esa-Pekka Salonen and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra with Kurt Masur.

A renowned recitalist, he has appeared at the Vienna Konzerthaus; Amsterdam Concertgebouw; Salzburg Mozarteum; the Alte Oper in Frankfurt; the Philharmonie in Cologne, La Scala, Milan; in New York at both Carnegie Hall and at the Lincoln Center; and at the Aldeburgh, Edinburgh, Cheltenham and the Schwarzenberg Schubertiade Festivals. He is a regular guest at the Wigmore Hall where in 2009/2010 he performed and recorded for the Wigmore Live label, the three great Schubert cycles with Graham Johnson.

He has recorded Vaughan Williams 'Serenade to Music' for Decca; Warlock, Holst and Somervell songs for Collins Classics; and he took part in Deutsche Grammophon's complete Beethoven Folk Song project. His recording of Schumann’s ‘Dichterliebe’ for Hyperion was released to tremendous critical acclaim and other recent recordings include Schumann’s ‘Liederkreis’, Op.24, with Graham Johnson, a Debussy album with Malcolm Martineau and a disc of English songs with Roger Vignoles. On film, he has appeared in John Adams’ award-winning ‘The Death of Klinghoffer’, and as the title role in ‘Juan’, a new film based on the opera Don Giovanni.

Photo © Levon Biss