Russell Smythe Baritone
Russell Smythe is one of Britain's most experienced international baritones.
Russell Smythe is one of Britain's most experienced international baritones. He studied at the Guildhall School of Music and the Lon¬don Opera Centre. He became a founding member of the English Music Theatre in 1976, where he sang the title role in Stephen Oliver's Tom Jones and THE BALLAD SINGER Paul Jones. He became a principal with Welsh National Opera in 1977, where roles included BILLY BUDD, EUGENE ONE¬GIN, PAPAGENO, FIGARO Barbiere, COUNT Figaro, YELETSKY Queen of Spades, GARIBALDO Rodelinda (BBC TV) and MALATESTA Don Pasquale.
He made his Covent Garden debut in the 1983/84 season in PETER GRIMES and returned for MALATESTA, FALKE Die Fledermaus and GUGLIELMO Così fan tutte. His early work for English National Opera included a new production of Pelleas and Melisande, PAPAGENO, FIGARO, and TARQUINIUS Rape of Lucretia. At the Hamburg Staatsoper his roles included GUGLIELMO, FIGARO, HARLEQUIN Ariadne, PELLEAS and PAPAGENO, which he also sang on the company's successful tour to Japan. He made his debut at the Vienna Volksoper as the COUNT Der Wildschütz and later as FALKE and PAPAGENO. His Paris Opera debut was as HARLEQUIN.
International engagements have taken him to Vancouver, Amsterdam, Brussels, Frankfurt, New York, San Sebastian, Paris, Dublin Montpellier, Bordeaux, Tel Aviv, Antwerp, Nancy and Catania. Following his 1992 success as ORESTE Iphigenie en Tauride in Basel, Russell continued his development into heavier repertoire with GERMONT La Traviata also with Basel Opera and NED KEENE Peter Grimes in Madrid. With the English Bach Festival he sang the title role in Monteverdi's Orfeo at The Royal Opera House and in Lugano. He sang AENEAS for them later that season. Other engagements that season included SHISHKOV From the House of the Dead with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Andrew Davis.
Engagements in the 1994/95 season included the HENRI DE VALOIS in the British première of Chabrier's Le Roi Malgré Lui for Opera North, THESEE Hippolyte et Aricie (Deutsche Grammophon) and AENEAS (both conducted by Marc Minkowski), the FORESTER Cunning Little Vixen for Opera Zuid, AENEAS for the Berlin Staatsoper and SHARPLESS for WNO.
In 1995/96 he sang PETER Hansel and Gretel with Scottish Opera and BATONE L'Inganno Felice with Les Musiciens du Louvre as well as APOLLO/PASTORE II Orfeo with De Nederlandse Opera, concerts with the Halle Orchestra.
Recordings include the Opera Rara series of 19th Century works and KING EDWARD III L'Assedio di Calais. He sang PANTALON L'Amour des Trois Oranges (BBC TV) and recorded exten¬sively for Radio 3. He recorded DER MANN Die Glückliche Hand (WDR Cologne), Menotti's The Telephone (Decca), BILLY BUDD (Erato) and TEUCER in Rameau's Dardanus (Deutsche Grammophon Archiv).
Recent appearances include Monteverdi’s Orfeo with Opéra de Lausanne, SHARPLESS at the Deutsche Staatsoper, Berlin, STAREK Jenufa, AENEAS Dido and Aeneas, ARBACE Idomeneo and HASTINGS Richard III for De Vlaamse Opera, REDBURN Billy Budd for the New Israeli Opera, DER BARBIER Die Schweigsame Frau, FERNANDO La Gazza Ladra and MUSIKLEHRER Ariadne auf Naxos for Garsington and the MAYOR Jenufa and PAGE Sir John in Love for ENO. Plans include NICENO in Vivaldi’s L’incoronazione di Dario at Garsington, MANOAH Samson at the Buxton Festival, PING for De Vlaamse Opera and HASTINGS Richard III for Opéra National du Rhin.
Audio file: Russell Smythe
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