The English counter-tenor, Andrew Watts, studied at the Royal Academy of Music with Geoffrey Mitchell.
Andrew Watts’ operatic engagements include appearances with the Royal Opera Covent Garden, English National Opera, Glyndebourne Festival and Glyndebourne Touring Opera, the Almeida Festival, Edinburgh Fringe Festival and Broomhill Opera in repertoire including Bishop Baldwin Gawain And The Green Knight, title-role in Gluck’s Orpheus And Eurydice, Arsamenes Xerxes, Fairy The Fairy Queen, Third Shepherd in Monteverdi’s Orfeo, James The Last Supper, Oberon A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Dimitri Smirnov’s The Lamentations Of Thel, Acmior in Ian McQueen’s Line Of Terror and Camille in Michael Finnissey’s Therese Raquin, Omar Death Of Klinghoffer and Pleasure in Gerald Barry’s Triumph Of Beauty And Deceit. Foreign engagements have included appearances with Staatsoper Berlin, Komische Oper Berlin, Teatro La Fenice, De Vlaamse Opera, Antwerp and Ghent, the Vienna Festival, Sydney, Batignano Festival, Henze’s Montepulciano Festival, Lautten Compganey Berlin at the Dresdner Musikfestspiele, RIAS-Kammerchor Berlin, Banff Centre, Graz Opera, Opéra National du Rhin, Canada and Mexico in repertoire which has included Sorceress and Second Witch Dido And Aeneas, Grace Venus And Adonis, Nutrice L’incoronazione Di Poppea, Jeremy in the world premiere of Olga Neuwirth’s Bählamms Fest, Mystery Man in the world première of Olga Neuwirth’s Lost Highway, Giasone in the world première of Guarnieri’s Medea, title roles Orfeo ed Euridice and Orlando, Xicotencatle in Paul Barker’s La Malinche, Celinda L’Antiope, the world premiere of Lost Objects, Orlofsky Die Fledermaus, Athamas Semele, Andronico Tamerlano and Claudio Messalina.
Concert engagements include BBC Symphony Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Ulster Orchestra, Magnificat, New London Orchestra, Highgate Choral Society, Gabrieli Consort, Aldeburgh and Cheltenham Festivals and The Hanover Band at the Wigmore Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Barbican, and at Festivals throughout the UK. He features on recordings for ASV of Boyce’s Ode For St Cecilia’s Day and David’s Lamentation with The Hanover Band and was heard in Sally Potter’s film Orlando and television appearances include a cameo as Kathleen Ferrier in William And Mary. Concert engagements include the world premiere of Unsuk Chin’s Cantatrix Sopranica and appearances at the Salzburg Festival for Olga Neuwirth’s La Vie…Ulcerant and Five Daily Miniatures with Klangforum, Neuwirth’s Hommage À Klaus Nomi at the Lucerne Festival and the world premieres of works by Guarnieri and Manzoni, Judas Maccabeus with Capella Savaria in France, Jephtha with Concentus Vocalis on tour in Italy, J.S. Bach's St. John Passion (BWV 245) in France with New College Choir, Oxford, J.S. Bach's Magnificat (BWV 243) and Charpentier Te Deum in Lourdes, a concert with La Chapelle Royale in Saintes, Nikolaj Obukow’s Preface Du Livre De Vie in Vienna, The Indian Queen in France, Lost Objects for Next Wave Festival in New York, Antonio Vivaldi and George Frideric Handel Cantatas in Budapest, La Vie…Ulcerant and Five Daily Miniatures with Klangforum in Vienna and Seville, a Neuwirth portrait with Ensemble Modern in Cologne for WDR, Heinz Holliger’s Beiseit with the Nouvel Ensemble Contemporain at the Cernier Festival and Lausanne Schubertiade, concerts with the Ictus Ensemble in Brussels and Vienna, Obouhov’s Le Livre De Vie with the Radio Symphony Orchestra at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, the world première of Harrison Birtwistle’s Orpheus Elegies and Harrison Birtwistle’s The Shadow Of Night with the Cleveland Orchestra at the Edinburgh International Festival. He broadcasts regularly in England and abroad and recordings include Boyce’s Ode For St Cecilia’s Day with The Hanover Band for ASV and Lost Objects for Teldec.
Engagements in the 2005/2006 include Orpheus Elegies in Australia, Cantatrix Sopranica for the Festspielhaus, St Pölten and at the Venice Music Biennale, Dixit Dominus for Leeds Festival Chorus, Odysseus Remembers for the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Prince Go-go La Grand Macabre for Graz Opera. Subsequent engagements include, B. Britten Canticles at the Wigmore Hall and performances of Pleasure Triumph, Beauty & Deceit for the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, the world premiere of Raymond Yiu’s The Original Chinese Conjuror for Almeida Opera at the Aldeburgh Festival and in London and L’upupa for the Hamburgische Staatsoper. Subsequent engagements include the world premiere of Unsuk Chin’s Alice In Wonderland at the Bayerische Staatsoper, München and further performances at the Hamburgische Staatsoper.
Among the singers who have studied with him and/or attended his master-classes: Veronika Loy (Soprano). |