Brian Bannatyne-Scott, Bass

Pacific Opera Victoria
La Roche in Capriccio
February - March, 2010

Brian Bannatyne-Scott makes his POV debut as the Theatre Director La Roche in Richard Strauss's Capriccio. Mr. Bannatyne-Scott has previously performed this role with Scottish Opera and Theater Bielefeld.

Brian Bannatyne-Scott was born and educated in Edinburgh and studied at St Andrews University (MA Hons) and the Guildhall School of Music in London. He has studied with Laura Sarti, Sir Peter Pears, Galina Vishnevskaya, Hans Hotter and Norman Bailey, and now he works with Anthony Roden. After winning the Decca Kathleen Ferrier Prize in 1981, he made debuts at the Teatro la Fenice, Venice and the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma in Castiglioni's Oberon the same year. Since then, he has appeared at many of the world's major Opera Houses.

He has sung at the Teatro alla Scala, Milan, under the baton of Sir Colin Davis; at both the Opéras de Paris; at the Grand Théâtre de Genève; at the Théâtre de la Monnaie, Brussels; the Nederlandse Opera, Amsterdam; the Teatro Colon, Buenos Aires, with Trevor Pinnock; the Bunkamura Theatre, Tokyo, with Marc Minkowski; the Opera de Lyon with René Jacobs and Marc Minkowski; the Opera of Sao Paolo, Brazil; and numerous other theatres around Europe.

In Britain, he has worked with Scottish Opera (Colline in La Bohème, La Roche in Capriccio, Don Fernando in Fidelio, Der Sprecher in Die Zauberflöte); Opera North (Snug in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Varlaam in Boris Godunov); English National Opera (Monterone in Rigoletto, the Commendatore in Don Giovanni, Banquo in Macbeth, Pogner in Die Meistersinger von Nurenberg, the Grand Inquisitor in Don Carlos; and made his debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in 2004 as Luther in Les Contes d'Hoffmann.

Roles include Wotan (Longborough Festival Opera) Pogner (ENO), Arkel in Pelléas et Mélisande (Opéra du Rhin, Strasbourg), Banquo (ENO), Geronte di Ravoir in Manon Lescaut (Grand Théâtre de Genève, Opéra de Nancy, Opera North), Le Spectre d'Hector in Les Troyens (Teatro alla Scala, Milan and Barbican Hall, London), Fafner and Hagen in The Ring (Birmingham Opera Company), Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte (Opéra de Nantes), Swallow in Peter Grimes (Opéra de Nantes), Parson in The Cunning Little Vixen (Bregenz Festival), Priam in Les Troyens (Nederlandse Opera, Amsterdam), Peachum in The Beggar's Opera (Opéras de Caen and Rouen), Silvano in La Calisto (Opéras de Lyon and Montpellier), Araspe in Handel's Tolomeo (Opernhaus Halle and Opernhaus Dessau), Pistola in Falstaff (Opéras de Nancy, Caen and Lausanne), Baron Ochs in Der Rosenkavalier (Theater Bielefeld); Der Tod in Der Kaiser von Atlantis (Théâtre de la Monnaie, Brussels, theatres in Liege, Antwerp, Sarajevo and Lisbon, and Mecklenburg Opera), Die Mutter in Die Sieben Todsünden (Théâtre de la Monnaie, Brussels, Oslo and the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam), El Tio Salvaor in La Vida Breve (Théâtre de la Monnaie, Brussels), Crespel in Les contes d'Hoffmann and Talpa in Il Tabarro (Opera de Lyon); and Mozart's Bartolo (Théâtre de la Monnaie, Brussels, Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, Bermuda Festival and Tokyo).

Recent performances include Hobson in Peter Grimes (Theatre de la Monnaie, Bilbao and Valencia), le Poete in Orphée (Royal Opera House, Covent Garden), multiple roles in Shostakovich's The Nose (Opera de Nantes/Angers), and Trulove in The Rake's Progress (Nantes and Angers). In January 2009 Brian had great success as La Roche in Capriccio at Theater Bielefeld, and he returned there to open the 2009/10 season in the title role of Falstaff.

Recordings include Messiah (DG), King Arthur (DG), L'Incoronazione di Poppea (Virgin), A Midsummer Night's Dream (Decca), The Cunning Little Vixen (ORF), Tolomeo (Mondo Musica) and Sir John in Love (Chandos).

February 2010