Andrew Greenan
Artist Reviews
"(The soloists) were led by Andrew Greenan's commanding Gurnemanz, who quickly brought focus to Act 1 in a beautifully measured and tireless account of his monologue and had the resources and imagination for all the rapture of Act 3. Greenan was impressive enough as Saffron Opera's Sachs and Wotan, and his Gurnemanz was on even higher form."
“This opera calls for a group of exceptional baritone and bass voices, and this cast really delivered. Andrew Greenan was suitably authoritative as Gurnemanz, with plenty of power and stamina for the role, and also the variety of tone and delivery to maintain interest across the long monologues.”
“Andrew Greenan has great fun as the Baron, with a wicked past and in the present compelled to marry Agnes against her will because of a prophecy relating to the ghost of the Prioress. It is all terrifically mad stuff, but Greenan sings with a lovely swagger and a nice musicality, not a hint of bluster here.”
“As the haunted Baron – key to the opera's individuality – the sepulchral bass Andrew Greenan...his vivid sense of character and commanding presence.”
“The Borough’s long list of entertaining characters was perfectly drawn, Andrew Greenan’s Swallow, gruff in the courtroom, was horribly smarmy around Scandinavians Hanna Husáhr and Vibeke Kristensen’s brightly sung wayward Nieces.”
“And as ever when hearing Wagner in the concert hall, there were things to discover and to delight in, as well as those moments when the whole performance seemed to transcend itself, and the lack of any theatrical setting ceased to matter. Here, the most spellbinding of those moments came at the beginning of the third act, with the confrontation between Hilary Summers’ regal Erda and Greenan’s Wanderer – an irresistible moral force meeting an immovable object.”
Biography
The Anglo-French bass, Andrew Greenan was a Choral Scholar at St John’s College, Cambridge, where he read Modern Languages. He then studied with John Cameron at the Royal Northern College of Music and, whilst there, made his operatic debut in Schoenberg’s Die Glückliche Hand at La Scala, Milan.
His comprehensive concert repertoire ranges from Bach to Tippett and beyond. Highlights include Messiah (Huddersfield Choral Society), St Matthew Passion (RLPO), Mozart Requiem (Royal Festival Hall), Verdi Requiem (St Paul’s Cathedral), Creation (Singapore SO), Dream of Gerontius, Belshazzar’s Feast and Elijah, all at Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, and Mahler 8th Symphony at Bridgewater Hall, as well as Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with NYOGB under Vasily Petrenko. Among others, he has also appeared with Pappano, Runnicles, Rizzi, Slatkin, Nelsons, de
Waart, Rustioni, Karabits and Metzmacher.
Recordings include The Nightingale, The Flood and Oedipus Rex in Robert Craft’s Stravinsky cycle with the Philharmonia, Parsifal with the Hallé and Sir Mark Elder, Sir Colin Davis’ Grammy winning Les Troyens (LSO) and Der Wirt in Der Schatzgräber (Schreker)with Netherlands Opera under Marc Albrecht. He also sings the central rôle of the Baron of Lindenberg in the acclaimed new recording of Raymond and Agnes by Edward J Loder conducted by Richard Bonynge. Work in contemporary music has seen him in James MacMillan’s Since it was the Day of Preparation….with the Hebrides Ensemble at the Amsterdam Muziekgebouw and in the world première of Ed Jones’ Arctic Elegy conducted by the composer.
Andrew began his career as a Company Principal at English National Opera, then went on to sing for many of the world’s great opera houses, including the Metropolitan Opera, New York (Heinrich Lohengrin with Augin), Royal Opera House, Covent Garden (with Solti, Haitink, von Dohnányi, Bychkov, Mackerras and Hickox), Hamburg (Peter Grimes), Paris – Châtelet (Arabella), Bordeaux, Brussels, Lyon, Geneva, San Diego (Cecil Maria Stuarda and Ochs Der Rosenkavalier), Pittsburgh (Salome) Cape Town, Oviedo (Marke Tristan und Isolde), Nancy (Wozzeck,Tannhäuser, Rusalka, Fidelio), San Francisco (Meistersinger) Seattle (Parsifal), Turin (Bottom), New Israeli Opera (Samson et Dalila), Wiener Volksoper (Sarastro), Glyndebourne (Pelléas et Melisande), Longborough (Alberich Das Rheingold), Prague National Theatre (Falstaff) and Opéra Comique, Paris (Albert Herring).
Recent engagements include On the Town for Hyogo International Festival, Varlaam Boris Godunov at Staatstheater Mainz, Der Müller Der Traumgörge (Zemlinsky) in Nancy and Dijon Hans Sachs Die Meistersinger, Wotan Die Walküre, Der Wanderer Siegfried and Gurnemanz Parsifal for Saffron Opera Group, Verdi Requiem in the Chapel of King’s College Cambridge, Messiah with the CBSO, Varlaam Boris Godunov at Staatstheater Mainz, Der Müller Der Traumgörge (Zemlinsky) in Nancy and Dijon and Swallow Peter Grimes with Bergen Philharmonic under Edward Gardner at both the Bergen and Edinburgh Festivals, as well as in Valencia. Last summer he was seen as The General The Gambler for the Festivale dalle Valle d’Itria in a new production by Sir David Pountney.
Andrew Greenan is a regular Guest Coach at both the Royal Northern College of Music and National Opera Studio.
For Oratorio and Concert repertoire please scroll down:
| Oratorio and concert rep | |
| Composer | Work |
| Bach | Christmas Oratorio |
| Magnificat | |
| Mass in B Minor | |
| St John Passion | |
| St Matthew Passion | |
| Beethoven | Choral Fantasia |
| Mass in C | |
| Mass in D (Missa Solemnis) | |
| Symphony No 9 | |
| Berlioz | L’enfance du Christ |
| Brahms | German Requiem |
| Liebeslieder-Wältzer | |
| Bruckner | Masses |
| Te Deum | |
| Durufle | Requiem |
| Dvorak | Mass in D |
| Requiem | |
| Stabat Mater | |
| Te Deum | |
| Elgar | Dream of Gerontius |
| The Apostles preferred role Judas | |
| The Kingdom | |
| Faure | Requiem |
| Handel | Acis and Galatea |
| Alexander’s Feast | |
| Chandos Anthems | |
| Jephtha | |
| Judas Maccabeus | |
| Messiah | |
| Saul | |
| Samson | |
| Haydn | Creation |
| Nelson Mass | |
| Paukenmesse | |
| Seasons | |
| Stabat Mater | |
| Kodaly | Missa Brevis |
| Mahler | Symphony No 8 |
| Mendelssohn | Elijah |
| St Paul | |
| Monteverdi | Vespers |
| Mozart | Masses |
| Requiem | |
| Vespers | |
| Puccini | Messa di Gloria |
| Purcell | Come ye Sons of Art |
| Hail, Bright Cecilia | |
| Rossini | Petite Messe Solenelle |
| Stabat Mater | |
| Schubert | Masses in Eb, Ab & G |
| Stanford | Songs of the Sea |
| Tippett | Child of Our Time |
| Vaughan Williams | Dona Nobis Pacem |
| Five Mystical Songs | |
| Mass in G minor | |
| Verdi | Requiem |
| Walton | Belshazzar’s Feast |