Christopher Lemmings
Artist Reviews
"Christopher Lemmings animated (his) lines with operatic fervour. Lemmings’s timbre in the upper reaches of the register even lent an authentically Slav flavour to the music, matching the typically citrus colouring of Janácek’s orchestration."
"My ideal Gerontius needs a full, rich tone but above all the intelligence to respond minutely to the text. In this performance I found him. Christopher Lemmings has beauty of tone, power and the theatrical response needed for the text."
"Christopher Lemmings sang the poetic texts with a voice both tender and bitter that really touched the heart"
"The performance from Christopher Lemmings, widely admired in so many modern operas, has total authority and conviction."
"As the Mouse/Dormouse, tenor Christopher Lemmings was very funny and sang with a clear, expressive sound that was free enough to accommodate a wiry physical style that is part Buster Keaton, part Pee-Wee Hermann, and all imp."
"The tenor Christopher Lemmings was double parted as Richard’s brother, Clarence, and the hired assassin, Tyrrel. Lemmings has a bright and engaging voice, and showed considerable skill and versatility in convincingly portraying, both vocally and as an actor, the widely differing roles."
Biography
The British/Irish tenor, Christopher Lemmings studied at the GSMD.
Roles include: for Covent Garden, Stingo Sophie’s Choice (Maw), Caliban The Tempest (Adès), and Scaramuccio Ariadne auf Naxos; for Glyndebourne Tour: Tito La Clemenza di Tito, Belmonte Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Lechmere Owen Wingrave, for Glyndebourne Festival: Il Maestro di Ballo Manon Lescaut, Parpignol/Death La Bohéme, and Bartholomew The Last Supper (also at Berlin Staatsoper under Barenboim); Don Ottavio Don Giovanni (Cologne/Verona); Il Podestà La Finta Giardiniera (Buxton); Albert Albert Herring (ETO), The Mayor Albert Herring (Firenze); L’abate di Chazeuil Adriana Lecouvreur and Ferrando Cosi Fan Tutte (Holland Park), Bob Boles Peter Grimes, Der Bucklige Die Frau ohne Schatten and Spoletta Tosca (Antwerp), Schoolmaster Cunning Little Vixen and Goro Madama Butterly (Bergen), Red Whiskers Billy Budd and Second Jew Salome (Rome).
With a strong reputation in Twentieth Century and Contemporary music, Christopher has collaborated with composers Including Birtwistle, Adès, Knussen, Dusapin and Maw. Roles include Clarence/Tyrrel in Batistelli’s Richard III (Strasbourg/Genève/Venice), Jack O’Brien Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny and Der Prinz/Marquis Lulu (Rome); JJR Citoyen de Geneve (Fenelon) (Genève), Satyricon (Maderna) (La Fenice); Birds, Barks, Bones (Rushton), Seven Angels (Bedford) and King Lear (Hosakawa) (ROH2); Molqi Death of Klinghoffer (Helsinki), Sellem Rake’s Progress (Nantes/Angers) and Knussen’s Where the Wild Things Are/Higglety Pigglety Pop! (Aldeburgh/LA Phil cond. Dudamel); Mouse/Dormouse Alice in Wonderland (LA/London), Zweite Junge Offizier Die Soldaten (Bochum/Lincoln Centre Festival NYC), Dov Knot Garden and Robin Fingest For You (Berkeley/McEwan) (Music Theatre Wales/ROH).
Opera in concert includes: Goro Madama Butterfly (CBSO), Beauty Triumph of Beauty and Deceit (Paris, Amsterdam, LA Phil, Carnegie Hall, cond. Adès); Hotel Porter Death in Venice, Lechmere Owen Wingrave and Molqi The Death of Klinghoffer (Amsterdam); Itulbo Il Pirata and L’abbé/L’incredibile Andrea Chénier (QEH). Other concert appearances: Finzi’s Intimations of Immortality (Liverpool Phil); Pulcinella (Northern Sinfonia); Rossini’s Stabat Mater (RTE Dublin); Haydn’s Stabat Mater (Oslo), Messiah (English Chamber Orchestra), War Requiem (Darmstadt), Janacek’s Glagolitic Mass (Brighton Festival), Carmina Burana (RFH), and Jeanne d’Arc au Bûcher with Marion Cotillard as Jeanne (Spoleto Festival).
Current and future plans include La Bohéme (Glyndebourne), Boyar Boris Godunov (ROH). Recordings include For You (Berkeley/McEwan), Le Monde étincelant (Ensemble Variances), The Sacred Heart of Nino Rota, and Rorem Auden Songs. He sings Gleb in Sonata for Broken Fingers (Cutler/Hoehn) due for release in October 2025.
May 2025
For oratorio and Concert repertoire please scroll down:
| Oratorio and concert rep | |
| Composer | Work |
| Bach J.S. | Johannes Passion |
| Magnificat | |
| Matthias Passion | |
| Weinachts Oratorium | |
| Bach CPE | Magnificat |
| Beethoven | Mass in C |
| Symphony No 9 | |
| Britten | Ballad of Heroes |
| Rejoice in the Lamb | |
| St Nicolas | |
| War Requiem | |
| Coleridge-Taylor | Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast |
| Dvorak | Mass in D |
| Stabat Mater | |
| Elgar | Coronation Ode |
| The Dream of Gerontius | |
| The Kingdom | |
| Finzi | Dies Natalis |
| Intimations of Immortality | |
| Handel | Acis and Galatea |
| Alexander’s Feast | |
| Israel in Egypt | |
| Jeptha | |
| Judas Maccabeus | |
| Let God Arise | |
| Messiah | |
| Ode on St Cecilia’s Day | |
| Samson | |
| Theodora | |
| Haydn | Creation |
| Mass in Time of War | |
| Maria Theresa Mass | |
| Nelson Mass | |
| Stabat Mater | |
| Honegger | Jeanne d’Arc au Bûcher |
| Janácek | Glagolitic Mass |
| Otcenas | |
| The Diary of One Who Disappeared | |
| Kodaly | Psalmus Hungaricus |
| Lloyd Webber | Requiem |
| Martin, Frank | In Terra Pax |
| Mendelssohn | Die Erste Walpurgisnacht |
| Elijah | |
| St Paul | |
| Monteverdi | Christmas Vespers |
| Magnificat | |
| Vespers | |
| Mozart | Litanie Lauretanae |
| Mass in A flat | |
| Mass in C Minor | |
| Requiem | |
| Solemn Vespers | |
| Thamos King of Egypt | |
| Carl Orff | Carmina Burana |
| Pergolesi | The Magnificat |
| Puccini | Messa di Gloria |
| Purcell | Faery Queen |
| Jubilate Deo in D | |
| Te Deum Laudamus | |
| Rachmaninov | Vespers |
| Ramirez | Missa Criolla |
| Riley, Malcolm | De Temporibus Canticum |
| Rossini | Petite Messe Solenelle |
| Stabat Mater | |
| Schubert | Mass in D |
| Schutz | Christmas Story |
| The Seven Last Words From the Cross | |
| Stainer | Crucifixion |
| Stravinsky | Les Noces |
| Oedipus Rex | |
| Pulcinella | |
| Renard | |
| Sterndale Bennett | May Queen |
| Tippett | A Child of our Time |
| Walton | Façade |
| Vaughan Williams | Mass in G Minor |
| Verdi | Requiem |