Christopher Lemmings

Genre: Tenor

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."

GLAGOLITIC MASS (Leoš Janáček) Brighton Festival with Brighton Festival Chorus, conducted by Thierry Fischer - Daily Telegraph

"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."

THE DREAM OF GERONTIUS (Edward Elgar) Lewisham Choral Society with the Derbyshire Singers at the Blackheath Concert Halls, London. Cond. Stefan Reid - Martin Passande (Former Chair of the London Branch Elgar Society)

"Christopher Lemmings sang the poetic texts with a voice both tender and bitter that really touched the heart"

WAR REQUIEM (Benjamin Britten) Konzertchor Darmstadt - Tönender Schrecken

"The performance from Christopher Lemmings, widely admired in so many modern operas, has total authority and conviction."

ROREM (Ned Rorem) (Sanctuary Classics • Black Box) • BBM 1104 - Peter Dickinson, Gramophone

"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."

ALICE IN WONDERLAND (Unsuk Chin) - LOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC - CK Dexter Haven All is Yar

"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."

RICHARD III (Giorgio Batistelli) - Teatro LA FENICE - operawire.com

Biography

The British/Irish tenor Christopher Lemmings studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Roles include: for Covent Garden, Stingo in Nicholas Maw’s Sophie’s Choice under Sir Simon Rattle, Caliban The Tempest (Adès), Scaramuccio Ariadne auf Naxos and Boyar Boris Godunov 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 in Sir Harrison Birtwistle’s The Last Supper, premièred at the Staatsoper, Berlin under Daniel 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 (Vlaamse Opera), Red Whiskers in Deborah Warner’s production of Billy Budd (Rome) and The Schoolmaster Cunning Little Vixen and Goro Madama Butterfly (Bergen).

With a strong reputation for his work in Twentieth Century and Contemporary music, Christopher has collaborated with composers such as Sir Harrison Birtwistle, Thomas Adès, Oliver Knussen, Pascal Dusapin and Nicholas Maw. Roles include Clarence/Tyrrel in Robert Carsen’s production of Giorgio Batistelli’s Richard III (Strasbourg/Genève/Venice), Jack O’Brien in Graham Vick’s production of Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny and Der Prinz/Der Marquis in the William Kentridge production of Lulu for Rome Opera, Claude/Robinson in Philippe Fenelon’s JJR Citoyen
de Geneve (Genève), Habinnas in Bruno Moderna’s Satyricon (La Fenice), Neoptolemus Birds, Barks, Bones (Rushton), and The Prince Seven Angels (Luke Bedford) with the Opera Group/ BCMG, Edmund King Lear (Hosakawa) at ROH2, Molqi The Death of Klinghoffer (Helsinki), Sellem The Rake’s Progress (Nantes/Angers) and Knussen’s Where the Wild Things Are/Higglety Pigglety Pop! (Aldeburgh/LA Phil cond. Gustavo Dudamel), Mouse/Dormouse Alice in Wonderland (Chin)(dir. Netia Jones, cond. Susanna Mälkki), Der Zweite Junge Offizier Die Soldaten (Bochum/Lincoln Centre Festival NYC). With Music Theatre Wales he sang Dov Knot Garden and created the role of Robin Fingest in Michael Berkeley and Ian McEwan’s opera For You, both at ROH2 Covent Garden.

Opera in concert includes: Gerald Barry’s Triumph of Beauty and Deceit under Thomas Adès (Radio France, Amsterdam, LA Phil, Carnegie Hall); Hotel Porter Death in Venice, Lechmere Owen Wingrave and Molqi The Death of Klinghoffer (Concertgebouw Amsterdam cond. Edo de Waart); Itulbo Il Pirata and L’abbé/L’incredibile Andrea Chénier (QEH).

Other concert appearances: Finzi’s Intimations of Immortality (Liverpool Phil); Stravinsky’s Pulcinella (Northern Sinfonia); Rossini’s Stabat Mater (RTE Dublin); Haydn’s Stabat Mater (Norwegian Radio Symphony Orchestra), Messiah (English Chamber Orchestra), War Requiem (Darmstadt), Janacek’s Glagolitic Mass (Brighton Festival), Orff’s Carmina Burana (RFH), and Arthur Honegger’s Jeanne d’Arc au Bûcher with Marion Cotillard as Jeanne at the 61st Spoleto Festival 2018.

Future plans include Second Hebrew Salome (Rome), and Sonata for Broken Fingers (Hoehn/ Cutler) with BCMG. Recordings include For You (Berkeley/McEwan), Thierry Pécou’s Le Monde étincelant (Ensemble Variances – Ohuaya Records/XXI Music), The Sacred Heart of Nino Rota, and the critically acclaimed Rorem Auden Songs with Chamber Domaine (Sanctuary Classics)

www.christopherlemmings.com

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
Artist: Christopher Lemmings
Label: Ann Ferrier Artists
Genre: Tenor