Christopher Ventris

Biography

Christopher Ventris is one of Britain's most successful tenors, enjoying particular renown in the Wagnerian repertoire which has been central to his international career over the last two decades. Ventris made an acclaimed debut as Parsifal at Bayreuther Festspiele, conducted by Daniele Gatti and in Stefan Herheim’s new production, later voted Production of the Year by Opernwelt magazine. Parsifal subsequently became a calling card which took him to Wiener Staatsoper under Franz Welser-Möst, Bayerische Staatsoper with Kent Nagano, Valencia’s Palau de les Arts under the late Lorin Maazel, De Nationale Opera Amsterdam with Iván Fischer, the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden with Bernard Haitink, Opéra national de Paris under Hartmut Haenchen, and San Francisco Opera with Donald Runnicles. His portrayal of the role from Opernhaus Zürich, conducted by Bernard Haitink, was released on DVD by Deutsche Grammophon. Christopher Ventris sang his first Lohengrin at Teatro Comunale de Bologna, and has reprised the role at the Grand Théâtre de Genève, Teatro Real Madrid and The Dallas Opera - the latter earning him the Maria Callas Debut Artist of the Year Award. He has appeared as Siegmund (Die Walküre) in Vienna (under both Christian Thielemann and Sir Simon Rattle), Bayreuth, Washington, Venice, Amsterdam, Naples and in his debut at Semperoper Dresden. Paris saw his role debut as Tannhäuser under Sir Mark Elder and he sang his first Erik (Der fliegende Holländer) in San Francisco, as well as the title role in the lesser-performed Rienzi at the Salzburger Festspiele under Philippe Jordan. Other key roles in Christopher’s repertoire include Peter Grimes which he has performed in Zürich and at Deutsche Oper Berlin, Florestan (Fidelio) which marked his debut at Washington National Opera, Sergei (Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk) in Geneva, Madrid, London and Brussels, and Jim Mahoney (Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny) which he has performed at the Staatsoper of both Berlin and Vienna. Števa in Janáček’s Jenůfa, marked his debut at The Metropolitan Opera moving on to sing Laca in the acclaimed production by Dmitri Tcherniakov at Opernhaus Zürich. Further appearances include Max (Der Freischütz)at Deutsche Oper Berlin and Teatro alla Scala, the title role in Pfitzner’s Palestrina at the Bayerische Staatsoper Munich, and Prince Andrey Khovansky (Khovanshchina) at Wiener Staatsoper, conducted by Semyon Bychkov. In the 2016/17 season, Christopher Ventris appears in new productions of Der Freischütz under Marc Albrecht at Opernhaus Zürich and Parsifal under Semyon Bychkov at Wiener Staatsoper. In addition to a revival of Parsifal at Dutch National Opera, Ventris reprises his Siegmund with Wiener Staatsoper on tour to Tokyo under Ádám Fischer.