One of Britain’s most distinguished and best established baritones, Peter Savidge has performed for the major opera companies in the UK and for many leading houses in Europe and elsewhere. His elegant and well focused style of singing has been singled out for particularly high praise.
He made his professional debut with the English Music Theatre and has featured regularly for Welsh National Opera, Opera North, Scottish Opera and the Royal Opera House Covent Gardens in roles such as Figaro Barber of Seville, Sharpless Madam Butterfly, Don Giovanni Don Giovanni, The Count Marriage of Figaro, Don Alfonso Cosi fan Tutte, Faninal Der Rosenkavalier, The Traveller Death in Venice and Ned Keene Peter Grimes and Mr. Flint Billy Budd.
Abroad he has sung roles for Canadian Opera Company Toronto, Opera de Rhin Strasbourg, Opera Comique and Chatelet Theatre Paris, Cologne Opera and houses in Tel Aviv, Berlin, Nancy, Genova, Modena and Reggio Emilia.
As well appearing in all the major British concert venues, Peter Savidge has a formidable international career and has sung at the festivals of Aldeburgh, Edinburgh, Florence, Venice, Tours, Brussels, Vienna, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Amsterdam, and Oslo.
He has recorded albums of songs by Vaughan Williams, Bax and Bantock; with conductors Sir John Eliot Gardiner and Sir Charles Mackerras and Albert Herring with Steuart Bedford. Equally at home in light music, he has featured on Friday Night is Music Night and with the RTE in Dublin.
This biography is for information only and should not be reproduced.
Billy Budd, Opera North
Aldeburgh Festival, June 2017
Peter Savidge as a deeply humane Mr Redburn. (The First Lieutenant's parting glance towards Alan Oke's anguished, magnificent Captain Vere was an indelible moment, haunting in its compassion.)
Mark Valencia, Bachtrack
Gianni Schicchi, Opera North
February and March 2015
With the likes of Peter Savidge as Marco ... there was strength in depth.
Martin Dreyer, Opera Magazine
Death in Venice
Oper am Rhein (June 2014)
Glänzender Abschluss des Britten-Zyklus an der Rheinoper. Großartig auch der Bariton Peter Savidge, der die sieben Todesallegorien vom Reisenden bis zum Straßensänger kongenial darstellt.
Westdeutsche Allgemeine
Mit Peter Savidge steht ihm als Reisender ein Gegenspieler zur Seite, der die Diabolik der Figur wunderbar ausspielt und mit markantem Bariton zu punkten weiß.
Thomas Molke, Online Muzik Magazin
Owen Wingrave
ArtHaus Musik DVD
Peter Savidge’s Coyle captures the character wonderfully.
Opera Now Magazine
Madam Butterfly, Opera North
Autumn 2011
Peter Savidge was, as he always is in Opera North productions, effortlessly brilliant.
Rod McPhee, Yorkshire Evening Post
Peter Savidge was excellent as Sharpless, the American consul who tries in vain both to restrain Pinkerton and to get Butterfly
to face harsh reality. The mixture of perception and diffidence was perfectly expressed.
Anthony Arblaster, The Independent
Peter Savidge is outstanding as an anguished Sharpless
Richard Morrison, The Times
even better is Peter Savidge as the American consul Sharpless, whose every shrug suggesting the world-weary cynicism of the
professional diplomat.
Graham Rickson, The Arts Desk
So the blame rests with an unhealthy collusion between East and West – and poor Consul Sharpless is in the firing line! Without
the power to do more than warn Pinkerton, Sharpless is helpless, but complicit – all of which is conveyed in the performance
of Peter Savidge, refined over several Opera North Butterflies, urbane, but tormented, his suave, soft-grained baritone exuding
sympathy in every note.
Ron Simpson, What’s On Stage
Peter Savidge’s Opera Repertoire
| BIRTWISTLE | Punch & Judy (Choregos) |
|---|---|
| BIZET | Carmen (Dan Cairo, Morales) |
| BLOW | Venus & Adonis |
| BRAUNFELS | Die Vogel (Prometheus) |
| BRITTEN | Curlew River (Ferryman; Traveller) |
| DONIZETTI | Don Pasquale (Malatesta) |
| GOUNOD | Romeo et Juliette (Capulet) |
| HANDEL | Tamurlano (Leone) |
| HAYDN | L’Anima del Filosofo |
| HOLST | Savitri (Death) |
| JANACEK | From the House of the Dead (Goryanchikov) |
| KRENEK | What Price Confidence? |
| LEHAR | Merry Widow (Danilo) |
| MARTIN | Le Vin Herbe |
| MARTINU | Julietta (L’homme au casque, vendeur des reves) |
| MASSENET | Manon (Lescaut) |
| MATTHUS | The Song of Love and Death (Marquis) |
| MENOTTI | Amahl and the Night Visitors (Melchior) |
| MOZART | Cosi fan Tutte (Don Alfonso) |
| OFFENBACH | La Perichole |
| PUCCINI | La Boheme (Marcello, Schaunard) |
| PURCELL | Dido and Aeneas |
| RAVEL | L’Enfant et les Sortileges (Horloge Comtoise) |
| RIMSKY-KORSAKOV | Mozart and Salieri |
| ROSSINI | La Cenerentola (Dandini) |
| J. STRAUSS | Die Fledermaus (Falke) |
| R. STRAUSS | Ariadne (Harlequin, Music Master) |
| STRAVINSKY | The Rake’s Progress (Nick Shadow) |
| TCHAIKOVSKY | Eugene Onegin |
| VERDI | La Traviata (Germont Pere) |
| WAGNER | Gotterdammerung (Gunther) |
| WALTON | The Bear |
| WEILL | Der Jasager (Teacher) |
Peter Savidge’s Concert Repertoire
| CPE BACH | Magnificat |
|---|---|
| J.S. BACH | Various Cantatas incl. No. 82 Ich habe genug |
| BEETHOVEN | Symphony No. 9 |
| BERLIOZ | L’Enfance du Christ |
| BRAHMS | Ein Deutches Requiem |
| BRITTEN | War Requiem |
| DALLAPICCOLA | Cinque Canti |
| DELIUS | Sea Drift |
| DURUFLE | Requiem |
| DVORAK | Stabat Mater |
| ELGAR | The Apostles |
| FAURÉ | Requiem |
| HANDEL | Acis and Galatea |
| HAYDN | Various Masses |
| HENZE | Novae de Infinitae Laudes |
| HONEGGER | Le Roi David |
| JANACEK | Glagolitic Mass |
| MENDELSSOHN | Elijah |
| MONTEVERDI | Vespers 1610 |
| MOZART | Various Masses |
| PURCELL | Ode on St. Cecilia’s Day |
| RACHMANINOV | The Bells |
| ROSSINI | Petite Messe Solennelle |
| SCHOENBERG | A Survivor from Warsaw |
| SCHUBERT | Masses |
| SZYMANOWSKI | Stabat Mater(Polish) |
| TIPPETT | A Child of Our Time |
| VAUGHAN WILLIAMS | Dona Nobis Pacem |
| WALTON | Belshazzar’s Feast |
| WEILL | Berliner Requiem |
