Andrew Watts

Few countertenors have pushed the boundaries of repertoire and sound more than Andrew Watts. A dramatic voice unlike any other and extraordinary stagecraft and presence make him a unique performer not only of parts traditionally associated with the voice type, but also a pioneer of 20th and 21st-century repertoire. He is associated particularly with parts like Edgar in Reiman’s Lear, which he has performed at Staatsoper Hamburg, Opéra national de Paris, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Bayerische Staatsoper Munich and which will take him to Teatro Real Madrid next season.

As well as singing core roles of the countertenor repertoire, he has performed over 60 world premieres at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Glyndebourne Festival, La Scala, La Fenice, Staatsoper Berlin, Opera de Lyon, with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Berliner Philharmoniker, and at the Salzburg, Bregenz, Lucerne, Aldeburgh and Edinburgh International Festivals as well as the Ruhrtriennale and the BBC Proms, and created roles in major works by Harrison Birtwistle, Olga Neuwirth, Unsuk Chin, Nuñez, Guarnieri, Raymond Yiu, Michael Finnissey , Judith Weir, Torsten Rasch, Tansy Davies and Elena Langer.

In 22/23 Andrew’s performances include The Outcast at the Philharmonie de Paris with Ensemble Intercontemporrain, Keyframes for a Hippogriff with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, and in Lyon, Lear at Bayerische Staatsoper, Peter Pan in Bolzano and Schnittke’s Faust Cantata with the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra.

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