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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Neuwirth: Keyframes for a Hippogriff
Berliner Philharmoniker, September 2021
"With... countertenor Watts, Neuwirth has the very best performing forces you could dream of."
Shirley Apthorp, Financial Times
Lear (Edgar)
Bayerische Staatsoper, May 2021
Andrew Watts was tremendous as Edgar, bringing considerable experience and emotional maturity to the role, his take on the tricky “Habe ich mein Leben retten können” truly breathtaking.
Elodie Olson-Coons, Bachtrack
CD Review: The World Was Once All Miracle
February, 2021
...with a glorious performance here from countertenor Andrew Watts.
Paul Riley, BBC Music Magazine
...[they] respond so imaginatively to the texts, as does Andrew Watts’s crystal-clear countertenor.
Presto Classical, Editor's Choice (February 2021)
CD Review: A Countertenor Songbook
October, 2018
…Watts not only succeeds in negotiating a very wide variety of styles, moods and approaches but also imparts each song with a keen sense of its own identity... A songbook for all seasons.
Pwyll ap Siôn, Gramophone Magazine
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