British bass Callum Thorpe initially obtained a PhD in Immunology before focussing on his vocal studies at the Royal Academy of Music. From 2017 to 2021 he was a member of the solo ensemble at the Bayerische Staatsoper Munich where roles included Banco Macbeth, Pistola Falstaff, Il Re d’Egitto Aida, Colline La Bohème, Zuniga Carmen, Farfallo Die Schweigsame Frau, Truffaldin Ariadne auf Naxos and Masetto Don Giovanni.
Highlights this season and beyond include his debut at Teatro Real Madrid singing Valens Theodora in a Katie Mitchell production conducted by Ivor Bolton, his debut at Welsh National Opera singing Hobson in a new production by Melly Still of Peter Grimes and a return to the Glyndebourne Festival in 2025 and 2026.
Last season saw Callum in the demanding role of Polifemo in Handel’s Aci, Galatea e Polifemo conducted by Laurence Cummings at the London Handel Festival, prompting Rachel Halliburton in The Times to write “The famous aria ranges over two and a half octaves, and Thorpe imbues it with a rich anguish that elicits unexpected pity.” He also appeared in a new production by Sir David Pountney of Purcell Masque of Might at Opera North and sang Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte at the 2024 Glyndebourne Festival. Concert highlights included Weill’s Seven Deadly Sins with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Edward Gardner; Schubert Mass No. 5 with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra; and excerpts from Bizet’s Les pȇcheurs de perles and Gounod’s Faust in concert for Scottish Opera.
Recent operatic engagements include Sparafucile Rigoletto, Angelotti in Tosca and Poacher in Janáček The Cunning Little Vixen at Opera North: Basilio in Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia for Garsington Opera; Talbot Maria Stuarda for Irish National Opera; Sarastro and Banco Macbeth at Theater Basel; Antinoo and Il Tempo Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria with Emmanuelle Haïm; and Plutone Orfeo for the Royal Opera House. Callum has also performed Hunding, in concert, in Wagner’s Die Walküre with the Bilbao Symphony Orchestra and Eric Nielsen.
His repertoire ranges from the baroque to the 20th Century. Callum created the role of Gibarian in the world première of Fujikura’s Solaris at the Théâtre des Champs Elysées and has also sung works by Peter Maxwell Davies and Viktor Ullmann. Past performances with William Christie have included Purcell The Fairy Queen and The Indian Queen, Rameau Hippolyte et Aricie, Phobetor in Lully’s Atys and Pluto in Charpentier’s La descente d’Orphée aux enfers.
On the concert platform his wide-ranging repertoire includes Bach St John Passion and St Matthew Passion, Handel Messiah, and the Mozart and Verdi Requiem, with conductors including Marc Minkowski, Sir Mark Elder, Ivor Bolton, Jonathan Cohen, Masato Suzuki, Christian Curnyn and Edward Gardner.
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Handel Theodora (Valens), Teatro Real Madrid
(November 2024)
The rest of the cast is excellent, the countertenor Iestyn Davies, the tenor Ed Lyon and the bass Callum Thorpe.
Alberto Bosco, Il Corriere Musicale
…bass Callum Thorpe sang, who again in Madrid, plays a wonderfully evil Valens, very theatrical and with a lot of sound.
Monique ten Boske, Opera Magazine NL
With a resounding and full-bodied voice, British bass Callum Thorpe took on the role of the Roman ambassador Valens.
María Pardo, Opera World
And Callum Thorpe brought out the brutality of his character with force.
Manuel M. Martín Galán, Scherzo
Stravinsky Oedipus Rex (Tiresias), Scottish Opera
Edinburgh International Festival (August 2024)
Callum Thorpe’s doom-laden bass as Tiresias the stand-outs.
John McLellan, Edinburgh Evening News
Callum Thorpe was outstanding as the blind prophet Tiresias, his rich authoritative bass reluctantly revealing that the Kings’s murderer is a King
David Smythe, Bachtrack
The rich bass voice of Callum Thorpe as Tiresias…
Catriona Graham, The Opera Critic
Handel Aci, Galatea e Polifemo (Polifemo), London Handel Festival
(April 2024)
Polifemo is the bass Callum Thorpe, his voice imposing in the villainous bluster and moving in his moments of despair.
Erica Jeal, The Guardian
…or the astonishing, cavernous range of Callum Thorpe, who plays Polifemo. The famous aria in which Polifemo compares himself to a dying butterfly as he grieves for his loss of Galatea ranges over two and a half octaves, and Thorpe imbues it with a rich anguish that elicits unexpected pity.
Rachel Halliburton, The Times
…and Callum Thorpe was absolutely thunderous as Polifemo – the air practically shook when he sang.
Richard Bratby, The Spectator
Weill The Seven Deadly Sins, London Philharmonic Orchestra
(March 2024)
…and the resonant bass Callum Thorpe as the drag Mother.
Erica Jeal, The Guardian
Schubert Mass in A flat, Scottish Chamber Orchestra
(December 2023)
…and Callum Thorpe’s bass-baritone was rich and authoritative.
Simon Thompson, Seen and Heard International
Purcell Masque of Might (Diktat), Opera North
(October 2023)
Callum Thorpe’s forthright bass exuded authority and gravitas as Diktat, a commanding presence and a convincing hate-figure.
Martin Dreyer, Opera Magazine
Callum Thorpe as Diktat, has a richly versatile range of tone and uses it with skill
Robert Beale, The Arts Desk
…and bass Callum Thorpe is on blistering form as the malevolent Diktat
Sarah Noble, The Guardian
The villain, a dictator imaginatively named Diktat (superbly sung by Callum Thorpe)
Richard Morrison, The Times
…with outstandingly stylish singing especially by Callum Thorpe as Diktat
Nicholas Kenyon, The Telegraph
Heroic bass Callum Thorpe fitted the part well, bringing to mind his appearance last year as the cut-throat Sparafucile, pure wickedness.
Richard Wilcocks, Bachtrack
Rossini Il barbiere di Siviglia (Basilio), Garsington Opera
(June 2023)
…Callum Thorpe’s young fogey of a Basilio, whose “Calumny” aria is an excellent blast of bluster.
Neil Fisher, The Times
Callum Thorpe as Basilio exuded a double-espresso vocal kick out of all proportion to the scale of his role.
Richard Bratby, The Spectator
Callum Thorpe is a wryly enigmatic Don Basilio with his dry, deep bass voice and calm interpretation of the ‘Calumny’ aria making the part seem coolly calculating and almost sinister, rather than the oddball he Basilio is often made to be.
Curtis Rogers, Seen and Heard International
Donizetti Maria Stuarda (Lord Talbot), Irish National Opera
(June 2022)
Bass Callum Thorpe possesses a substantial, well-supported voice with an alluring timbre, into which he is able to inject pleasing subtleties, which he used with intelligence to add depth to the role.
Alan Neilson, OperaWire
Verdi Rigoletto (Sparafucile), Opera North
(January 2022)
…and Callum Thorpe a chillingly excellent Sparafucile.
Martin Kettle, The Guardian
Callum Thorpe as Sparafucile, the Duke’s assassin is excellent, he invests the role with a suitably chilling mix of brooding menace and brutish thuggery.
Richard Hall, The reviews hub
Callum Thorpe’s Sparafucile was present for the opening scene, and Thorpe combined wonderful blackness of voice with threatening sense of stillness that compelled both ear and eye.
Robert Hugill, Opera Today
Beethoven Fidelio (Rocco), Glyndebourne Tour
(October 2021)
Callum Thorpe is a wholly authoritative and sympathetic Rocco, firm and focussed, assisting Leonore in her struggle
Nicholas Kenyon, The Telegraph
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