Matthew Brook

Bass-baritone

"Matthew Brook, who turns anything he sings to gold"

Stephen Pritchard, The Guardian

"Mathew Brook was outstanding. His firm, well-focused voice was ideally suited to the music and his diction was impeccable."

John Quinn, Seen and Heard International

"Matthew Brook’s arias were rare gems of poignant phrasing rested in dramatic accuracy"

Australian Stage

"The monster Polypheme in a monstrously satisfying performance by Matthew Brook: one of the most compelling giants on disc"

BBC Radio 3 CD Review

"Matthew Brook’s virile bass is outstanding"

The Times

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Matthew Brook is known for his honest and open portrayal of characters whether on the opera or concert stage. He has developed a world-wide reputation for his interpretation of the music of J.S Bach and George Frederic Handel but his musical tastes stretch far beyond this, often performing new commissions, and has appeared as a soloist throughout Europe, Australia, North and South America and the Far East.

Matthew has enjoyed long collaborations with conductors including Sir Andrew Davis, Harry Bicket, Bernhard Labadie, Christophe Rousset, John Nelson, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Philippe Herreweghe, John Butt, Harry Christophers, Paul McCreesh and the late Sir Charles Mackerras, Sir Roger Norrington and Richard Hickox. He has also collaborated with Richard Tognetti, Sir Mark Elder, Emmanuelle Haïm, Laurence Equilbey, Maxim Emelyanchev, Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, Laurence Cummings and Christian Curnyn.

In 2023 Matthew made his Opéra national de Paris debut performing the role of Il Re di Scozia in a new Robert Carsen production of Ariodante under Harry Bicket, and also his debut with Opera North in David Poutney’s “Masque of Might”, music by Purcell, conducted by Harry Bicket. He has performed roles at Staatstheater Stuttgart, Opera Comique, Göttingen International Handel Festival, The Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg and at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. 

Matthew has an extensive discography resulting in many nominations and awards including several Gramophone awards for the music of Handel and Bach and a Grammy nomination for the Mozart Requiem

This season, Matthew gives performances with RIAS Kammerkoor, Nederlandse Bachvereniging, Finnish Radio Symphony, Philharmonie Zuidnederland, and closer to home with The Sixteen, The English Concert, the Dunedin Consort, Tenebrae and Three Choirs Festival, to name a few.

This biography is for information only and should not be reproduced.

Handel Orlando (Zoroastro), Academy of Ancient Music

Barbican (June 2024)

…the fine bass Matthew Brook

Nicholas Kenyon, Telegraph****

Matthew Brook was authoritative as Zoroastro… Attired here in a magus-like black, Zoroastro is given the opening aria (“Renounce love and follow glory!”) normally reserved for the titular hero. Brook was excellent… Handel kept back that display [coloratura] for Zoroastro’s final aria, where Brook was very impressive – magic indeed.

Roy Westbrook, Bachtrack****

As for Matthew Brook’s hands-off magician… [he] blossomed into the formidable bass acrobatics of pieces such as “Sorge infausta una procella”.

Boyd Tonkin, The Arts Desk****

Schumann Das Paradies Und Die Peri, Royal Northern Sinfonia

The Glasshouse (April 2024)

The top-notch team of soloists set the seal on a terrific collective effort… Matthew Brook’s mellifluous bass. 

Simon Thompson, The Times*****

Bach St Matthew Passion (Christus), Dunedin Consort

The Queen’s Hall Edinburgh (March 2024)

Matthew Brook’s Jesus is an interpretation for the ages (as affirmed recently by David Nice in reviewing a superlative Dublin Matthew Passion). It’s hard to imagine the part more sympathetically or beautifully sung: he sang with agony in the garden and even a touch of heroism before Caiphas, and overall it’s an interpretation brimming with empathy and humanity. He brought all those qualities to deeply moving performances of the last two bass arias, too.

Simon Thompson, The Arts Desk*****

Bach St Matthew Passion (Christus), Irish Baroque Orchestra

(March 2024)

It was theatrically of a piece with the intensity of Matthew Brook – no haloed icon of a Christus, but an anguished human being also conveying the fullest emotional range, and ending with such tenderness, joy and compassion in “Mache dich, mein Herze, rein”. The emotional culmination of the epic came in his supremely powerful “Eli, Eli, lama Sabathani?

David Nice, The Arts Desk*****

CD Recording: Handel Messiah, The English Concert and John Nelson (Erato 5419774160)

(November 2023)

Bass Matthew Brook has great presence as always in his wide-ranging numbers

Lindsay Kemp, Gramophone

CD Recording: Purcell Dido and Aeneas, La Nuova Musica (Pentatone)

(September 2023)

The recording … with Fleur Barron as Dido and Matthew Brook as Aeneas…sizzles with energy.

Berta Joncus, BBC Music Magazine****

Matthew Brook’s Trojan prince is rightly portrayed not just with an air of importance but with chutzpah, which I found quite fitting given the events that follow.

Azusa Ueno, The Classical Review

Purcell Masque of Might (Sceptic, Samuel)

Opera North (October 2023)

…outstandingly stylish singing especially by … Matthew Brook as Samuel

Nicholas Kenyon, The Telegraph

It’s a smash hit… both Xavier Hetherington and Matthew Brook relished their various roles.

Melanie Eskenazi, MusicOMH

Both Matthew Brook and Andri Björn Róbertsson made strong baritone contributions in a variety of cameos.

Martin Dreyer, Opera Magazine

…profoundly moving prison scene with Hetherington and Brook using O, I'm sick of life leading to the chorus' striking rendition of Hear my prayer, O Lord. 

Robert Hugill, Planet Hugill

Mozart The Magic Flute (Speaker of the Temple/1st Priest/2nd Armed Man), Edinburgh International Festival

(August 2023)

Matthew Brook made a terrifically authoritative Speaker.

Simon Thompson, The Times

Matthew Brook … intoned impressively in the temple scenes

Andrew Clark, Opera Magazine

Handel Ariodante (Il Re di Scozia), Opéra national de Paris

Palais Garnier (April 2023)

... a remarkable partner in the person of bass-baritone Matthew Brook in the paternal role (the King). Through his voice, his way of inhabiting the space, it exudes royal dignity and juggles with a rich expressive palette: bonhomie, joy, touching paternal love, despair or inflexible rigor.

Georgiana Hatara, Bachtrack

Then we become acquainted with a King of Scotland of solid maturity (Matthew Brook)

Jean-Luc Clairet, ResMusica

Matthew Brook embodies a King of Scotland of great nobility, with powerfully projected bass.

Yves Jauneau, Forum Opera

The King of Scotland is performed with wise authority by bass-baritone Matthew Brook , whose timbre is justly noble.

Emmanuel Deroeux, Olyrix

Matthew Brook, in the role of the King, portrays a father who is both severe but loving, very hieratic and solemn.

Nathanaël Eskenazy, Première Loge

His father (Matthew Brook), with an impressive presence, paints a noble, jovial and human portrait of the King of Scotland. Agile (what vocalizations!), nuanced, masterful throughout its range.

Benedict Palaux Simonnet, Crescendo Magazine

Handel Messiah, The English Concert & John Nelson

Coventry Cathedral (November 2022)

Matthew Brook’s brilliantly delivered solo (his ‘The Trumpet Shall Sound’)…The bass Matthew Brook was another singer who managed Handel’s perilous semiquaver melismas perfectly (the ‘shake’ passages in ‘This saith the Lord of hosts’, and in ‘Why do the nations so furiously rage together?’)!

Colin Clarke, Seen and Heard International

Matthew Brook Concert Repertoire

Bach

Magnificat including interpolations
Masses in A, G, and F
B Minor Mass
St John Passion
St Matthew Passion
Christmas Oratorio
Easter Oratorio
Cantatas including numbers: 13, 18, 27, 32, 52, 56, 62, 66, 70, 78, 82, 85, 106, 110, 132, 140, 150, 151, 152, 158, 161, 164, 165, 182, 211

JC Bach

Wie bist du den O Gott

Buxtehude

Jesu membra nostre

Beethoven

Mass in C
Choral Symphony

Berlioz

L’Enfance du Christ (all bass/baritone roles)

Blow

God spake sometime in visions

Blake

Benedictus

Brahms

Liebeslieder Waltzes
Requiem

Britten

Cantata Misericordium

Burgon

The fall of Lucifer

Carissimi

Jephte

Charpentier

Caecilia Virgo
Elevation
Mass
Te Deum

Dvorak

Mass in D
Requiem
Stabat Mater
Te Deum

Dyson

Canterbury Pilgrims

Elgar

Apostles
Dream of Gerontius
The Kingdom

Faure

Requiem

Finzi

In terra pax
Let us garlands bring
Lo the full final sacrifice

Grieg

Four Psalms

Grier

Around the curve of the world

Handel

Acis and Galatea
Alexander’s Feast
Apollo et Dafne
Dixit Dominus
Esther
Israel in Egypt
Judas Maccabeus
Messiah
Samson
Sing unto the Lord
Utrecht Te Deum

Haydn

Creation
Harmony Mass
Heilige Messe
Maria Therese Mass
Nelson Mass
Pauken Mass
St Nicholas Mass
Seasons

Howells

Requiem

Janacek

Glagolitic Mass
Unvollendete Messe

Joubert

The Magus

Kodaly

Te Deum

Maunder

Olivet to Calvary

Mendelssohn

Elijah
Walpurgisnacht

Mozart

Missa Brevis
Mass in C Minor
Mass in C
Regina Coeli
Requiem Vespers

Monteverdi

Vespers
Book IV Madrigals

Nielsen

Symphony No. 3

Purcell

In guilty night
Ode to St Cecilia
Come ye sons of art

Anthony Powers

Air and Angels

Puccini

Messe di Gloria

Rameau

In convertendo
Thetis

Rossini

Stabat Mater
Petite Messe Solenelle

Stainer

Crucifixion

Schütz

Christmas Story

Stravinsky

Canticum Sacrum
Pulcinella

Tippett

A child of our time

Vaughan Williams

Benedicite
Dona nobis pacem
Sancta Civitas
Fantasia on Christmas Carols
5 Mystical Songs

Walton

Belshazzar’s Feast

Matthew Brook Opera Repertoire

Bernstein

A Quiet Place (Young Sam)

Bizet

Carmen (Zuniga)

Britten

Albert Herring (Vicar)
Noye’s Fludde (Noye)
Peter Grimes (Ned Keene)

Handel

Acis and Galatea (Polyphemus)
Ariodante (Il Re)
Apollo et Dafne (Apollo)
Imeneo (Argenio)
Jephtha (Zadok)
Tolomeo (Eraspe)

Janáček

Jenufa (Starek) (Mayor)

Menotti

Amahl and the Night Visitors (Melchior)

Monteverdi

L'incoronazione di Poppea (Seneca)

Mozart

Don Giovanni (Leporello)
Le nozze di Figaro (Figaro)
Die Zauberflöte (Papageno)

Purcell

Dido and Aeneas (Aeneas)
The Indian Queen (Ismeron)

Puccini

Tosca (Sacristan)

Rameau

Anacréon (Anacréon)
Castor et Pollux (Jupiter)

Sullivan

Trial by Jury (Counsel)
Ivanhoe (Friar Tuck)

Tchaikovsky

Eugene Onegin (Onegin) (Zaretsky)

Vaughan Williams

The Pilgrim’s Progress (John Bunyan) (Lord Hategood) (Watchful)(Obstinate) and (First Shepherd)

Walton

Troilus and Cressida (Antenor, Calkas)

Weber

Der Freischütz (Kuno)

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