"Jeremy Ovenden, who is quietly enjoying the status of legendary Mozart interpreter, plays Tito superbly: sometimes affably, sometimes with boyish swagger."

Bram Van Haelter, De Standaard | September 2023

"Jeremy Ovenden is in a class of his own; he radiates dominance and sex appeal with his slender, flexible voice, which naturally makes the attractiveness of the divine Jupiter irresistible to the mortal Semele. His ‘Come to my arms, my lovely fair’ is also suitably erotically charged and sounds captivatingly beautiful.”

Das Opernglas | September 2023

English tenor Jeremy Ovenden is considered one of the most sought-after Mozart tenors of his generation, performing regularly as a guest on the international Opera and Concert stage.

The title roles of Mozart’s Idomeneo and La Clemenza di Tito have been a focal point of his work on the opera stage, having performed them at the Teatro Real in Madrid, Théâtre du Capitole Toulouse, Theater an der Wien, the Angers Nantes Opéra and at the Mostly Mozart Festival in New York. His further guest appearances have included the title role of Mozart’s Lucio Silla at the La Monnaie in Brussels, as Don Ottavio at La Scala in Milan, the Staatsoper Berlin and the Edinburgh Festival, and as Tamino at the Gstaad-Menuhin Festival and the Festival Berlioz in La Côte-Saint-André, France.

The tenor’s repertoire also includes Nerone in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea and the title role in L’Orfeo, Handel’s Bajazet in Tamerlano, Grimoaldo in Rodelinda and Emilio in Partenope, the latter which he recently performed in a new production at the Teatro Real in Madrid. Jeremy Ovenden performed the roles of Jupiter and Apollo in a production of Handel’s Semele, staged and conducted by George Petrou at the Handel Festival Göttingen.

An equally sought-after international concert singer, Jeremy Ovenden’s career to date has included collaborations with conductors such as Daniel Barenboim, Ivor Bolton, Myung-Whun Chung, Iván Fischer, Nicholas Harnoncourt, Philippe Herreweghe, René Jacobs, Vladimir Jurowski, Bernard Labadie, Riccardo Muti, Sir Simon Rattle and many others. Projects in recent seasons have included Handel’s Messiah at the Vienna Musikverein, Bach’s Mass in B Minor with the Orquesta y Coro Nacionales de España, and Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with the Rotterdam Philharmonic. Together with the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra under René Jacobs, he gave guest performances of Handel’s Israel in Egypt in Freiburg and Paris, and subsequently performed the tenor part in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Additional career highlights have included Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings and his War Requiem with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Antwerp Symphony Orchestra and Bamberg Philharmonic; Mozart’s Requiem at the Edinburgh International Festival and the BBC Proms with the Budapest Festival Orchestra under Iván Fischer; and Haydn’s The Seasons with the London Symphony Orchestra, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin under Andrew Manze, the Gabrieli Consort under Paul McCreesh, and the Bavarian Radio Symphony under Sir Simon Rattle.

Further notable performances include Mozart’s Zaide with the Munich Radio Orchestra, Mozart’s Requiem with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Bach’s Christmas Oratorio in Bergen and Stavanger, Haydn’s Harmoniemesse as part of the Herbstgold Festival in Eisenstadt, and Handel’s Theodora at the Vienna Konzerthaus.

Jeremy Ovenden’s extensive concert repertoire encompasses other pivotal works such as Mendelssohn’s Elijah and Die erste Walpurgisnacht, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and Missa Solemnis, Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius, and Berlioz’s L’enfance du Christ. Performing works by Johann Sebastian Bach – also central to his varied concert career – Jeremy Ovenden has appeared as soloist in the Christmas Oratorio with the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Vladimir Jurowski, as the Evangelist in the St. Matthew Passion with the Rotterdam Philharmonic, in the St. John Passion with the WDR Symphony Orchestra and the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn, and as the Arientenor in the St. Matthew Passion with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra under Ivor Bolton.

In the current season, Jeremy Ovenden can be heard in the title role of Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito at the Opera Ballet Vlaanderen in Antwerp and Ghent, followed by the Philharmonie Luxembourg, while his longstanding collaboration with the Period ensemble Les Talens Lyriques under Christophe Rousset will take him to Oslo, Namur and the Handel Festival Halle with Handel’s Jephtha. On stage in Athens he will perform Jupiter in Handel’s Semele, while in concert he can be heard again in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion under Ivor Bolton in Amsterdam.

Jeremy Ovenden’s extensive discography includes recordings of Johann Sebastian Bach’s St. Mark Passion and St. John Passion, amid selections from the composer’s cantata oeuvre, Handel’s oratorios Saul and L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato, and Haydn’s The Creation and The Seasons. The works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart feature prominently among the tenor’s recordings, with the early operatic works Il sogno di Scipione, La Betulia liberata, La finta semplice, L’oca del Cairo and Lo sposo deluso, as well as in his dedicated solo album ‘An Italian Journey’ with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment under Jonathan Cohen for Signum Classics.

2023 | 2024

www.jeremyovenden.com

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