- Thomas Allen (baritone)
Sir Thomas Allen, CBE, (born
September 10 ,1944 ) is an Englishbaritone opera singer fromSeaham Harbour,County Durham .Allen has performed Eisenstein in "
Die Fledermaus ", Don Alfonso, Ulisse and Don Giovanni at theBayerische Staatsoper , Don Giovanni atLa Scala , Yeletsky (in "The Queen of Spades"), Sharpless (in "Madama Butterfly "), and the title role in "Sweeney Todd" at theRoyal Opera House , Eisenstein at theGlyndebourne Festival , Don Alfonso at the Salzburg Easter and Summer Festivals, Forester ("The Cunning Little Vixen ") at theSan Francisco Opera and Beckmesser (in "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg ") at theMetropolitan Opera inNew York .Allen also appears in recital in the
United Kingdom , throughoutEurope , inAustralia and America. The greatest part of his repertoire has been extensively recorded with such distinguished names asGeorg Solti ,James Levine ,Sir Neville Marriner ,Bernard Haitink , SirSimon Rattle ,Wolfgang Sawallisch andRiccardo Muti .Thomas Allen's first book, "Foreign Parts - A Singer's Journal" was published in 1993. He recently directed for the first time in "
Albert Herring " at theRoyal College of Music ,Così fan Tutte andDon Giovanni (for the Samling Foundation, of which he is the patron) at the Sage Music Centre in Gateshead. In 2007, he directed a new production of "Il barbiere di Siviglia " for Scottish Opera.Allen has performed with the
Royal Opera House ,Covent Garden , for thirty-five years. He has sung over forty roles with the company.Sir Thomas Allen also performed in a Live Concert Recording of Leonard Bernstein's Candide at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, New York City.
The twenty-fifth anniversary of his debut at the
Metropolitan Opera ,New York was also celebrated in 2006.In September 2008, he performed under the direction of Woody Allen in Puccini's
Gianni Schicchi for theLA Opera .Honours
*
Bayerischer Kammersänger , awarded by theBavarian State Opera .
*Honorary Membership of theRoyal Academy of Music .
*Prince Consort Professor of theRoyal College of Music .
*Hambro Visiting Professorship of Opera Studies at Oxford University.
*Fellow ship of the Royal College of Music
*Fellowship of theUniversity of Sunderland
*M.A. from University of Newcastle
*D.Mus. fromDurham University and theUniversity of Birmingham .
*In theNew Year's Honours of 1989 he was created a Commander of the British Empire
*In the 1999Queen's Birthday Honours he was made aKnight Bachelor .His film credits include "
The Real Don Giovanni " and "Mrs Henderson Presents ".
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