Alan Oke

Last updated

Alan Oke is a British tenor. Born in London and raised in Scotland, he studied both at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow and with Hans Hotter in Munich.

Contents

Career

Following a successful career as a baritone, he made his debut as a tenor in 1992 singing Brighella in Ariadne auf Naxos for Garsington Opera. Since then, he has sung a wide variety of roles with Scottish Opera, Opera North, the Royal Opera, English National Opera, and Opera New Zealand, as well as appearances at the Edinburgh, Aldeburgh, Bregenz, and Ravenna Festivals.

He portrayed Marlow in Tarik O'Regan's Heart of Darkness at the Royal Opera House and Gandhi in Philip Glass's Satyagraha for the English National Opera and the Metropolitan Opera, in New York City.

In 2016, he premiered the role of The Major in Elena Langer's opera Figaro Gets a Divorce at the Welsh National Opera.

He played Peter Grimes in the performance of Britten's opera on Aldeburgh Beach 2013 filmed as Grimes on the Beach.

He lives in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Benjamin Britten</span> English composer and pianist (1913–1976)

Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British music, with a range of works including opera, other vocal music, orchestral and chamber pieces. His best-known works include the opera Peter Grimes (1945), the War Requiem (1962) and the orchestral showpiece The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra (1945).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Pears</span> English tenor (1910–1986)

Sir Peter Neville Luard Pears was an English tenor. His career was closely associated with the composer Benjamin Britten, his personal and professional partner for nearly forty years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aldeburgh Festival</span> Arts festival in England

The Aldeburgh Festival of Music and the Arts is an English arts festival devoted mainly to classical music. It takes place each June in the town of Aldeburgh, Suffolk and is centred on Snape Maltings Concert Hall.

<i>Einstein on the Beach</i> Opera by Philip Glass

Einstein on the Beach is an opera in four acts composed by Philip Glass and directed by theatrical producer Robert Wilson, who also collaborated with Glass on the work's libretto. The opera eschews traditional narrative in favor of a formalist approach based on structured spaces laid out by Wilson in a series of storyboards which are framed and connected by five "knee plays" or intermezzos. The music was written "in the spring, summer and fall of 1975." Glass recounts the collaborative process: "I put [Wilson’s notebook of sketches] on the piano and composed each section like a portrait of the drawing before me. The score was begun in the spring of 1975 and completed by the following November, and those drawings were before me all the time."

<i>Peter Grimes</i> 1945 opera by Benjamin Britten

Peter Grimes, Op. 33, is an opera in three acts by Benjamin Britten, with a libretto by Montagu Slater based on the section "Peter Grimes", in George Crabbe's long narrative poem The Borough. The "borough" of the opera is a fictional small town that bears some resemblance to Crabbe's – and later Britten's – home of Aldeburgh, Suffolk, on England's east coast.

<i>Satyagraha</i> (opera) Opera by Philip Glass

Satyagraha is a 1979 opera in three acts for orchestra, chorus and soloists, composed by Philip Glass, with a libretto by Glass and Constance DeJong.

Robert Tear, CBE was a Welsh tenor singer, teacher and conductor. He first became known singing in the operas of Benjamin Britten in the mid-1960s. From the 1970s until his retirement in 1999 his main operatic base was the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; he appeared with other opera companies in the UK, mainland Europe, the US and Australia. Generally avoiding the Italian repertoire, which did not suit his voice, Tear became known in leading and character roles in German, British and Russian operas.

Anne Pashley was a British track and field sprinter, who represented Great Britain at the 1956 Summer Olympics. Following her track and field career, she made a second career as a soprano singer.

Eric Crozier OBE was a British theatrical director, opera librettist and producer, long associated with Benjamin Britten.

Steuart John Rudolf Bedford was an English orchestral and opera conductor and pianist.

(Albert) Meredith Davies CBE was a British conductor, renowned for his advocacy of English music by composers such as Benjamin Britten, Frederick Delius and Ralph Vaughan Williams.

Gillian Keith is a Canadian/British operatic soprano, originally from Toronto, Canada, and living in London, UK.

Anthony Dean Griffey is an American opera tenor. He is a regular presence on the stages of opera houses and concert halls around the world. Griffey has also been noted for his acting talent in addition to his voice.

Geoffrey William Chard AM is an Australian opera singer. He was a foundation member of the National Opera of New South Wales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arthur Oldham</span> English composer and choirmaster

Arthur William Oldham OBE was an English composer and choirmaster. He founded the Edinburgh Festival Chorus in 1965, the Chorus of the Orchestre de Paris in 1975, and the Concertgebouw Orchestra Chorus in Amsterdam in 1979. He also worked with the Scottish Opera Chorus 1966–74 and directed the London Symphony Chorus 1969–76. For his work with the LSO Chorus, he won three Grammy Awards. He was also a composer, mainly of religious works, but also a ballet and an opera.

Robert Brubaker is an American operatic tenor. Born in Manheim, Pennsylvania, he is an alumnus of the Hartt College of Music. Robert Brubaker began his professional career as a baritone chorister with the New York City Opera. He left there 17 years later as a leading tenor, in La bohème as Rodolfo.

Helen Grime is a Scottish composer of contemporary classical music. Her work, Virga, was selected as one of the best ten new classical works of the 2000s by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.

Sean Panikkar is an American operatic tenor. He has performed in many leading opera houses both nationally and internationally, including the Metropolitan Opera, Teatro alla Scala, Carnegie Hall, Salzburg Festival, as well as Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Fort Worth Opera,

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phelim McDermott</span>

Phelim McDermott is an English actor and stage director. He has directed plays and operas in Britain, Germany, Spain, the United States, and Australia. McDermott was a co-founder of the Improbable theatre in 1996.

Elizabeth Atherton is a British lyric soprano. Born and brought up in London, she is the daughter of conductor David Atherton. She studied at Trinity College, Cambridge and at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama with Patricia MacMahon. She is a winner of the Maggie Teyte Prize and the Handel Singing Competition.

References