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The Scottish bass, Brian Bannatyne-Scott, was born and educated in Edinburgh. He studied French and Mediaeval History at St Andrews University before attending the Guildhall School of Music in London. In 1981, he won the Decca Kathleen Ferrier Prize. Since then he has enjoyed an international career in opera and concerts. He has studied with Laura Sarti, Sir Peter Pears, Galina Vishnevskaya, Hans Hotter and Norman Bailey, and now he works with Anthony Roden.
Brian Bannatyne-Scott's concert career has taken him throughout Europe, and to Brazil, Argentina, Canada, Israel, Singapore, the Philippines and Japan. He has performed regularly with Trevor Pinnock and The English Concert including his debut at the Salzburg Festival as Polyphemus (Acis and Galatea), Aeolus and Cold Genius (King Arthur) in Berlin, Halle, Opera Garnier (Paris), the Teatro Colon (Buenos Aires) and in the London Proms, J.S. Bach's B Minor Mass (BWV 232) in Turin and Cremona and the St Matthew Passion (BWV 244) at the National Arts Center, Ottawa. With Marc Minkowski and Les Musiciens du Louvre, he has performed Messiah in Grenoble and Paris, and with The King’s Consort and the Salzburger Bachchor, he has sung Bach's Christmas Oratorio (BWV 248).
Brian Bannatyne-Scott has sung the role of Christus in Arvo Pärt's Passio throughout Europe and in Japan with the Hilliard Ensemble, most recently as part of the Lucerne Easter Festival in April 2003. He has also sung Igor Stravinsky's Les Noces with the London Sinfonietta and Sir Simon Rattle at the Festival Hall, London. Also with Sir Simon Rattle and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, he has sung Arnold Schoenberg's Gurrelieder in Birmingham. With Sir Colin Davis and the London Symphony Orchestra, he has sung in Berlioz's The Trojans and in Benjamin Britten's Midsummer Night's Dream at the Barbican Hall, where he has also appeared with the London Symphony Orchestra and Mikhail Pletnev in Mozart's C Minor Mass. With the Philharmonia Orchestra, he has sung Leonard Bernstein's Songfest conducted by Leonard Slatkin in the Festival Hall. He has sung in most of the British Cathedrals in a repertoire ranging from J.S. Bach and George Frideric Handel through Verdi and Edward Elgar to Benjamin Britten and Peter Maxwell Davies and has appeared in major festivals throughout Britain and Europe including Edinburgh, Salzburg, Holland, Bath, Flanders, Beaune and Aix-en-Provence, and has sung frequently at the BBC Proms.
Since making his débuts at Teatro la Fenice, Venice and the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma in 1981 in Castiglioni's Oberon, Brian Bannatyne-Scott has appeared at many of the major Opera Houses of the world. He has sung at the Teatro alla Scala, Milan, under the baton of Sir Colin Davis, at both the Opéras de Paris, at the Grand Théâtre de Genève, at the Théâtre de la Monnaie, Brussels, the Nederlandse Opera, Amsterdam, the Teatro Colon, Buenos Aires, with Trevor Pinnock, the Bunkamura Theatre, Tokyo, with Marc Minkowski, the Opéra de Lyon, with René Jacobs, the opera of Sao Paolo, Brazil, and numerous other theatres around Europe. In Britain, he has worked with Scottish Opera (e.g. Colline (La Bohème), Theaterdirektor (Capriccio), Don Fernando (Fidelio), Sprecher (Die Zauberflöte)), Opera North (e.g. Snug (Midsummer Night's Dream), Varlaam (Boris Godunov)), English National Opera (e.g. Monterone (Rigoletto), Commendatore (Don Giovanni), Banquo (Macbeth), Pogner (Die Meistersinger von Nurenberg), Grand Inquisitor (Don Carlos)), and made his debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in 2004 in Les Contes d'Hoffmann.
Roles include Wotan (Longborough Festival Opera) Pogner (English National Opera), Arkel (Opéra National du Rhin, Strasbourg), Banquo (English National Opera), Geronte di Ravoir (Grand Théâtre de Genève and Opéra de Nancy), Le Spectre d'Hector in Les Troyens (Teatro alla Scala, Milan and Barbican Hall, London), Fafner (CBTO and The Limerick Ring), Sarastro (Opéra de Nantes), Swallow (Opéra de Nantes), Parson in The Cunning Little Vixen (Bregenz Festival), Priam in Les Troyens (Nederlandse Opera, Amsterdam), Peachum (Opéras de Caen and Rouen), Silvano in La Calisto (Opéras de Lyon and Montpellier), Araspe in G.F. Handel's Tolomeo (Opernhaus Halle and Opernhaus Dessau), Pistola (Opéras de Nancy, Caen and Lausanne), Der Tod in Der Kaiser von Atlantis (Théâtre de la Monnaie, Brussels, theatres in Liege, Antwerp, Sarajevo and Lisbon, and Mecklenburg Opera), Die Mutter in Die Sieben Todsünden (Théâtre de la Monnaie, Brussels, Oslo and the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam), El Tio Salvaor in La Vida Breve (Théâtre de la Monnaie, Brussels) and Mozart's Bartolo (Théâtre de la Monnaie, Brussels, Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, Bermuda Festival and Tokyo).
His recent engagements include Baron Ochs in Rosenkavalier in Bielefeld, Swallow in Opera North's award-winning Peter Grimes, Parson in the Cunning Little Vixen at the Bregenz Festival, Hobson in Peter Grimes in Brussels and Bilbao, Geronte in Manon Lescaut at Opera North and Poet in Philip Glass's Orphee at the Royal Opera House, Hobson in Peter Grimes at Theatre de la Monnaie and Bilbao, Geronte di Ravoir at Opera North, and multiple roles in Dmitri Shostakovich's The Nose at Opera de Nantes/Angers).
Brian Bannatyne-Scott's extensive discography includes Pucell's King Arthur on DG Archiv, Benjamin Britten's Midsummer Night's Dream on Philips, G.F. Handel's Tolomeo on Mondo Musica and L'Incoronazione di Poppea on EMI. Recently he took part in the OVPP recording of St Matthew Passion (BWV 244) with the Dunedin Consort under the baton of John Butt on Linn Records. |
