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The English conductor and accompanist, David Syrus, grew up in Hastings and studied music at Oxford University. He trained at the London Opera Centre before joining The Royal Opera.
David Syrus was Head of Music for The Royal Opera from 1993 to 2017. He joined the Company in 1971 as a répétiteur.. For them he has conducted W.A. Mozart (Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, Cosi fan tutte, La clemenza di Tito and Die Zauberflöte), R. Wagner (Der fliegende Hollander), Verdi (La Traviata and Falstaff), Janacek (Jenufa and Katya Kabanova), Strauss (Salome, Elektra and Ariadne auf Naxos), Smetana (The Bartered Bride), Benjamin Britten (The Turn of the Screw) and M. Tippett (The Midsummer Marriage), Georges Bizet (Carmen) and L.v. Beethoven (Fidelio). In his role as Head of Music Syrus managed the music staff, worked closely with The Royal Opera creative teams and provided coaching for singers and conductors.
For the Spoleto Festival 2003 he conducted Zemlinsky’s Eine florentinische Tragodie. With Vesselina Kasarova he has conducted over the past 2 years a series of concerts including excerpts from operas by George Frideric Handel, W.A. Mozart, Gluck and Rossini, in Barcelona, Prague, Brussels, the Schwetzingen Festival and Japan. They return for a further tour of Japan in February 2007. Other operas conducted include G. Bizet's Les Pecheurs de Perles, Die Walküre (with the Manchester Camerata), B. Britten’s Let’s Make an Opera, Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors (also recorded with the Opera House Orchestra), and many world premieres of smaller-scale music-theatre pieces, including British premieres of works by Menotti and Henze. Further engagements include Die Walküre, Les Pêcheurs de perles and Eine florentinische Tragödie (Spoleto Festival, 2003), the British premiere of Henze’s Pollicino (Royal Opera House), La clemenza di Tito and B. Britten's Albert Herring (Toulouse), B. Britten's Owen Wingrave (Opéra national du Rhin), Carmen and La Cenerentola (Tokyo), L’elisir d’amore, Die Zauberflöte, Le nozze di Figaro, La bohème and Carmen (Crested Butte Music Festival, Colorado) and Billy Budd (Santiago).
Orchestras David Syrus has worked with include the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Bamberger Symphoniker (returning there in March 2006), SWR-Rundfunkorchester Kaiserslautern, Bayerische Kammerphilharmonie and the London Sinfonietta. As a recital accompanist he has played at the Wigmore Hall, London, the Musikverein, Vienna, the Carnegie Hall, New York and many other venues in Europe.
His first Lieder record with Hildegard Behrens was issued by EMI ( items from which were re-released on the album "The Very Best of Hildegard Behrens"), and he has played harpsichord and fortepiano continuo in recordings of W.A. Mozart and Rossini for Decca and BMG. He was the conductor for Annette Dasch's disc of Armida arias for Sony
David Syrus teaches opera at the Royal College of Music in London. |
