Christopher Ventris

Christopher Ventris, born 1965, in London, is a British tenor. He is particularly known for his role as Parsifal which he performed at the Bayreuth Festival during the 2008, 2009, and 2010 Festival seasons.[1]

Ventris studied at the Royal Academy of Music, appearing as Orpheus in the 1984 production of Offenbach's operetta, the Opera critic commenting "North-country speech and standard pronunciation in song do not go well together in operetta, but otherwise Christopher Ventris was a true-voiced and likeable Orpheus".[2]

After college he joined Glyndebourne Festival Opera winning the GTO Singers and John Christie awards. He went on to sing with other British companies, including Opera North and English National Opera. He sang the part of Robert Lonle in the first performance of Robert Saxton's Caritas and the combined role of Walter, Hugo and the old woman in the first performance of Judith Weir's opera Blond Eckbert. He was the 2007 recipient of the Maria Callas Debut Artist of the Year Award, presented annually by Dallas Opera to the singer who makes the biggest impact on voting patrons in his or her company debut.[3]

Ventris' engagements[4] include productions at the Vienna State Opera, the San Francisco Opera, the Royal Opera, London, the Teatro di San Carlo, Naples, La Fenice, Venice, La Scala, Milan, the Glyndebourne Festival, the Grand Théâtre de Genève in Geneva and the Bavarian State Opera.