A diverse and thriving international opera career has taken American countertenor Lawrence Zazzo to most of the world’s leading opera houses and festivals. He was still a student at London’s Royal College of Music when he made his operatic debut as Oberon in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Since then he has performed this role to great acclaim on numerous occasions, most notably with the Canadian Opera Company, at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, at the Hamburg State Opera and, most recently, in Irina Brook’s acclaimed new production at the Vienna State Opera under the baton of Simone Young. Past engagements include Handel’s Giulio Cesare at La Monnaie in Brussels, at the English National Opera, the Dresden Semperoper and the Paris Opéra (in a production also released on DVD); Farnace in Mozart’s Mitridate at the Bavarian State Opera; and Tolomeo (Giulio Cesare) at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. He has also sung the title roles in Radamisto for the English National Opera, Orlando for the Welsh National Opera, Tamerlano for the Frankfurt Opera and Solomon for the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Other guest appearances have taken him to the Canadian Opera Company and to the Norwegian National Opera for Gluck’s Orfeo; to the Opéra de Lyon for Bertarido in Claus Guth’s production of Rodelinda; to the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées for Ottone (Agrippina); to the Berlin State Opera and the Zurich Opera for Goffredo (Rinaldo); to the Frankfurt Opera for Arsamene (Serse); and to the Theater an der Wien, La Monnaie and the Bavarian State Opera for Ottone (L’incoronazione di Poppea).
Lawrence Zazzo is making his Salzburg Festival debut as Disinganno (Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno). Plans include Athamas (Semele) under Leonardo García Alarcón at the Beaune and Namur Festivals; Gender Stories – a programme of Baroque music already recorded and released by Deutsche Harmonia Mundi – with lautten compagney; a Handel programme with the Insula Orchestra under Laurence Equilbey; and Gluck’s Orfeo under Masato Suzuki at the New National Theatre in Tokyo.
