Philippe Sly
Bass-baritone
The French-Canadian bass-baritone Philippe Sly is a prize-winner of numerous competitions, including the Concours musical international de Montréal and the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.
Engagements in the 2025/26 season included Arkel (Pelléas et Mélisande) at the Opera Atelier in Toronto and Hamm in Kurtág’s Fin de partie and Leporello (Don Giovanni) at the Vienna State Opera. On the concert platform he has sung the bass solos in Handel’s Messiah with the St Louis Symphony Orchestra and in Haydn’s ’Nelson’ Mass with Boston Baroque.
Recent guest engagements have taken him to venues such as the Paris Opéra, the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, the Zurich Opera House, the Opéra national de Lyon, the Opéra de Lausanne, the Canadian Opera Company, the Opéra de Québec, the Hamburg State Opera, the Opéra Comique, the Opéra national du Rhin and the San Francisco Opera, and to the festivals of Aix-en-Provence, Glyndebourne and Salzburg.
His wide-ranging repertory includes roles such as Figaro (Le nozze di Figaro), Don Giovanni and Leporello, Guglielmo (Così fan tutte), Russell in Thomas Adès’s The Exterminating Angel, Nilakantha in Delibes’ Lakmé, Cadmus (Semele), Zebul (Jephtha), Ormonte (Partenope), Escamillo (Carmen), Méphistophélès (La Damnation de Faust) and Claudio (Béatrice et Bénédict).
In concert he has worked with prestigious orchestras such as the Philadelphia Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre Métropolitain, the Orchestre symphonique de Québec, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Victoria Symphony Orchestra, the Orquestra Gulbenkian, the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, Les Violons du Roy and the Handel and Haydn Society. He appeared in the world premiere of Harry Stafylakis’s Into Oblivion with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra.
Conductors with whom he has collaborated include Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Bernard Labadie, Philippe Jordan, Simone Young, William Christie, Alain Altinoglu, Jaap van Zweden, Kent Nagano and Gustavo Dudamel.
He appeared as Panthée on the Grammy Award-winning recording of Les Troyens with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg under John Nelson and as Marmont in the recording of Honegger and Ibert’s opera L’Aiglon with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal under Kent Nagano. He has also appeared on recordings for the labels Analekta, Decca and Deutsche Grammophon.
He has given recitals as part of the Debut Atlantic concert series, and at the Toronto Summer Music Festival, the Coast Recital Society, the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and the Ottawa Chamberfest.
