John Morgan is one of Britain’s finest and most exciting baritones. Renowned for his ‘big, strong, dark-timbred voice’, he performs regularly at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and has also worked with English National Opera, Welsh National Opera and many other opera houses around the world. John also performs an impressive range of concerts, both in the U.K. and abroad, including oratorio, concerts with orchestra and chamber recitals with piano, harp and strings.
John’s international career began after his success as a European Finalist in the Luciano Pavarotti Voice Competition in Modena and in the International Verdi Competition in Busetto. On the recommendation of Renato Bruson he studied in Italy with Maestro Ettore Campogalliani and this led to numerous concert engagements in Italy and throughout Europe and a flourishing career in opera today.
John was born in London and studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Laura Sarti and then with Gustave Sacher. After making his debut with Kent Opera in Eugene Onegin, directed by Jonathan Miller, he went on to sing with many regional and touring opera companies in the UK, Ireland and France, making his European debut as Aeneas in Dido & Aeneas at the Haute Saône Festival with a company from the Opera de Nancy.
Described as a ‘Verdi voice of rare quality’ John has sung over fifty operatic roles, which have included many of the great Verdian characters: Macbeth, Rigoletto, Germont (La Traviata), Amonasro (Aida), Renato (Un Ballo in Maschera), Iago (Otello), Count di Luna (Il Trovatore) and Posa (Don Carlo). Other favourite roles have included Sharpless (Madama Butterfly), Cecil (Maria Stuarda), Scarpia (Tosca), Zurga (Les Pêcheurs de Perles), Escamillo (Carmen), Marcello (La Boheme) and Amfortas (Parsifal). John has performed under the baton of many of the world’s greatest conductors and sung alongside some of the finest International singers. Abroad he has sung Iago in the Netherlands, Rigoletto and Di Luna in Belgium, Germont in Italy, Marcello in Ireland and Malta, Sylvio in Ireland, and the Verdi Requiem in America. He has sung concerts and recitals in Australia, New Zealand, the Far East, USA, Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, France, Belgium and the Netherlands, where he recently sang the first Western European performance of Urmas Sisak’s Mass No1.
At home John has sung in all the major London concert halls, including Gala Concerts with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and English Chamber Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall and the Barbican; Orsini in Wagner’s Rienzi for the Chelsea Opera Group at the Royal Festival Hall, Jago (Ernani) at the Barbican and the Baron in Viardot’s Cendrillon at the Royal National Theatre. John’s Oratorio repertoire is wide ranging and performances in London have included the Brahms, Mozart and Verdi Requiems, St. John and St. Matthew Passions, The Messiah, Dream of Gerontius and Vaughan Williams’ Sea Symphony. He has also sung several rare works: Kurt Weill‘s Das Berliner Requiem at the National Concert Hall Dublin, Samuel Wesley’s Confitabour at St. John’s Smith Square and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Hiawatha in London and America.
John has also enjoyed devising many programmes of light opera and songs from the shows for special events, both at home and abroad, attended by members of the Royal family, two Prime Ministers and various visiting Heads of State. He has appeared on television and radio in England, Ireland, France, Belgium, America and the Far East; his solo album “Baritone in Love” was released February 2007.
Season 2008/2009: John’s work at the Royal Opera House included two Special Projects: Count di Luna in Il Trovatore and Scarpia in Tosca. Abroad he performed the Verdi Requiem in Holland, where he also gave several recital programmes of opera arias and Italian songs and Opera Concerts in Spain and Portugal. John was also invited as a celebrity guest artist performing opera concerts on a private luxury cruise ship to the Mediterranean and Greece. Other notable concerts included the Mozart Requiem in London, a national tour to promote his CD, “Baritone in Love” , a solo recital at The Fairfield Halls, Croydon and a tour of the North East of England, performing a programme of Italian opera arias and ballads. A tour with“Baritone in Love” in Denmark, Sweden and Norway is scheduled for late November early December. John is currently preparing works for his second CD recording, “Baritone in Italy” with orchestra and British songs for a recording with an American Recording company.
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