Alastair Miles (born 11 July 1961, Harrow, England) is a British operatic and concert bass who has had an international career since the late 1980s.

Biography

Education

Alastair Miles was educated at The John Lyon School, Harrow, and subsequently at

St Marylebone Grammar School St Marylebone Grammar School (SMGS) was a grammar school located in the London borough of the City of Westminster. It was open from 1792 to 1981. History Philological School Founded as the Philological Society by Thomas Collingwood, under the ...

. He began flute lessons at the age of fourteen with the composer Albert Alan Owen, a pupil of

Nadia Boulanger Juliette Nadia Boulanger (; 16 September 188722 October 1979) was a French music teacher, conductor and composer. She taught many of the leading composers and musicians of the 20th century, and also performed occasionally as a pianist and organis ...

, who inspired him to think about a career in music. Miles studied flute at the

Guildhall School of Music The Guildhall School of Music and Drama is a music and drama school located in the City of London, England. Established in 1880, the school offers undergraduate and postgraduate training in all aspects of classical music and jazz along with dram ...

under Trevor Wye, Peter Lloyd and Edward Beckett. He became an orchestral player and taught at

Stowe School The Stowe School is a public school (English private boarding school) for pupils aged 13–18 in the countryside of Stowe, England. It was opened on 11 May, 1923 at Stowe House, a Grade I Heritage Estate belonging to the British Crown. ...

and

Chetham's School of Music Chetham's School of Music () is a private co-educational boarding and day music school in Manchester, England. Chetham's educates pupils between the ages of 8 and 18, all of whom enter via musical auditions. The music school was established i ...

before embarking on his vocal career. From 1982 to 1985 he sang as a Lay Clerk in the choir of St. Albans Cathedral under the direction of Stephen Darlington. Having studied with bass-baritone Richard Standen whilst at the Guildhall, he was prompted by

English National Opera English National Opera (ENO) is a British opera company based in London, resident at the London Coliseum in St Martin's Lane. It is one of the two principal opera companies in London, along with The Royal Opera. ENO's productions are sung in E ...

baritone Geoffrey Chard, a near-neighbour of his parents, to have lessons with Bruce Boyce. It was while he was with Boyce that he decided on a career in opera, and in 1986 won a place at the National Opera Studio.

Awards

Alastair Miles won the 1986 Decca-Kathleen Ferrier Award at

Wigmore Hall The Wigmore Hall is a concert hall at 36 Wigmore Street, in west London. It was designed by Thomas Edward Collcutt and opened in 1901 as the Bechstein Hall; it is considered to have particularly good building acoustics, acoustics. It specialis ...

and the 198
John Christie Award
at the Glyndebourne Festival. His recording of Mendelssohn's ''Elijah'', in which he sang the title role, won ''Gramophone'' magazine's Best Choral Award for 1993.

Career

Alastair Miles is well known for bel canto roles and is considered an ideal Verdi bass. He has been called 'the finest bass of his generation'.

Operatic roles

Alastair Miles has sung at the

Metropolitan Opera The Metropolitan Opera is an American opera company based in New York City, currently resident at the Metropolitan Opera House (Lincoln Center), Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Referred ...

(Sparafucile in ''Rigoletto'', Giorgio in ''I Puritani'' and Raimondo in ''Lucia di Lammermoor''); Paris – Bastille (Raimondo); Vienna (Prefetto in ''Linda di Chamonix'', Giorgio in ''I Puritani'', Cardinal Brogni in ''La Juive'', Silva in ''Ernani'', Zaccaria in ''Nabucco'', Walter in ''Luisa Miller'', Philippe II in ''Don Carlos'', Padre Guardiano in ''La Forza del Destino'' and Nick Shadow in ''The Rake's Progress''); Bayerische Staatsoper (Giorgio, Raimondo, title role in Handel's ''Saul'', Zoroastro in ''Orlando'');

San Francisco Opera The San Francisco Opera (SFO) is an American opera company founded in 1923 by Gaetano Merola (1881–1953) based in San Francisco, California. History Gaetano Merola (1923–1953) Merola's road to prominence in the Bay Area began in 1906 wh ...

(Giorgio, Raimondo and Basilio in ''Il Barbiere di Siviglia''); Amsterdam (Figaro in ''Le Nozze di Figaro'', Raimondo), Madrid (Philip II in ''Don Carlo'', Raimondo and Muley-Hassem in Emilio Arrieta's ''La Conquista di Granata''); Seville (Mephistopheles in Gounod's ''Faust''); Palermo (Walter in ''Luisa Miller''); Pesaro (Le Gouverneur in Rossini's ''Le Compte Ory'') and

La Scala La Scala (, , ; officially , ) is a historic opera house in Milan, Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as (, which previously was Santa Maria della Scala, Milan, a church). The premiere performa ...

, Milan (''Melisso in Alcina'' and Lord Sidney in ''Il Viaggio a Rheims''). He regularly appears with all the UK opera companies. Roles for Welsh National Opera include Colline (''La Bohème''), Silva, Zaccaria, Mephistopheles (Gounod and Berlioz), Fiesco (''Simon Boccanegra''), Talbot (''Maria Stuarda'') and Enrico (''Anna Bolena''). For

Glyndebourne Festival Opera Glyndebourne Festival Opera is an annual opera festival held at Glyndebourne, an English country house near Lewes, in East Sussex, England. History Under the supervision of the Christie family, the festival has been held annually since 1934, e ...

: Pogner (''Die Meistersinger''), Speaker (''Die Zauberflöte''), Fiesco. For Opera North: Philip II, Zaccaria and Leporello. For

: Colline, Harasta (''The Cunning Little Vixen''), Zaccaria, Silva, title role in Boito's ''Mefistofeles'', Ford in Vaughan Williams' ''Sir John in Love'' and Alfonso d'Este ("Lucrezia Borgia"). For the

Royal Opera House The Royal Opera House (ROH) is a theatre in Covent Garden, central London. The building is often referred to as simply Covent Garden, after a previous use of the site. The ROH is the main home of The Royal Opera, The Royal Ballet, and the Orch ...

Covent Garden Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist sit ...

: Colline, Lord Sidney (

Rossini Gioachino Antonio Rossini (29 February 1792 – 13 November 1868) was an Italian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras. He gained fame for his 39 operas, although he also wrote many songs, some chamber music and piano p ...

's ''Il Viaggio a Rheims''), Sparafucile, Rodolfo (''

La Sonnambula ''La sonnambula'' (; ''The Sleepwalker'') is an opera semiseria in two acts, with music in the ''bel canto'' tradition by Vincenzo Bellini set to an Italian libretto by Felice Romani, based on a scenario for a ''ballet-pantomime'' written by Eu ...

''), Elmiro (Rossini's ''Otello''), Banquo (''Macbeth''), Brogni (''La Juive''), Poliferno ('' Niobe, regina di Tebe'') and Dom Juam de Sylva in

Donizetti Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti (29 November 1797 – 8 April 1848) was an Italian Romantic composer, best known for his almost 70 operas. Along with Gioachino Rossini and Vincenzo Bellini, he was a leading composer of the ''bel canto'' opera ...

's ''Dom Sebastien''.

Concert performance

Alastair Miles has appeared with many conductors and orchestras including Giulini, Harnoncourt, Mazur, Muti, Chung, Rattle, Runnicles, Masur, Gergiev, Gardiner, Norrington, Davis and Dohnanyi. Recent projects have included performances of ''La Damnation de Faust'', ''The Dream of Gerontius'' and Handel's ''Messiah'' with Davis and the LSO, Schumann's ''Faustszenen'' with Harnoncourt and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra under Tilson-Thomas.

Recording

Hi
discography
numbers more than 80 recordings including Verdi's ''Don Carlos'', the songs of Richard Strauss, and the solo CD ''Great Operatic Arias'' for Chandos. He works with Opera Rara to bring neglected nineteenth century Italian and French Opera to a wider public. On that label he has recorded Ambroise Thomas' ''opera comique'', ''La Cour de Célimène''.

References

External links

Alastair Miles entry in Worldcat

Welsh National Opera's 2013 ''Anna Bolena'' - reviews

Opera North's ''Don Giovanni'' awarded Best Opera of 2012

''Opera Britannia'' review of ''Don Giovanni'' (2012)

Alastair Miles at Debrett's
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Miles, Alastair 1961 births Living people 21st-century British male opera singers 20th-century British male opera singers Singers from the London Borough of Harrow People from Harrow, London People educated at The John Lyon School People educated at St Marylebone Grammar School