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NEWS Alastair Miles has been in worldwide demand for principal bass roles for over two decades. He has worked at the highest level with all the major opera companies and with the most established conductors. He began 2011 with a return to English National Opera to sing the role of Alfonso in Donizetti’s Lucrezia Borgia (broadcast on Sky Arts).  "Alastair
Miles spits and thunders with authority" - The Independent,
Anna Picard
"The English bass Alastair Miles sang with
notable elegance as the creepy Mr Lucrezia Borgia (aka Duke d'Este)."
- The Observer,
Fiona Maddocks
"The rest of the cast is also strong...When they are onstage, the opera feels in safe hands, as it does with Alastair Miles’s sturdily sung Alfonso." - Financial Times,
Richard Fairman
"Alastair Miles is a fine, Titian-look-alike Alfonso d'Este." - Wall Street Journal,
Paul Levy
Following on from a performance of Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius with Edward Gardner at Salisbury Cathedral, Alastair began rehearsals for his first Wagner role, as Pogner in the David McVicar production of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg for Glyndebourne Festival.  “Enter the top-hatted Pogner, Alastair
Miles, and though he is no black-voiced German bass, he is still
magnificent, making one wish, as all great Pogners do, that he didn’t
have such long absences from the stage. His scene with his daughter Eva
at the start of Act II was as moving as anything in the opera, as it
should be.” - The Spectator, Michael Tanner “The mastersingers were all strongly cast, pride of place going to Alastair Miles as an immensely sympathetic Pogner, whose warm bass sound and sense of melodic line made his passages of narration as enjoyable as they should be.” - Musical Criticism “Alastair Miles’s Pogner was in every sense the voice of experience.” - The Independent Alastair’s appearance at the BBC Proms this season was for Havergal Brian’s epic Gothic Symphony with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and the BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by Martyn Brabbins. In August, Alastair was to be seen in a semi staged performance as Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte at the Lucerne Festival, conducted by Daniel Harding. He is currently rehearsing Claudio in Handel’s Agrippina with Opéra de Dijon which opens on 8th October 2011. Forthcoming engagements include Daland in Der fliegende Holländer in Liège, St Matthew Passion with Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Mozart's Requiem in Dresden (Thielemann), Don Carlo (Runnicles) at the Staatsoper, Berlin, Robert le Diable in Salerno, Medea and Timur in Turandot at the Bayerische Staatsoper. Munich, L’Enfance du Christ in Milan (Ticciati) and Die Meisteresinger at Netherlands Opera. LOOKING FURTHER BACK...
2010 began with Alastair in Vienna for New Year concerts of
Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. Next,
north to Stockholm, Sweden to sing the devil roles in Schumann's Faustszenen with the Swedish Radio
Orchestra under Daniel Harding.
Performances of Narbal in Berlioz's epic Les Troyens follow in April, at the Netherlands Opera, conducted by John Nelson, in a revival of Pierre Audi's 2003 production. From Amsterdam Alastair hot-foots it to Munich for a new staging of Johann Simon Mayr's neglected masterpiece Medea in Corinto, produced by Hans Neuenfels and conducted by felow Cambridge resident Ivor Bolton. September brings Alastair home to the Royal Opera House for another rediscovered rarity, Agostino Steffani's Niobe, in a production first seen at the 2007 Schwetzingen Festival Looking back at 2009, April saw Alastair making his debut at La Scala, Milan, singing Lord Sydney in Rossini's II Viaggio a Reims. Concurrently, he sang the role of Melisso in Handel's Alcina. In May, Alastair returned to Opera North for performances of Don Carlo (Philip II) which was recorded by Chandos. Following his 2007 success with the Netherlands Opera in Lucia di Lammermoor (Raimondo), he returned to Amsterdam in 2009 for La Juive (Cardinal Brogni). In 2008, Alastair Miles had resumed his 'devilish' ways (he had appeared in Berlioz's Faust for Welsh National Opera) singing the role of Nick Shadow in The Rake's Progress at the Theater an der Wien, in a new production conducted by Nikolaus Hamoncourt. RECORDINGS Alastair
has made a
number of recordings for the LSO Live label, including Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius and Handel's
Messiah, both
with Sir Colin Davis.
As well as the anticipated release of recent recordings of La Forza del Destino (TDK) and Faustszenen (Concertgebouw own label), Alastair Miles will record the role of Mustafa (L'Italiana in Algeria) for the Chandos Opera in English series. He features on Volume 4 of Hyperion's Complete Songs of Richard Strauss , due for release in February 2009. Just released for Opera Rara is La Cour de Célimène by Ambroise Thomas in which he sings the role of Le Commandeur. A recent recording of Verdi's Nabucco on the Chandos label in which he sings the role of Zaccariah has won him the highest praise. The Gramophone said: Alastair Miles proves his pre-eminence
among British basses today in Verdi: every note of his two solos is
sung with strength and a feeling for line, and he is as happy on high
as he is below.
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