Full Biography
Rising British-Russian baritone Theodore Platt, celebrated for his “warm and powerful English baritone” (Music OMH) is one of opera’s most promising young voices. A recent member of the Bayerische Staatsoper’s Opera Studio, during his tenure he was awarded the prestigious Borletti-Buitoni Trust (BBT) fellowship.
The 2024/25 season marks an exciting new chapter for Theodore Platt as he joins the ensemble of the Copenhagen Opera House, marking a significant milestone in his career. In this capacity, he takes on several important roles, showcasing his versatility as a baritone across different operatic styles. These include his role debut as Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro, Lord Cecil in Maria Stuarda, and his role debut as the titular character Figaro in Gioachino Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia. Platt’s concert season includes an appearance with the Eppaner Liedsommer classical music festival in South Tyrol, Italy, where he gives a recital alongside pianist Keval Shah. Under the baton of Roberto Gonzales-Monjas, Theodore Platt presents Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 at the Großes Festspielhaus in Salzburg.
A special highlight of the coming season is the release of his Deutsche Grammophon STAGE+ online recital, featuring work by Jean Sibelius, Franz Schubert, Hugo Wolf, and Benjamin Britten, once again in collaboration with Keval Shah.
Theodore Platt made several major debuts in the 2023/24 season. He sang his first performances as Belcore in L’elisir d’amore at Glyndebourne Opera Festival and made his role and house debut as the titular character in Guillaume Tell at St. Gallen Opera House. On the concert stage, Platt gave recitals with Keval Shah at Wigmore Hall, the Oxford International Song Festival, and the Sibelius Academy Concert Hall in Helsinki. He returned to the Mozart Week in Salzburg with the Vienna Philharmonic and Andrés Orozco-Estrada presenting works by Mozart, Haydn & Salieri. He was also heard as a soloist in Bent Sørensen’s St. Matthew Passion with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra at the DR Concert House in Copenhagen, led by Ludovic Morlot.
Highlights of recent seasons include Platt’s debut with the Glyndebourne Festival in the role of the Jailer in Barrie Kosky’s new production of Dialogues des Carmélites, with a further stop at BBC Proms. He made his Salzburg debut as part of the Mozart Week with the pastiche The Old Tree, or Franzi’s Journey to the End of the World, in a production by Paul Schweinester at the Salzburger Marionettentheater. Platt returned to the Bayerische Staatsoper in the role of the Badger in the children’s opera Mondbär, and in Baden-Baden and Berlin he performed as the Night Watchman in Die Frau ohne Schatten under the musical direction of Kirill Petrenko. Additionally, the baritone sang in a concert in Salzburg (Konzert im Dialog) and gave a piano recital at the Christopheri Salon in Berlin. Additional performances include Figaro (Il barbiere di Siviglia) and Malatesta (Don Pasquale) in concert performances with Bayerische Staatsoper’s Opera Studio, Ramiro (L’heure espagnole) for RCM London, and Stravinsky’s Threni with Vladimir Jurowski and the London Philharmonic Orchestra.
Theodore Platt was featured on Jonathan Tetelman’s acclaimed Deutsche Grammophon Album “The Great Puccini” presenting the role of Marcello in excerpts from La bohème. With the Culiner Creative Circle, Platt and Keval Shah produced audio-visual interpretations of Jean Sibelius’ “Var det en Dröm?” and Samuel Barber’s “O boundless, boundless evening” for online release via various streaming platforms.
A sought-after concert singer, the baritone made his Wigmore Hall debut in 2019 as part of Graham Johnson’s Songmakers’ recital series. In 2021, he performed at the Oxford Lieder Festival and at the Schubertiade Schwarzenberg. In 2018-19, Theodore Platt participated in the inaugural French Song Exchange at Wigmore Hall, working closely with Felicity Lott and François Le Rouxand culminating in recitals in London and Paris. In 2022, he returned to Wigmore for a recital alongside Malcolm Martineau.
Platt is the grateful recipient of prizes from the 64th Kathleen Ferrier Awards, the Veronica Dunne International Singing Competition, Copenhagen Lied Duo Competition, Lies Askonas Competition, Joan Chissell Schumann Competition. Further, he was awarded the Prix Thierry Mermod at Verbier Festival. In 2022, Theodore Platt and Keval Shah won the first prize at the 13th International Art Song Competition Stuttgart. The duo performed works by Franz Schubert, Vivian Fung, Hugo Wolf, Frank Bridge, and Benjamin Britten.
London-born Platt studied Music at St John’s College, Cambridge, and is an alumnus of the Verbier Festival Academy and the Royal College of Music Opera Studio. He attended the Internationale Meistersinger Akademie (IMA), which was followed by engagements with the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra and a Schubert recital including a broadcast on BR-Klassik.
© CSAM, August 2024
