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. He was a member of the Bayerische Staatsoper’s Opera Studio for the 2020/21 and 2021/22 seasons. In 2022, he was named recipient of the prestigious Borletti-Buitoni Trust (BBT) fellowship.
The 2023/24 season marks several exciting debuts for Theodore Platt. He sees his first performances of Belcore in L’elisir d’amore in a return to the Glyndebourne Opera Festival, and makes his role and house debut as the titular character in Guillaume Tell at St. Gallen Opera House. On the concert stage, Platt gives recitals with pianist Keval Shah at Wigmore Hall, the Oxford International Song Festival, and the Sibelius Academy Concert Hall in Helsinki. He returns to the Mozart Week in Salzburg with the Vienna Philharmonic and Andrés Orozco-Estrada in works by Mozart, Haydn & Salieri, and will also be heard as 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.
Last season, Platt debuted at Glyndebourne in the role of Jailer in Barrie Kosky’s new production of Dialogues des Carmélites, which also traveled to BBC Proms. He also 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 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.
In the 2021/22 season, Platt was heard in Munich as Fiorello in Il barbiere di Siviglia, as Lakai in Ariadne auf Naxos and as Count Ceprano in Rigoletto. He received great acclaim jumping in last minute as Wiedehopf (Die Vögel) at the Bayerische Staatsoper Festival in 2021. Platt also created the role of Digital Baritone in the world premiere of Miroslav Srnka’s Singularity alongside Klangforum Wien at the Bayerische Staatsoper, and performed the title role of Johannes Kepler in the world premiere of Kepler’s Trial, a contemporary opera composed by Tim Watts, staged as part of the Victoria and Albert Museum’s groundbreaking exhibition “Opera: Passion, Power and Politics” in 2018.
Additional recent highlights 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.
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.
Theodore Platt 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.
He has won numerous prizes in competitions including 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 pianist 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, Theodore Platt studied Music at St John’s College, Cambridge.
