CHANDOS

CHAN 3119 BOOK.qxd 20/9/06 12:00 pm Page 18Gavin WilkinsonCenter, Concertgebouw, La Scala, South Bank,Berlin, Madrid, Brussels, the London Proms,Edinburgh Festival, and has given recitals inTokyo, Aix-en-Provence, Covent Garden,Montreux and Dublin.Recordings include Orlando, Elijah, EugeneOnegin, Serse in a live recording from theMunich Staatsoper, Rigoletto and, as part ofChandos’ Opera in English series, the title rolein Carmen.On completion ofhis studies, Britishtenor Kim Begleyjoined the RoyalOpera House,Covent Garden as aprincipal tenor, andappearances therehave included KatyaKabanova, Pfitzner’sPalestrina, Billy Buddand Wozzeck. Covent Garden has also been thestage for two of Kim Begley’s major Wagneriandebuts: Siegmund under Bernard Haitink, andErik under Simone Young.Throughout his career, Kim Begley has alsoenjoyed a continuing relationship with boththe Glyndebourne Festival and EnglishNational Opera. The major Janáček roles thathave featured heavily in his career weredebuted at Glyndebourne, and it was thevenue for his first Florestan (Fidelio). ForEnglish National Opera, he has performedprincipal roles by Britten, Janáček andMussorgsky as well as Wagner’s Parsifal.He has performed at the opera houses inFrankfurt (Lohengrin), Geneva (BorisGodunov), Cologne (Das Rheingold ),Barcelona (The Makropoulos Case), Lyon(Dr Faustus), Berlin (Der Freischütz), Brussels(Khovanshchina), Toulouse (Die Walküre, PeterGrimes), as well in Amsterdam (Peter Grimes),Paris at both the Bastille (Mahagonny, BillyBudd, The Flying Dutchman) and the Châtelet(Fidelio, Dr Faustus), at La Scala Milan(Der Freischütz, Das Rheingold ) and at theBerlin Staatsoper (Der Freischütz). At the LyricOpera of Chicago he has performed TheMakropoulos Case, Mahagonny, Billy Budd andThe Flying Dutchman, and he made hisMetropolitan Opera debut as Lača ( Jenůfa). In2000 Kim Begley made his debut at theBayreuth Festival as Loge in the Ring cycle,conducted by the late Giuseppe Sinopoli.A versatile concert artist, Kim Begley’s corerepertoire includes Britten’s War Requiem,Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius, Beethoven’sSymphony No. 9 and Missa Solemnis, andMahler’s Das Lied von der Erde and SymphonyNo. 8. A varied discography includes Falstaff,Salome, Das Rheingold and the Grammy awardwinningDr Faustus by Busoni.Peter Wedd studied atthe Guildhall Schoolof Music and Dramawith the late WilliamMcAlpine andsubsequently at theNational OperaStudio. He was aCompany Principal atthe Royal OperaHouse, Covent Garden from 1999 to 2001and is a regular guest artist with WelshNational Opera. As a Company Principal ofthe Royal Opera he sang Ywain (Gawain andthe Green Knight) and Kudrjas (Kat’áKabanová). At Welsh National Opera his roleshave included Don José (Carmen), Tamino(Die Zauberflöte), Don Ottavio (DonGiovanni) and Lača ( Jenůfa).Other appearances in the UK and Irelandhave included Federico (L’Arlesiana) and Pluto(Orphée aux enfers) for Opera Holland Park,Kyska (Šarkatán) and Julius (I cavalieri diEkebù) at the Wexford Festival, and Satyavan(Savitri) at the Aldeburgh Festival, and he hashad a great success singing Rodolfo in a newproduction of La Bohème at London’s RoyalAlbert Hall. Peter Wedd has sung Tamino andEisenstein (Die Fledermaus) for EuropeanChamber Opera as well as Lysander (AMidsummer Night’s Dream) for the SingaporeLyric Theatre.He is much in demand as a concert artistand has worked with orchestras including theLondon Philharmonic, Royal ScottishNational, City of London Sinfonia, NorthernSinfonia and the Bournemouth Symphony.Peter Wedd has appeared at the CoventGarden and Edinburgh Festivals and abroad atthe Maribor Festival, Slovenia and the CernierFestival in Switzerland.Recordings in Chandos’ Opera in Englishseries include Turandot and Jenůfa.Geoffrey Mitchell’s singing career hasencompassed a remarkably wide repertoirefrom early to contemporary music and hastaken him to Scandinavia, Germany, theformer Czechoslovakia, Canada andAustralasia. Early conducting experience withthe BBC led to a wider involvement with hisown singers and in turn to the establishment1819