instructor

Biography

When British tenor Laurence Dale was invited by Nikolaus Harnoncourt, to make his Wiener Staatsoper début,  Marcel Prawy described him as “the best Tamino we have had since Wunderlich”.

He has since sung Die Zauberflöte throughout the world, and opened the bicentennial Mozart Year 1991 in Salzburg in the role of Tamino.

Dale came to international recognition in Paris 1981, creating the role of Don José in Peter Brook’s La Tragédie de Carmen, repeating the role in Zurich, Hamburg and New York. He went on to an international career regularly singing in Vienna, Berlin, Los Angeles, Munich Paris and throughout Europe. His repertoire stretched from Renaissance and Baroque with the world’s leading interpreters through the Romantic repertoire and contemporary.

Considered a Baroque specialist with Harnoncourt, Jacobs, Bruggen, Hogwood, Christie, Hengelbrock, Gardiner, he was also one of the leading Mozartian tenors of his generation, with Mackerras, Colin Davis, Fischer, Welser-Most, Cambreling in Vienna, Salzburg Festival, Munich, Frankfurt, Brussels, London, Paris.


He pioneered the 19th century French repertoire, reviving Mehul and Auber, Berlioz cantatas, then Damnation de Faust with the Orchestra de Paris under Semyon Bychkov, recording Gounod’s Messe de Ste Cecilia  with Georges Prêtre, and singing Roméo et Juliette (opposite Eva Lind!) in Zurich and Basel, Werther in Paris with Casadesus, Ravel’s Prix de Rome cantatas with Sylvain Cambreling, Debussy’s Pelleas et Mélisande and ...Schubert with Antonio Pappano, Rossini with Scimone, Schoenberg with Dohnanyi, and Stravinsky with Boulez. In 2000 Peter Brook invited Dale to direct his first production, La Tragédie de Carmen.


Since then he has directed in the USA, South Africa and throughout Europe, Don Giovanni Amsterdam, Cosi fan Tutte Vienna Montecchi e i Capuleti Bellini, Lehar  (Bad Ischl, Salzburg, Innsbruck, Metz) Meyerbeer’s Les Huguenots, Ades’ Powder Her Face, Gustave III (Auber), Gustavo Terzo (Verdi) Aida, Dido & Aeneas (Innsbruck AlteMusik Fest and NYC) La Voix Humaine (with Maria Ewing) L’Heure Espagnole, Contes d’Hoffmann, Opera Seria (Gassmann) Madama Butterfly, Il Barbiere di Siviglia and Norma. He directed Die Fledermaus for the Norwegian National Opera, Oslo.  His production of Handel’s Agrippina for Göttingen International Handel Festival, transferred to Brisbane Baroque and won Australia’s Best Opera Production of the Year Helpmann Award before returning to Oldenburg in 2016 His Nederlands Reisopera production of Ariadne auf Naxos won Best Opera Production 2016 and will be presented in the USA.

As Artistic Director of the Opera Theatre of Metz and Artistic Director of the Evian Festival (taking over from Rostropovich in 2000) organizing and programming 13 seasons, creating and conducting the Evian Festival Orchestra in 2011. He has also conducted the Johannesburg Philharmonic, The Beijing Symphony, Philharmonie des Nationen, Sinfonia Varsovia and the Orchestre de l’Opéra National de Nancy.

Laurence Dale is a highly respected teacher and coach to numerous international singers. He has given Masterclasses in Paris, Marseilles, Bruxelles, Nantes, Johannesburg, New York and London in many musical genres.