Rupert Charlesworth

Biography

Rupert Charlesworth, who is praised for his ‘stunning technique and musicality’ (Planet Hugill), enjoys a busy career at the opera theatre and on stage. His 2016/17 highlights include; the release and European tour of a disc of never before recorded works of CPE Bach with Café Zimmermann; a festival d’Aix-en-Provence production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Beijing Music Festival; Fairy Queen at Theater an der Wien; George Benjamin’s Written on Skin at the Bolshoi Theatre; the Funeral Director in Bernstein’s A Quiet Place with the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal; Messiah conducted by Hervé Niquet with Le Concert Spirituel; Brockes Passion at the Handel Festival in Gottingen and a recital at the Philharmonie de Paris again with festival d’Aix-en-Provence.

Rupert’s operatic roles include Lysander in A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Aix, Damon in Acis and Galatea and Younger Son in Trauernacht – Katie Mitchell’s staging of Bach cantatas – all for the Aix-en-Provence Festival; Lucano and Soldier in L’Incoronazione di Poppea at the Theater an der Wien; First Armed Man in Die Zauberflöte – for the ENO. In concert he has appeared as Narrator in Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda with the Orquestra Barroca Casa da Musica in Porto under Laurence Cummings and Angel 3 and John in George Benjamin’s Written on Skin with the Gulbenkian Foundation Orchestra. College roles included Tamino in Die Zauberflöte and Count Enrico in La vera costanza under Trevor Pinnock.

Other previous engagements include; Soldier in Der Kaiser von Atlantis for the English Touring Opera and Hermit in Wakening Shadow – Luke Styles’ realisation of Britten’s canticles – for the Glyndebourne Jerwood Programme under Vladimir Jurowski; the premiere of Joanna Lee’s The Way Back Home for the English National Opera.

On the concert platform Rupert has worked with many highly regarded conductors and orchestras including; Les Musiciens du Louvre under Marc Minkowski; Nicholas Kraemer; Laurence Cummings; Scottish Chamber Orchestra under Tonu Kaljuste; Ensemble Café Zimmermann; Capella Amsterdam under Daniel Reuss; Ensemble Matheus under Jean-Christophe Spinosi; Accademia Bizantina under Ottavio Dantone.

Rupert Charlesworth read Music at King’s College London and currently studies with Philip Doghan. He trained at the Royal Academy of Music where he was generously supported by the Karaviotis Scholarship, the John Kenneth Adams Scholarship, the Josephine Baker Trust, the Countess of Munster Trust and Mr. and Mrs. Sommerville.

Rupert Charlesworth was a 2011 Academy Laureate of the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence and won both the Jury and Audience prizes of the 2013 Handel Singing Competition which he repeated at the 2014 International Singing Competition for Baroque Opera Pietro Antonio Cesti.