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Russell Braun

Baritone

  • Renowned for his luminous voice “capable of the most powerful explosions as well as the gentlest covered notes” (Toronto Star) baritone Russell Braun rightfully claims his place on the concert, opera and recital stages of the world. His intelligent and thoughtful portrayals of Chou En-lai, Billy Budd, Prince Andrei, Figaro, Papageno, Count Almaviva, Don Giovanni, Pelléas, Eugene Onegin, and The Traveller have captivated audiences. Highlights of the 2022/23 season include Mandryka Arabella for Deutsche Oper Berlin and his return to Festival d'Aix-en-Provence. On the concert platform, he will perform Mendelssohn Elijah with the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir and Brahms Ein Deutsches Requiem with Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.

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  • Recent operatic highlights include include Sam A Quiet Place for Opéra national de Paris, Speaker Die Zauberflöte, Peter Hänsel und Gretel and Don Alfonso Così fan tutte at the Canadian Opera Company, Peter Hänsel und Gretel with Michigan Opera Theatre, a new collaboration with director Tim Albery on Hanns Eisler’s Hollywood Songbook, Hell’s Fury, Luminato Festival, Pentheus The Bassarids, Salzburg Festival, Alfred Ill Der Besuch der alten Dame at Theater an der Wien, Figaro Il Barbiere di Siviglia at Calgary Opera and the title role of the Canadian Opera Company’s new production of Louis Riel in Toronto at the Four Seasons Centre and in Ottawa with the National Arts Centre Orchestra presented as part of the celebrations surrounding Canada’s 150th Anniversary. Previous seasons have included Count Almaviva Le Nozze di Figaro, Ford Falstaff, Duke of Nottingham Roberto Devereux and Conte di Luna Il Trovatore, all with the Canadian Opera Company, Chou En-lai Nixon in China, Lescaut Manon Lescaut and as Olivier alongside Renée Fleming in Capriccio, all at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.


    On the concert platform, Braun sings regularly with the world’s major conductors and orchestras, including the Atlanta Symphony, Toronto Symphony, Montreal Symphony, Danish National Symphony and Houston Symphony. A great affinity for contemporary repertoire, he has performed Peter Eötvös’s Senza Sangue in Rome, London, Norway and Sweden, Brett Dean’s Knocking at the Hell Gate with the BBC Symphony in London, and Kaija Saariaho’s Cinque reflets de l’amour de loin with the Radio-Sinfonieorchester in both Stuttgart and Freiburg. Recent highlights include Brahms’s Vier Ernste Gesänge arranged by Detlev Glanert and Fauré’s Requiem with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Vaughn Williams’s A Sea Symphony with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.


    His discography features the GRAMMY-nominated Das Lied von der Erde (Dorian), JUNO winners Mozart Arie e duetti (CBC) and Apollo e Daphne, and JUNO nominee Winterreise (CBC). His most recent release is Dietch’s Le Vaisseau Fantôme with Les Musiciens du Louvre Grenoble on the Naïve label. DVDs include the Salzburg Festival’s Romeo et Juliette and the Mark Morris dance adaptation of Dido and Aeneas, his much-lauded portrayal of Chou En-lai in Adams’s Nixon in China (Nonesuch) and Capriccio (Decca) at the Metropolitan Opera (released on DVD as part of the company’s Live-in-HD series) and Alexina Louie’s comic opera Burnt Toast.

    2022/23 / 494 words. Not to be altered without permission.

Performances

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Opera repertoire

Adams
Chou En-lai Nixon in China


Berlioz
Chorèbe Les Troyens


Britten
The Traveller Death in Venice
Title Role Billy Budd
Ned Keene* Peter Grimes
Sid Albert Herring


Chabrier
Henri de Valois* Le Roi Malgré Lui


Davis 
Le Gentil** Transit of Venus


Debussy
Golaud Pelléas et Mélisande
Orestes Iphegénie en Tauride


Donizetti
Dr. Malatesta* Don Pasquale
Don Pedro Maria Padilla
Enrico Lucia di Lammermoor


von Einem
Alfred III Der Besuch der alten Dame 


Gilbert & Sullivan
Captain Corcoran H.M.S. Pinafore
Stephon Iolanthe
Grosvenor Patience
Pirate King Pirates Of Penzance


Gluck
Orestes* Iphingénie En Tauride


Gounod
Mercutio Roméo Et Juliette
Valentin Faust


Henze
Pentheus The Bassarids 


Hoiby
Ferdinand The Tempest


Marschner
Lord Ruthven Der Vampyr


Massenet
Lescaut Manon
King Cendrillon
Title role* Werther (Baritone Version)


Monteverdi
Ulisse Il Ritorno d'Ulisse In Patria
Ottone L'Incoronazione Di Poppea
Title role* L'Orfeo


Mozart
Colas Bastien & Bastienne
Don Alfonso Cosi fan Tutte
Title role Don Giovanni
Conte Almaviva Le nozze di Figaro
Papageno Die Zauberflöte


Offenbach
Title role Monsieur Choufleuri


Puccini
Lescaut Manon


Purcell
Aeneas Dido and Aeneas


Prokofiev
Prince Andrei War and Peace


Rameau
Borilée Les Boréades


Rossini
Figaro Il barbiere di Siviglia
Taddeo* L'Italiana in Algeri
Dandini* La Cenerentola


Saariaho
Jaufré* L'Amour de Loin 


Saint-Saëns
Title role Henry VIII


Somers
Hotel Manager** Mario and the Magician
Title role** Louis Riel 


Strauss, J.
Dr. Falke/Eisenstein Die Fledermaus


Strauss, R.
Harlequin Ariadne auf Naxos
Olivier Capriccio
Mandryka Arabella 


Tchaikovsky
Title role Eugene Onegin
Ibn-Hakia Iolanta
Prince Eletsky* Pique Dame


Thomas
Title role Hamlet


Verdi
Germont La traviata 
Conte di Luna Il trovatore 
Ford Falstaff
Rodrigo Don Carlos 


Wagner
Wolfram von Eschenbach Tannhäuser 
Telramund Lohengrin 


*in preparation / **world premiere

Concert repertoire

Bach
B Minor Mass
Magnificat
Coffee Cantata No.211
Cantatas No. 32, No.110, No.138, No.147
Christus St. Matthew Passion
Christus St. John Passion
Christmas Oratorio


Beethoven
Symphony No.9
Choral Fantasia


Brahms
Ein Deutsches Requiem


Burge
Mass For Prisoners Of Conscience**


Eötvös
Senza Sangue** 


Fauré
Requiem


Finzi
Let Us Garlands Bring


Handel
Messiah


Lieberson
The World in Flower**


Mahler
Lieder Eines Fahrenden Gesellen
Das Lied Von Der Erde
Lieder Aus Des Knaben Wunderhorn
Rückert Lieder
Kindertotenlieder
Symphony No.8


Mendelssohn
Elijah


Mozart
Requiem
Coronation Mass
Vesperae Solennes De Confessore


Orff
Carmina Burana


Ravel
Don Quichotte À Dulcinée


Reger
Fünf Lieder: Mein Traum, Flieder, Glückes Genug, Wiegenlied, Fromm


Saint-Saëns
Christmas Oratorio


Vaughan Williams
A Sea Symphony
Five Mystical Songs
Donna nobis pacem


*in preparation / **world premiere 

Recital repertoire

Beethoven
An Die Ferne Geliebte
Gellert Lieder
Selected Songs


Bellini
Selected Songs


Brahms
Vier Ernste Gesänge*
Liebeslieder Waltzer
Die Schöne Magelone
Selected Songs


Britten
Three songs by William Blake*
A Charm of Lullabys


Butterworth
A Shropshire Lad


Debussy
Fêtes Gallantes I,II
Trois Ballades de Paul Villon*
Selected Songs


Fauré
La bonne chanson
L'horizon chimérique
Selected Songs


Finzi
Let us Garlands Bring


Gounod
Selected Songs


Loewe
Selected Songs / Ballads


Mahler
Lieder Eines Fahrenden Gesellen
Lieder Aus Des Knaben Wunderhorn


Massenet


Poème du souvenir
Poème d'amour
Poème d'avril
Poème d'hiver
Poème d'automne


Mendelssohn
Selected Songs


Monteverdi
Selected Works
Mascagni
Five Songs


Morawetz
Father William
Selected Songs


Mozart
Selected Songs


Oliver
In the Flesh**


Purcell
Selected Songs


Poulenc
Selected Songs
Bal Masqué*


Ravel
Don Quichotte à Dulcinée


Reger
Selected Songs


Robertson
Three Songs**


Schubert
Gesänge Des Harrfners
Selected Songs
Schöne Müllerin
Schwanengesang
Winterreise


Schumann
Liederkreis, op.39
Liederkreis, op.47*
Spanisches Liederbuch
Selected Songs


Strauss
Drei Lieder für hohen Bass
Selected Songs


Tchaikovsky
Selected Songs


Vaughan Williams
Songs Of Travel
Five Mystical Songs
Selected Songs


Verdi
Selected Songs


Wolf
Italienisches Liederbuch
Selected Songs


*in preparation / **world premiere 

You have never seen anything in your life quite like the production of Don Giovanni which the Canadian Opera Company opened on Saturday afternoon at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts…. Russell Braun is there to sing and act him to perfection and even though most of the time his self-indulgent debauched countenance looks as though his last name were Crowe, his voice is a million times better… At the centre of it all is Braun, playing an addict to sex and booze and self who is rapidly plunging towards hell. He throws himself into this interpretation so completely that all you can do is hold your breath during it and cheer wildly when it’s over.

The Toronto Star

Baritone Russell Braun is such a fine actor that he managed to establish the Duke of Nottingham as an emotional tinderbox beneath his initially innocuous exchanges with Sara and his fervent defense of Devereux. It was therefore no surprise, when Nottingham found the scarf Sara had embroidered for Devereux, that his stunned reaction should turn into the unstoppable rage that was so frightening in his Act III scene with Sara. Though he was able to chill the natural warmth of his voice, Braun added a plaintive note to Nottingham’s fiercest scenes with Sara and Devereux that expressed the depth of suffering beneath his anger.

Opera News

Russell Braun’s Troïl is a model of style and elegance.

Opera Now

Intermusica represents Russell Braun worldwide.

Julia Maynard
Deputy Chief Executive / Head of Vocal & Opera
+44 20 7608 9902
jmaynard@intermusica.com

Nicholas Moloney
Senior Artist Manager, Vocal & Opera
+44 20 7608 9926
nmoloney@intermusica.com

Lucy Roberts
Assistant Artist Manager, Vocal & Opera
+44 20 7608 9909
lroberts@intermusica.com

If you have any queries, please fill in the form below, and we will be in touch soon

All artists

Chansonnier

HK Gruber

Counter-tenor

Tim Mead

Piano accompanist

Roger Vignoles