John Irvin

Faust tenor

Scottish mezzo-soprano Karen Cargill is one of the most renowned singers of her generation. Winner of the 2002 Kathleen Ferrier Award, she has gone on to be nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Operatic Recording as part of the Metropolitan Opera’s recording of Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites. In 2018 she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

Karen opened the 2022/23 season in September singing the Wood-Dove in Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir under Edward Gardner here at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall. Other highlights this season include Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 with both the Deutsche Oper Berlin under Paolo Bartolameolli and the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal under Rafael Payare; and Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin under Robin Ticciati.

Karen’s operatic roles include Geneviève in Pelléas et Mélisande, Judith in Bluebeard’s Castle, Dryade in Ariadne auf Naxos, Anna in Les Troyens, and the title role in Dido and Aeneas. Famed for her interpretations of Wagner, she regularly sings Erda (Das Rheingold and Siegfried), Fricka (Das Rheingold), Brangäne (Tristan und Isolde), Waltraute (Götterdämmerung) and Magdalena (Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg). At the 2021 Glyndebourne Festival she sang Brangäne in Tristan und Isolde with the LPO under Robin Ticciati, reprised at the 2021 BBC Proms. This season Karen makes her debut as Zia Principessa in Puccini’s Il trittico with Scottish Opera directed by Sir David McVicar, and returns to Glyndebourne as Mère Marie in Dialogues des Carmélites with the LPO and Robin Ticciati.

Following a series of important debuts at leading international opera houses and festivals, John Irvin is quickly establishing himself as one of the most interesting young tenors in the bel canto and French repertoire and in Mozart’s operatic roles, as well as contemporary music. Engagements this season include Stravinsky’s Les Noces for his debut at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, and Franck’s Les Béatitudes with the Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège. Tonight is his debut with the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

Last season John appeared in Rossini’s Le siège de Corinthe in Athens, Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail at the Staatstheater and Mai-Festspiele Wiesbaden, Berlioz’s Requiem with the Orchestre national des Pays de la Loire, Rossini’s Stabat Mater with the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, and La petite messe solennelle with the Stuttgart Philharmonic. In summer 2022 he made his debut at the Buxton Festival as Rodrigo in Rossini’s La donna del lago

Originally a pianist, the American tenor studied singing at Georgia State University and Boston University’s Opera Institute, and is an alumnus of The Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Among the conductors with whom he has collaborated are Sir Andrew Davis, Gustavo Dudamel, Stéphane Denève, John Nelson, John DeMain and Christof Perick.

Unfortunately the advertised tenor, David Junghoon Kim, is indisposed and unable to perform this evening. We are very grateful to John Irvin for stepping in at short notice to sing the role of Faust.