Brett Polegato

One of today’s most sought-after lyric baritones on the international stage, Canadian-Italian Brett Polegato has earned the highest praise from audiences and critics for his artistic sensibility: “his is a serious and seductive voice” says the Globe and Mail, while the New York Times has praised him for his “burnished, well-focused voice,” which he uses with “considerable intelligence and nuance.” He has performed at the world’s most prestigious venues including La Scala, the Opéra national de Paris, the Glyndebourne Festival, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera, the Teatro Real, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam and Carnegie Hall.

Recent operatic highlights include his debuts at the Metropolitan Opera (Brétigny in Manon) and Wexford Festival Opera (Dr Talbot in the European premiere of William Bolcom’s Dinner at Eight); the title role in Eugene Onegin, and Marcello in La bohème (Grange Park Opera); his role debut as Amfortas in Parsifal (Festival de Lanaudière); Count Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro (Palm Beach Opera); Howie Albert in Champion (Opéra de Montréal); the title role in Don Giovanni (Vancouver Opera) and in Wozzeck (Bolshoi Theatre of Moscow); Zurga in The Pearl Fishers, Dandini in La Cenerentola, and Sharpless in Madama Butterfly (Seattle Opera). In March 2022 he sang Richard Brown in the world premiere concert of Kevin Puts’s The Hours (Philadelphia Orchestra).

Equally at ease on the concert platform, his performances have included Zemlinsky’s Lyrische Symphonie (Orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal), the world premiere of Jeffrey Ryan’s Afghanistan: Requiem for a Generation (Vancouver Symphony Orchestra), Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra), and Ravel’s L’heure espagnole (BBC Proms).

Brett Polegato’s recordings include Vaughan Williams’s A Sea Symphony (Grammy Award winner, Best Classical Recording), his acclaimed solo disc To A Poet (CBC Records), Bach’s Coffee Cantata and Peasant Cantata (Analekta‒Fleurs de lys), Emmerich Kálmán’s Die Herzogin von Chicago (Decca), and Gluck’s Armide (Deutsche Grammophon Archiv Produktion).