Christian Curnyn
Chef d'orchestre
Biography
In 1994 Christian founded the Early Opera Company (www.earlyopera.com).
Notable Handel performances have included Orlando for the South Bank Centre
Early Music Festival, Partenope for Buxton and Aldeburgh Festivals, and national
tours of Flavio and Susanna. EOC appears regularly at the Wigmore Hall and St
John’s Smith Square, and has performed in concert at the Cheltenham Festival,
Spitalfields Festival, York Early Music Festival, London Festival of Baroque Music,
Kilkenny Arts Festival, and at the BBC Proms.
In the UK Christian has conducted Handel's Semele for Scottish Opera, Handel’s
Saul for Opera North, Britten’s The Beggar’s Opera for The Royal Opera, Covent
Garden, Le nozze di Figaro, Semele and Cavalli’s Eliogabalo for Grange Park
Opera, and Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea, Handel’s Orlando and Alcina
for Opera Theatre Company, Dublin.
In 2008 Christian Curnyn made his hugely successful debut with English National
Opera in an Olivier Award winning production of Handel’s Partenope. He has
returned to ENO for After Dido, Katie Mitchell’s realisation of Purcell’s Dido and
Aeneas, Barrie Kosky’s Olivier Award-winning production of Rameau’s Castor et
Pollux, Handel’s Giulio Cesare, Charpentier’s Medée, and Handel's Rodelinda.
In 2014 he conducted Cavalli's L'Ormindo for The Royal Opera, Covent Garden to
inaugurate their series at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at Shakespeare’s The
Globe which he revived in 2015. Later that year he conducted Luigi Rossi’s Orfeo,
also for The Royal Opera.
In the USA Christian Curnyn has conducted Partenope and Cosi fan Tutte for
New York City Opera, Handel's Tolomeo for Glimmerglass Opera and Cavalli's
Giasone and Charpentier’s Medée for Chicago Opera Theater.
Elsewhere he has worked with Opera Australia (Partenope), Landestheater
Salzburg (Vivaldi’s Farnace and Handel’s Ariodante) Frankfurt Opera (Cavalli’s La
Calisto and Gluck’s Ezio), Komische Oper Berlin (Rameau’s Castor et Pollux and
Zoroastre) and Stuttgart Opera (Rameau’s Platée, Purcell’s The Fairy Queen and
Handel’s Alcina). He conducted Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas in Aldeburgh as part
of the Britten centenary celebrations. He has conducted Jephtha for Hallé Handel
Festival and Handel's Susanna for Karslruhe Handel Festival.
On the concert platform, Christian has conducted the Bournemouth Symphony,
Ulster, Hallé, Stavanger Symphony, Wroclaw Baroque and Irish Baroque
Orchestras as well as English Concert and Essen Philharmoniker. He toured
Scotland with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Nicola Benedetti followed by
a recording on the Decca label.
Recent and future highlights include a revival of Rodelinda at ENO, a new
production of Monteverdi's Il ritorno d'Ulisse at The Roundhouse for ROH, Die
Zauberflöte for Garsington Opera, and a new production at Opéra national du
Rhin, as well as concerts with the Academy of Ancient Music, Philharmonie
Essen, and a Messiah tour with Tasmania, West Australia, and Adelaide Symphony Orchestras.
His recording of Partenope for Chandos won widespread critical acclaim and his
recording of Semele was chosen as a Best Recording of 2008 by The Sunday
Times, Editor’s Choice in Gramophone Magazine and was awarded the 2008
Stanley Sadie Handel Prize. Other releases on the Chandos label include Eccles’
The Judgement of Paris, (awarded a Diapason D’or), Britten’s The Beggar’s Opera
and Handel’s Alceste which won the Opera award in the BBC Music Magazine
Awards 2013. Recordings of Handel’s Flavio, Il Trionfo del Tempo (Wigmore Live)
and Serse have also been released to enthusiastic press acclaim.
