Anthony Michaels-Moore

2017: Grammy nomination for Best Opera Recording – Jennifer Higdon's Cold Mountain recorded live at The Santa Fe Opera

His career has been centered on the Italian repertoire, starting with lyric roles, but now focused on the great Verdi baritone roles. A review of his 2009 performances of Rigoletto with English National Opera noted his ability to be both "gloriously lyrical and terrifyingly baleful at the same time", combining beautiful Italianate legato with "monstrous power". Another reviewer of that production opined that "he is [Britain's] leading Verdi baritone". Performances in Canada as Rigoletto ("performing with amazing presence, his dark voice suited the character perfectly… brought a remarkable breadth of expression to the role") and in Europe as Scarpia ("he is obsequiously, sadistically, loathsomely mellifluous") as well as Falstaff in 2010 have also drawn high praise.

In the US, Michaels-Moore has a particularly strong relationship with the Santa Fe Opera; in their summer festivals he has appeared in classic Verdi parts such as Simon Boccanegra (2004), Falstaff (2008), and Germont pere (2009). Anthony has also appeared at the festival in less familiar roles and new works; singing the title role in Mozart's The Impresario and the Emperor in Stravinsky's The Nightingale in 2014, and creating the role of Robert Crosbie in the world premiere of Paul Moravec's The Letter in 2009, as well as the roles of Father Monroe and Pangle in the world premiere of Cold Mountain in 2015. Anthony's 2009 appearances as Robert Crosbie in The Letter brought him particular critical approval.

2004: Grammy nomination for Best Classical Album recording – LSO Live: Britten: Peter Grimes with Sir Colin Davis conducting the London Symphony Orchestra

1995: Royal Philharmonic Society Music Award, the highest recognition for live classical music-making in the United Kingdom

Michaels-Moore made his debut at London's Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in 1987 and has subsequently appeared in many productions there including La Bohème, Pagliacci, The Barber of Seville, The Marriage of Figaro (1998), Andrea Chénier (1998), Tosca (2000), Macbeth (1997 & 2002), Falstaff (2003), Lucia di Lammermoor (2004), La traviata (2006), Il trovatore (2007), L’elisir d'amore (2009), and Madama Butterfly (2011). He has also appeared with all the other major British companies: English and Welsh National Operas, Opera North, Scottish Opera and Glyndebourne Festival Opera.

1985: First British winner of the Luciano Pavarotti Competition in Philadelphia, USA

Michaels-Moore was born in Essex. Between 1975 and 1978, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the British Army's Royal Tank Regiment while studying music and history at Newcastle University upon Tyne, and, after a year at Fenham teacher training college, he became a primary school teacher. From 1981 onward he studied singing privately, became a member of the chorus at the English Bach Festival from 1982 to 1984. He attended the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama from 1984 to 1985, earning a MMus/MA in Opera. In 1985 Michaels-Moore was named the first British winner of the Luciano Pavarotti Competition and sang the roles of Messenger (Oedipus rex) for Opera North and Scarpia in Tosca for Scottish Opera Go Round.

Anthony Michaels-Moore (born 8 April 1957) is an English operatic baritone and the first British winner of the Luciano Pavarotti International Voice Competition (Philadelphia, 1985). Michaels-Moore has since performed in many of the world's major opera houses across Europe, the Americas, and Asia. He has distinguished himself as a specialist in Verdi and Puccini roles, most renowned for his portrayals of Falstaff, Nabucco, Rigoletto, Simon Boccanegra, Iago in Otello, Germont in La traviata, Sharpless in Madama Butterfly, and Scarpia in Tosca. In addition to the standard repertoire, he has sung and recorded the baritone roles of some of the less-known 19th Century Italian operas, as well as the popular English art song cycles by Stanford and Vaughan Williams.