Jonathan Summers

Biography

Australian born Jonathan Summers has achieved world acclaim for his interpretation of a wide variety of operatic roles in the opera houses of the world during his forty year career.

After early training in Australia and Britain, his highly praised 1975 debut with Kent Opera as Rigoletto was quickly followed by a contract with The Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London. His many roles since include Figaro (Il barbiere di Siviglia), Malatesta (Don Pasquale), Silvio (Pagliacci), Albert and Le Bailli (Werther), Falke (Die Fledermaus), Herald (Lohengrin), Animal Tamer (Lulu), Paolo (Simon Boccanegra), Balstrode (Peter Grimes), Faninal (Der Rosenkavalier), Papageno (Die Zauberflöte), Figaro (Le nozze di Figaro), Ford (Falstaff), Sharpless (Madama Butterfly), Marcello (La bohème), Nabucco and Sebastian (The Tempest).

His many guest appearances include Scottish Opera, Welsh National Opera, English National Opera, Opera North, Glyndebourne Festival, Opera Australia, Victoria State Opera, State Opera of South Australia, Opera Queensland, Paris Opera, Theatre du Capitole Toulouse, La Fenice Venice, Theatre Communale Florence, Theatre Municipale Lausanne, Hamburg State Opera, Bavarian State Opera Munich, State Opera Cologne, Theatre de la Monnai Brussels, Grand Theatre Geneva, The Metropolitan Opera, New York, Lyric Opera Chicago and Houston Grand Opera. In 2009 he was awarded the Order of Australia Medal for services to the performing arts.

Summers’s many Verdi roles include Macbeth, Rigoletto, Germont (La Traviata), Simon Boccanegra, Renato (Un ballo in maschera), Don Carlos (La forza del destino), Posa (Don Carlos), Iago (Otello) and Falstaff. His other repertory includes Kurwenal (Tristan und Isolde), Amfortas (Parsifal), Scarpia (Tosca), Michele (Il tabarro), Tonio (Pagliacci), Wozzeck, Tomsky (The Queen of Spades), Prus (The Makropulos Affair) and Geppetto (The Adventures of Pinocchio). He has recorded widely.

He has regularly worked with the great opera singers of the day including Joan Sutherland, Kiri Te Kanawa, Mirella Freni, Alfredo Kraus, Jon Vickers, Placido Domingo, Jose Carreras, Luciano Pavarotti, and Jonas Kaufmann, and also many of the great conductors including Carlos Klieber, Sir Colin Davis, Sir Charles Mackerras, Sir George Solti, Sir Bernard Haitink, Riccardo Muti, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Claudio Abbado and Sir Antonio Pappano.

Among recent engagements the Bailiff in Werther for The Metropolitan Opera New York, Iago in Otello for English National Opera London, Spencer Coyle in Owen Wingrave for Aldeburgh Festival Snape Maltings, Sharpless in Madam Butterfly for Perth International Festival, and Germont in La Traviata for Opera Queensland in Brisbane.