© Robert Workman
Peter Hoare
Tenor
Renowned for his versatility and his musicianship, Peter Hoare has carved his name with his performances of 20th-century and contemporary opera, making his Metropolitan Opera debut as HauptmannWozzeck followed by Šapkin From the House of the Dead. His recent roles at the Royal Opera House include Mortimer Lessons in Love and Violence, Fatty Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny and Dr Caius Falstaff. Much admired by conductors and directors the world over, his repertoire extends to Desportes Die Soldaten, Larry King Anna Nicole and Sharikov The Dog’s Heart. This season’s opera highlights include returns to English National Opera as Monostatos Magic Flute and La Monnaie as Mime Das Rheingold. In concert, he performs Piet le Pot Le Grand Macabre at Bucharest’s Enescu Festival with the George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra cond. Arnaud Arbet, Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks cond. Sir Simon Rattle and Zinovy in Shostakovich‘s Lady Macbeth with the Boston Symphony Orchestra cond. Andris Nelsons at Boston’s Symphony Hall and New York’s Carnegie Hall.
Media
Repertoire Includes
Concert
ADAMS
The Gospel According To The Other Mary Lazarus
BACH
St Matthew Passion
St John Passion
Christmas Oratorio
Mass In B Minor
BEETHOVEN
Symphony No. 9
BERLIOZ
La Damnation de Faust
Romeo Et Juliette
Grand Messe De Morts
Requiem
BRITTEN
Serenade For Tenor, Horn & Strings
St Nicholas
Les Illumination
War Requiem
Songs Of The High Hills
ELGAR
Dream Of Gerontius
FINZI
Intimations Of Immortality
GOUNOD
Messe Solennelle
HANDEL
Messiah
HAYDN
Nelson Mass
Creation
JANÁCEK
Diary Of One Who Disappeared
MAHLER
8th Symphony
MENDELSSOHN
Elijah
MOZART
Requiem
Mass in C Minor
PUCCINI
Messa di Gloria
RACHMANIOV
The Bells
SCHOENBERG
Gurrelieder (Waldemar)
TIPPETT
Child Of Our Time
VERDI
Requiem
WEILL
Fall Of The City Of Mahagonny
Opera
ANDERSON
The Thebans (Creon)
BENJAMIN
Lessons In Love And Violence (Mortimer)
BERG
Wozzeck (Hauptmann)
Lulu (Alwa)
BERLIOZ
Damnation de Faust (Faust)
BOITO
Mefistofele (Nereo, Wagner)
BRITTEN
Albert Herring (Mr Upfold)
Rape Of Lucretia (Male Chorus)
Gloriana (Master Of Ceremonies)
Billy Budd (Vere)
Peter Grimes (Bob Boles)
DALLAPICCOLA
Il Prigoniero (Gaoler/Inquisitor)
DONIZETTI
Belisario (Eutropio)
Lucia Di Lammermoor (Normanno)
GIORDANO
Andrea Chenier (Abbé)
HUMPERDINCK
Hänsel Und Gretel (Witch)
JANÁCEK
Kat’a Kabanovâ (Tikhon)
Makropulos Case (Gregor/Vitek)
Cunning Little Vixen (Schoolmaster)
Jenufa (Laca)
House Of The Dead (Shapkin)
The Excursions of Mr Br ouček (MatějBrouček)
LIGETI
Le Grand Macabre (Piet The Pot)
MARTINU
Julietta (Michel)
MONTEVERDI
L’incoronazione Di Poppea (Arnalta)
MOZART
Idomeneo (Idomeneo, Arbace)
La clemenza di Tito (Tito)
Le nozze di Figaro (Curzio, Basilio)
Die Zauberflöte (Monastatos)
Die Entführung (Pedrillo)
MUSSORGSKY
Boris Godunov (Shuisky, Simpleton)
Khovanshchina (Golitsyn)
NONO
Al gran sole carico d’amore (Thiers)
PROKOFIEV
Betrothal In A Monastery (Brother Elusaf)
PUCCINI
Madama Butterfly (Goro)
Manon Lescaut (Il Maestro Di Ballo)
Turandot (Pong, Pang)
RASKATOV
A Dog’s Heart (Sharikov)
RIMSKY-KORSAKOV
The Tsar’s Bride (Bomelius)
SCHREKER
Die Gezeichneten (Alviano)
SHOSTAKOVICH
Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (Zinovy)
STRAUSS
Ariadne auf Naxos (Bacchus)
Salome (Herod)
Der Rosenkavalier (Valzacchi)
Elektra (Aegisthus)
STRAVINSKY
The Rake’s Progress (Sellem)
TCHAIKOVSKY
Eugene Onegin (Monsieur Triquet)
Pique Dame (Hermann/Tchekalinsky)
Iolanta (Vaudemont)
TURNAGE
Anna Nicole (Larry King)
VERDI
La Traviata (Gastone)
Falstaff (Bardolfo/Caius)
WAGNER
Tristan und Isolde (Der Hirt)
Der Fliegende Holländer (Steuermann)
Tannhäuser (Heinrich Der Schreiber)
Siegfried (Mime)
WEILL
Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny (Fatty)
ZIMMERMANN
Die Soldaten (Desportes)
Selected Discography
Press
wagner DAS RHEINGOLD / la monnaie | de munt
"Le ténor Peter Hoare brille aussi, avec une interprétation très vive et théâtrale du forgeron. Les cris de désespoir de Mime sonnent forts et poignants, témoignant d’une maitrise vocale puissamment déployée."
"Tenor Peter Hoare also shines, with a very lively and theatrical interpretation of the blacksmith. Mime's cries of despair sound loud and poignant, testifying to a powerfully displayed vocal mastery."
Soline Heurtebise, Olyrix, 25 October 2023
"Doveroso citare anche, tra gli altri interpreti, il buon Mime del tenore inglese Peter Hoare."
"It is also worth mentioning, among other performers, the fine Mime by the English tenor Peter Hoare."
Alma Torretta, giornaledellamusica.it (26th October 2023)
wagner SIEGFRIED / philharmoniker hamburg live recording
"The Mime of Peter Hoare is truly excellent-sung throughout with minimum “sprechgesang”, interpreted brilliantly as the nasty, fearful and vengeance bent character the work suggests, and if at times it is a little over the top in exaggerated yelps and squawks it can be forgiven as this apparently worked very well in the concert setting and was very well received in the reviews immediately following. It seems to be the custom now to eliminate the humour-such as it was- Wagner intended in the interchanges between Mime and Siegfried, though some does creep back in to the scene between Mime and the Wanderer. I find it to be a superb performance worthy of rank alongside Stolze, Herold Kraus, Heinz Zednik and Graham Clark."
Stewart Crowe, Amazon, 6 October 2023
Berg WOZZECK / aix-en-provence festival
"In McBurney’s conception, the figures of the “elite” oppressors are given no features of humanity—they are a caricature of evil that inspire no empathy. Under such direction, the characters of the Doctor and the Captain were played with mastery by Brindley Sherratt and Peter Hoare, respectively. Well acquainted with Berg’s musical ironies, they stressed as much as they could the strangeness of the text, a strangeness that needs to be visible for the play to work. I particularly cannot forget how Hoare sang “from South to North”—stressing the high note on “South” while leaving, with exquisite irony, the low note of “North” almost inaudible. A true sign of a performer unafraid to give himself to the text."
João Marcos Copertino, Operwire, 17 July 2023
"Le ténor anglais Peter Hoare est un Capitaine portant haut ses couleurs vocales, la voix infusant avec virtuosité, passant des griffures percutantes du grave au miel brûlant de l’aigu"
"English tenor Peter Hoare is a Captain wearing his vocal colors high, his voice infusing with virtuosity, passing from the hard-hitting scratches of the bass to the burning honey of the treble"
Florence Lethurgez, Olyrix, 13 July 2023
"Peter Hoare’s horrid Hauptmann and Brindley Sherratt’s sinister Doktor are exquisite villains."
Shirley Apthorp, Financial Times, 10 July 2023
"Hoare was even more effective than at Covent Garden, with a more percussive ring to the Captain’s manic outbursts."
David Karlin, Bachtrack, 8 July 2023
"Peter Hoare mezcló perfectamente el buen canto con el histrionismo que también le reserva Berg consiguiendo unos resultados excelentes."
"Peter Hoare perfectly blended good singing with the histrionics that Berg also offers, achieving excellent results."
Javier del Olivo, Platea Magazine, 8 July 2023
Berg WOZZECK / royal opera house, covent garden
"Tenor Peter Hoare as the Captain, and bass Brindley Sherratt as the Doctor, make an evil pair, though never slip into caricature. Hoare plays with the sharp pivot between hair-raising head voice and the nastier, more guttural lower reaches. This captures the character’s frantic instability, though there are flashes of (dark) comedy too."
Benjamin Poore, Opera Wire, 30 May 2023
"Several characters use the urinals which the hapless soldier Wozzeck subsequently cleans. This establishes the nature of his downtrodden existence, which is emphasized by the bullying treatment he receives from the captain, excellently played and sung by British tenor Peter Hoare"
Willam Hartston, The Express, 30 May 2023
wagner SIEGFRIED / Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks - sir simon rattle
"Peter Hoare, a former percussionist, showed his ability to sing while banging his hammer on an anvil. He was especially excellent in the second act."
Antoine Lévy-Leboyer, Seen and Heard, 29 June 2023
"Peter Hoare delivered an almost likeable Mime, less whining in self-pity than many others, more musical than merely theatrical"
Alexander Hall, Bachtrack, 9 February 2023
Janáček THE EXCURSIONS OF MR BROUCEK / grange park opera
“At the centre of the show is Peter Hoare’s virtuoso triumph in the sustained role of Brouček,”
Nicholas Kenyan, The Telegraph, 10 June 2022
"Peter Hoare’s Brouček is bigoted and insensitive. But, like Falstaff, the sheer resilience of this craven caitiff garners sympathy, and Hoare’s warm, firm line rises above Brouček’s dull pomposity."
Claire Seymour, The Stage, 10 June 2022
"Pountney’s time-travelling images of Nazis and the fall of the Berlin wall are neatly dovetailed here and the intellectually challenged Mr Brouček — the always excellent Peter Hoare — at last wins some sympathy."
Richard Fairman, Financial Times, 14 June 2022
"Peter Hoare, wearing pork pie hat and red bowtie, is gloriously coarse as the bourgeois landlord Brouček, a sort of Czech Everyman, whose main interests in life are food, beer, and sex."
Clare Colvin, ReviewsGate, June 2022
"The cast, too, shine bright. There can’t be many operas that offer so much fun for so many character-tenors at once. With Peter Hoare seemingly having a high old time in the title role, his colleagues include Mark Le Brocq, Andrew Shore and Adrian Thompson, multi-tasking to the manner born, as does the inimitable baritone Clive Bayley."
Jessica Duchen, The Arts Desk, 10 June 2022
Benjamin LESSONS IN LOVE & VIOLENCE / gran teatre del liceu, barcelona
"Fabuloso el intrigante Mortimer de Peter Hoare"
"Peter Hoare's intriguing Mortimer was fabulous"
Javier del Olivo, Platea Magazine, 27 February 2021
"El barón Mortimer, quien da vida el tenor Peter Hoare cumple con mérito su papel de conspirador equilibrando la tríada del poder que, conjuntamente con la reina Isabel, interpretada por la soprano Georgia Jarman, acaban dibujando el otro lado de la moneda de la jerarquía."
"Baron Mortimer, who plays tenor Peter Hoare, fulfils his role as a conspirator with merit, balancing the triad of power that, together with Queen Elizabeth, played by soprano Georgia Jarman, end up drawing the other side of the hierarchy currency."
Maria Sánchez, Bachtrack, 28 February 2021
"Y en papel del traidor asesino del rey y luego esposo de la reina –y aquí y en el momento de la primera escena en que se habla de aprestar una representación, pura ficción, claro, de ese adulterio y magnicidio, es difícil sustraerse a la evocación de Hamlet, “tradición”, no “plagio”- el tenor Peter Hoare, en parlandos siniestros que hacían perfecta justicia del ora vulgar, ora refinado lenguaje de Crimp, o en canto a veces sibilino, a veces violento, compuso perfectamente el cruel personaje."
"And in the role of the traitorous murderer of the king and then the queen's husband - and here and at the moment of the first scene in which there is talk of preparing a representation, pure fiction, of course, of that adultery and assassination, it is difficult to escape the evocation of Hamlet, "tradition", not "plagiarism" - the tenor Peter Hoare, in sinister talk that did perfect justice to the now vulgar, now refined language of Crimp, or in sometimes sibylline, sometimes violent song, perfectly composed the cruel character."
José Luis Vidal, Scherzo, 1 March 2021
britten NOCTURNE / royal liverpool philharmonic orchestra
“The centrepiece was a superb performance of Benjamin Britten’s Nocturne. ... One could only marvel at Britten’s word-setting, and at Peter Hoare’s beautiful rendition. His enunciation of the verse was exemplary. I felt as if such lines as “It was a climate where, they say,/ The night is more beloved than day” could not be expressed in any other way. I was pleased that that song (words by Coleridge) was more magical and less sinister than in some performances. A “lovely boy” picking fruit in the moonlight wearing nothing but a “twine of leaves” can seem very creepy indeed. Here the harp helped create a sparkling moonlight scene.
Nocturne is not all serious, however. The noises of the night in Midnight’s Bell, a setting of Middleton, had me smiling broadly under my mask, especially the horn’s evocation of bird and animal sounds and Peter Hoare’s mimicking of the cat mewing. Another highlight was Hoare’s negotiating of Keats’ Sleep and Poetry with elaborate, cheerful contributions from flute and clarinet. .”
Peter Connors, Bachtrack, 17th December 2020
Berg WOZZECK / Greek National Opera
“Peter Hoare is delightfully hysterical.”
James Imam, Financial Times, 20th January 2020
Birtwistle THE MASK OF ORPHEUS / English National Opera
“In the insanely demanding title-role, a brave and accomplished performance by a scantily clad Peter Hoare deserves prizes.”
Rupert Christiansen, The Telegraph, 19th October 2019
“Huge respect to the heroic performers, especially Peter Hoare as Orpheus.”
Richard Morrison, The Times, 21st October 2019
“Peter Hoare’s formidable account, often half-naked or draped in a short red robe and looking uncannily like Eddie Izzard or a grizzled Gary Glitter, deserves an Oscar.”
Fiona Maddocks, The Guardian, 26th October 2019
“Peter Hoare is brilliant, as always, as Orpheus the Man.”
Richard Fairman, Financial Times, 21st October 2019
Britten BILLY BUDD / Den Norske Opera, Oslo
“The main roles were consistently well performed, but Peter Hoare probably played the most important in the role of the old Captain Vere at the old folks home, especially at the end of the performance. He shaped the melodies so beautifully, that it could just as well have been high-romantic music, and I stopped reading the text because the diction was so clear.”
Magnus Andersson, Klassekampen Musikkmagasinet, 4th February 2019
Benjamin LESSONS IN LOVE & VIOLENCE / Royal Opera House, Covent Garden
“Even as a military adviser, Mortimer (the bright-voiced tenor Peter Hoare), argues that love — any love — is “poison” to both the human body and the body politic.”
Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times, 11th May 2018
“Peter Hoare (is) utterly compelling as Mortimer.”
Warwick Thompson, Metro, 11th May 2018
“Peter Hoare’s Mortimer – wild-eyed but horribly sane in his actions, spinning even the most grotesque logic into plausible, lovely phrases.”
Alexandra Coghlan, The Arts Desk, 11th May 2018
Janáček JENŮFA / Grange Park Opera at West Horsley Place
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen Jenůfa’s hapless suitors Laca and Steva as strongly or sharply defined as they are by Peter Hoare and Nicky Spence. Hoare’s Laca movingly portrays low self-esteem suddenly finding inner strength, […] Both these excellent tenors sing at the top of their game.”
Rupert Christiansen, The Telegraph, 21 June 2017
“Peter Hoare (Laca) makes this fiendishly high role sound easy, his bright timbre well suited. Hoare is pent with energy, liable to explode at any moment in this volcanic portrayal.”
Louise Lewis, British Theatre Guide 14, June 2017
Ligeti LE GRAND MACABRE / London Symphony Orchestra
“A uniformly strong cast included especially fine contributions from Peter Hoare as the inebriated Piet the Pot”
Barry Millington, Evening Standard Jan 2017
Janáček JENŮFA / English National Opera
“Peter Hoare is the intense Laca, his voice dark and strong, the man’s bitterness, desire and remorse beautifully realised.”
Tim Ashley, The Guardian, June 2016
“The real strength of the cast, though, is in its pair of tenors, Peter Hoare giving another of his gripping character portrayals as Laca…”
Richard Fairman, Financial Times, June 2016
Julian Anderson THEBANS / English National Opera
Peter Hoare was outstanding as the despotic Creon, doomed by his own inflexibility. Hoare commands the whole of proceedings both with gesture and stage movement with a strong, flexible tenor voice”
David Karlin, Bachtrack, May 2014
Berg WOZZECK / Metropolitan Opera
“Peter Hoare has long been an outstanding Captain, not unknown to New York audiences after Esa-Pekka Salonen’s devastating performance with the Philharmonia at Lincoln Center eighteen months ago. Snivelling, abrasive, fundamentally decrepit and yet earnestly devoted to a bankrupt moral order, Hoare’s … tenor suits this role superbly, and his contortions onstage thoroughly enacted the Captain’s inherent hypocrisy.”
David Allen, Bachtrack, March 2014