Alistair Dawes Conductor welcome to my website

Critical Acclaim | My Operatic Repertoire | My Concert Repertoire | To Contact Me |

I am an operatic and orchestral conductor and accompanist of great experience, and a renowned international coach. I have a profound knowledge of numerous operas in the Italian, German, French, English, Russian and Czech repertoires.

I have appeared with all the major UK opera companies conducting Cosi Fan Tutte, Werther, Cavalleria Rusticana, I Pagliacci, Nabucco, Carmen and Peter Grimes amongst many others.

I have also conducted opera gala concerts and worked on televised productions of Prokofiev's Love for Three Oranges, Tipett's Midsummer Marriage and Verdi's Stiffelio in th 1993 Olivier Awards.

I made my conducting début at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden with Massenet's Chérubin and subsequently conducted Cosi Fan Tutte and the Moshinsky production of Peter Grimes both at the Royal Opera House and on tour in Italy.

I made my German conducting début with Verdi's Rigoletto at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf in 1996 and returned to Germany in November 1997 to conduct a series of concerts with José Cura.

In South Africa I conducted Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci, Cosi Fan Tutte, Erwartung, Der Schauspieldirektor, Il Segreto di Susanna, Ariadne, Auf Naxos, Dido and Æeas and Albert Herring. In addtion I made radio recordings, orchestral and operatic concerts and an award winning production of Britten's Death in Venice.

Alonside my operatic experience, I made my orchestral concert début with the Philharmonia Orchestra at the Barbican Centre in London. I also appeared with the City of London Sinfonia at the Exeter Festival and Osbourne House, Isle of Wight in 1997 alongside performances / recordings of Carmen and Samson et Dalila with Sir Colin Davis and the LSO in London.

The 1998 / 99 season opened with my début at Finnish National Opera conducting Peter Grimes concerts with José Cura and the National Symphony Orchestra in Dublin and assistant to Sir Andrew Davis on Pelléas et Mélisande at Glyndebourne.

I was invited to be the Music Director of the new International Longborough Festival Opera in 1998, conducting performances of Wagner's Das Rheingold and Die Walküre during two seasons, to critical acclaim.

The 1999 / 2000 season opened with performances of Tosca in the UK, followed by a return to the Finnish National Opera, for Britten's Peter Grimes.

I made my début at the Carlo Felice in Genova with Britten's Death in Venice and returned to Ireland for further concerts, including a return to Cork and Dublin with José Cura and the RTÉ National Concert Orchestra. This was followed by performances of Tosca and Hänsel und Gretel on tour in the UK.

In January 2001 I made my début in Florence, to overwhelming critical acclaim, conducting Britten's The Rape of Lucretia at the Teatro Goldoni and later in the year returned to the Teatro Comunale for Britten's Death in Venice.

Engagements in 2003 / 2004 included Tosca and the Damnation de Faust with Opera North, vocal and orchestral concerts including Shostakovich Symphony No 8 and Don Giovanni.

In July 04 I conducted the fully staged World Premiere of Will Todd's The Blackened Man - prize winner in the La Scala International Verdi Competition in Milan, at the Buxton Festival, at the Gala Theatre in Durham and at the Linbury Studio at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

My début with Opera North with Massenet's Manon with a return to the company in 2005 to conduct Don Giovanni in England and Northern Ireland, Opera North's début in the Province.

I returned to Italy in the same year to conduct the new Cesare da Lievi production of Peter Grimes in Modena, Reggio Emilia and Ferrara, which were received with outstanding reviews.

I have conducted numerous concerts with renowned orchestras including the RTÉ, Philharmonia and the CLS and soloists O'Neill, Cura, Dessi and Domingo where my expertise in this field, allied with my orchestral repertoire, has led to rapturous receptions. I conducted Dame Kiri te Kanawa and Dennis O'Neill with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra in the prestigious "European Capital of Culture" Concert in Cork in 2006.

Following a series of Mozart and Mendelssohn concerts in 2005 with the Orchestra Sinfonica della Fondazione Arturo Toscanini, I retrurned to Italy in December 2006 to conduct the orchestra on tour in a series of Beethoven concerts. I was also invited later that year by the Fondazione Toscanini to conduct Il Barbiere di Siviglia and I Due Foscari.

With a début in Wellington and Auckland, New Zealand conducting Mozart's Die Zauberflöte in Sir Peter Hall's renowned production for New Zealand Opera, I went on to conduct performances for the Young Artisits Programme at the New National Theatre in Tokyo, before returning to Italy for a series of concerts of Mozart Piano and Violin Concertos in Piacenza.

I conducted the Chamber Orchestra and soloists in the prestigious Parma premiere of Brittens's War Requiem at the Teatro Regio, Parma and returned in November 2007 for orchestral concerts both in Parma and the Teatro Rossini in Lugo with the Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini.

After a major tour of Verdi's Rigoletto in the UK I finished the year with a prestigious gala concert in Reykjavik with Dame Kiri te Kanawa, Gardar Cortes and the Iceland Symphony Orchestra.

My profound knowledge and experience bring constant invitations to numerous conservatoires and training centres, including the Jette Parker Young Artists’ Programme, at Covent Garden, the National Opera Studio in London, the New National Theatre Young Artists’ programme in Tokyo, the Royal Scottish Academy of Music, the New Zealand Opera Emerging Artists Programme and the Cherubini Conservatorio in Florence.

We do have another project that has been taking up some of our time and that's our home in Reggio Emilia in Italy

     alistair dawes enjoy opera!

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