British bass and Vocal Consultant James Platt was educated at Chetham’s School of Music and went on to study at the Royal Academy of Music and the Opera Course of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He was a member of the Jette Parker Young Artist Programme at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden from 2014-2016.
James combines a busy international career with a thriving teaching studio. He is also a Vocal Consultant for the Mascarade Opera Studio, Florence. He presents public lectures and masterclasses in the Uk and abroad with his company Classical Voice Training.
Engagements in James’ 2022/23 season include a return to the Royal Opera for 1st Nazarene Salome and Il Re Aida, Trulove in a new production of The Rake’s Progress for the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and his debut for the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence as Zacharie in Meyerbeer’s La Prophète. He also sings his first Hunding in concert performances of Die Walküre with the Philharmonie Zuidnederland/Hartmut Haenchen, Verdi’s Requiem with the Hallé Orchestra/Sir Mark Elder and Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Vasily Petrenko.
Recent highlights have included Sarastro Die Zauberflöte for the Royal Opera; Bottom in new productions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Deutsche Oper, Berlin and the Grange Festival; Crespel Les Contes d’Hoffmann and Basilio Il barbiere di Siviglia for the Deutsche Oper, Berlin; Sarastro, Il Commendatore Don Giovanni and Sparafucile Rigoletto for the Welsh National Opera; Ortel Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg for Teatro alla Scala, Milan; First Soldier Salome and Cuno Der Freischütz for the Dutch National Opera; Il Commendatore for Opera North; Gremin Eugene Onegin for Scottish Opera and Notary Don Pasquale at the Glyndebourne Festival.
His concert appearances include Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius with the London Philharmonic Orchestra/Edward Gardner at the BBC Proms, Il Re in a European tour of Ariodante and Bach’s Weihnachts-oratorium with Les Musiciens du Louvre/Marc Minkowski, Shostakovich’s Four Romances on Poems by Pushkin with the Hallé Orchestra/Sir Mark Elder, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Royal Northern Sinfonia/Lars Vogt, Handel’s Messiah with the Hallé Orchestra/Christian Curnyn, Verdi’s Requiem with the Orchestre National de Lyon/Leonard Slatkin, Dvorak’s Requiem with the BBC Symphony Orchestra/Jiri Belohlavek, Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle at the BBC Proms with the BBC Singers/David Hill and Nino’s Ghost in Rossini’s Semiramide also at the BBC Proms with the OAE/Sir Mark Elder.