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Born in Ayr, Nan Christie studied at the R.S.A.M.D. in Glasgow. After winning the James Caird Travelling Scholarship, the Countess of Munster Award and the prestigious Peter Styvesant Scholarship to study at the London Opera Centre she made her debut at the Royal Opera House in Parsifal conducted by Reginald Goodall.
Throughout her her distinguished career she has sung with her native Scottish Opera, accompanying them on tours of Portugal, Switzerland, Ireland and Germany. Roles include Zerbinetta (Ariadne auf Naxos), Blonda (Die Entführung aus dem Serail), the Queen of Night (The Magic Flute), Tytania (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), the Queen of Shemakhan (Le Coq d’Or), Despina (Così fan tutte), Nanetta (Falstaff) and Birdie in Marc Blitzstein’s (Regina). She has also appeared with the English Music Theatre as Sandrina (La Finta Giardiniera), Pamina (The Magic Flute) and Sophie in the world premiere of Stephen Oliver’s Tom Jones with Opera North as Tytania; at the Glyndebourne Festival as Isotta (Die Schweigsame Frau), Despina (Così fan Tutte) and with English National Opera as Countess Adele (Count Ory), the Queen of Night in Nicholas Hytner’s Magic Flute, Zdenka (Arabella) and Euridice (Orpheus in the Underworld). At the Edinburgh International Festival she sang Frasquita in (Carmen) conducted by Claudio Abbado.
Outside this country she has appeared at the Theatre de La Monnaie, Brussels as Lauretta (Gianni Schicchi), with Netherlands Opera as Despina, with Opera de Nancy as Pamina in Andrei Serban’s production of Die Zauberflöte, Marseille Opera as the Queen of the Night, Stadttheater Bonn as Oscar (Ballo in Maschera), with the Zürich Opera at the Festivals of Zürich and Lausanne as Giunia (Lucio Silla) which formed part of the Zurich Opera’s famous Harnoncourt/Ponnelle Mozart cycle, and “Mitridate“ at La Fenice in Venice. As a regular guest artist with the Frankfurt Opera, Miss Christie’s roles included Zerbinetta, Marie in Zimmerman’s (Die Soldaten), Oscar, Gilda (Rigoletto), Blonda and Susanna in (Le Nozze di Figaro) and appeared as Frasquita in the Arena production of Carmen in London’s Earls Court and toured Birmingham, Dortmund and Japan .
On the concert platform Nan Christie has worked with the Halle, BBCSO, RPO LPO Philhamonia and the London Symphony Orchestra, under such conductors as Andre Previn, Sir Simon Rattle, Nicholas Harnoncourt, Michael Gielen, Yehudi Menuhin, Sir John Pritchard, Sir Andrew Davies Sir Mark Elder, Sir Alexander Gibson and Leonard Slatkin and has toured and recorded with the Nash Ensemble of London and the London Sinfonietta. As part of the London Symphony’s Bernstein Festival she sang Cunegonde in Candide conducted by John Mauceri and has sung as far afield as Singapore and Hong Kong. She appeared as Madame Herz in the BBC Television award winning production of Der Schauspieldirektor and appears in the films of Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Gondoliers, The Sorcerer, and Princess Ida. For television she has also recorded Le Feu and Le Rossignol in Ravel's L’Enfant et les Sortileges conducted by Sir Bernard Haitink for Glyndebourne Festival Productions.
She has sung Mavra in Paris with the Ensemble Incontemporain conducted by Pierre Boulez, recorded Nicolas Maw’s La Vita Nuova with the Nash Ensemble and performed and recorded the world premiere of The Doctor of Myddfai by Peter Maxwell Davis, and created the role of The Psychopomp in the world premiere of Jonathan Harvey’s Inquest of Love at English National Opera and in Theatre De La Monnaie in Brussels. She sang and recorded Melancholia by Dusapin and the Orchestre de Lyon and gave the European Premiere of The Angel in William Bolcom’s Songs of Innocence and Experience with the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Leonard Slatkin in the Festival Hall.
She is currently classical vocal tutor and director of OperaGold at Goldsmiths College Music Department In London. Since forming the OperaGold in 2004 she has designed and directed Venus and Adonis, Dido and Aeneas, Die Zauberflöte, Carmen (Goldsmiths and Greenwich Theatre Production), Le Nozze di Figaro, Peter Grimes, Rigoletto, La Traviata and as part of Britten’s centenary celebrations, A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
January 2015
Biography
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All content copyright Nan Christie 2015.