Stuart Patterson

Biography

Opera

Following his studies in Fiesole with Maestro Claudio Desderi, Stuart was engaged into the troupe of the Teatro Verdi di Pisa from 1992 til 1996. His main roles there and all over Tuscany, with Desderi conducting were Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, Ferrando in Cosi fan tutte, Basilio/Curzio in Le Nozze di Figaro, Lucano/Soldato/Valletto in L'Incoronazione di Poppea, Ulisse/Eurimaco in Il Ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria, Ramiro in La Cenerentola.

Elsewhere, his roles have been extremely diverse, including Handel's Acis and Galatea (Damon) and Semele (Jupiter), Cavalli's La Didone (Iarba), at the Tramway in Glasgow, with Warwick Edwards and the Scottish Early Music Consort, then, in the same opera, the role of Enea, at Opéra Comique with Christophe Rousset conducting, Monteverdi's Orfeo (Orfeo), for the Atelier Lyrique de Tourcoing, Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail (Pedrillo) and Zaïde (Gomatz), Haydn's Lo Speziale (Sempronio), Offenbach's La Belle Hélène (Pâris), Milhaud’s Le Pauvre Matelot (The Sailor), again at the Opéra Comique, Gounod’s Mireille (Vincent), Stravinsky’s Le Renard (Le Coq), and in 1999, the French première of Peter Maxwell-Davies's The Lighthouse (Sandy).

Since 2000

In 2000 he began to specialize in character roles. Since then he has sung: Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress (Sellem) and Penderecki's Die Teufel von Loudun (Vater Mignon) at the Teatro Regio di Torino; Carlisle Floyd's Susannah (Elder Gleaton) at the Grand Théâtre de Genève; Rossini's L'Occasione fa il ladro (Eusebio), Il signor Bruschino (Bruschino Figlio), and La scala di seta (Dormont) at the Opéra Comique; Cole Porter's Broadway musical Kiss me, Kate (Gangster) in Palermo; Glück’s L’Ivrogne Corrigé (title-role) in Corsica ; Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi (Gherardo) at the Opéra de Lausanne, conducted by Corrado Rovaris, and Shostakovitch’s The Nose (several roles), again in Lausanne, conducted by Armin Jordan. Stuart Patterson has appeared in three different productions of Rossini's Il Signor Bruschino in Paris, Lausanne and Besançon, each time singing a different role.

In January 2006, he was Harlequin and the Soldier in a touring production of Der Kaiser von Atlatis by Viktor Ullman. He then sang the Madwoman in Britten's Curlew River at the Opéra de Besançon, Snout in A Midsummer Night's Dream in Lyon, Sancho Pança in the Man of La Mancha in Bregenz, Flute in A Midsummer Night's Dream in Bern, the Dance Master in Manon Lescaut in Lyon, Goro in Madama Butterfly at the Staadtsoper, Berlin.

His first wagnerian role, Steuermann in Der Fliegende Holländer, came in 2004 at the Opéra de Besançon.  In 2005, he sang at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City the role of Mime in Siegfried, under M° Guido-Maria Guida. This production was recorded for Mexican television. In 2009 he sang the same role, this time in Lübeck.

Concert and recital

Stuart Patterson has given concerts of sacred music and song recitals throughout his career, and his repertoire in now vast. He continues to sing concerts of works such as Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610, Britten’s Serenade for tenor, horn and strings and Saint Nicholas, Berlioz’s l’Enfance du Christ, Stravinsky's Les Noces, Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle, Haydn’s Die Schöpfung and Stabat Mater, as well as Mozart, Handel and Bach. In recital he has a preference for Schumann, Strauss, Mendelssohn, Haydn, Barber, Britten, Tippett, Purcell and Scots songs.

Contemporary

Stuart Patterson has always enjoyed performing modern music. In recent months he has collaborated with l'Ensemble Intercontemporain, l'Orchestre de Radio France, TM+, l'Ensemble Itinéraire, and the Quatuor Manfred in works such as Philippe Fénelon's Le Chevalier Imaginaire and Le Jardin d'Hiver, the Percussionist in Battistelli's  La Prova d'Orchestra at the Bern Opera, Michel Decouste's 24 Poèmes pour un Eventail, the Stabat Mater by Arvo Pärt, Schönberg's Ode to Napoléon and Patrick Burgan's Audi Coelum.

Recordings

His recordings on CD include Mozart’s Coronation Mass and Vespers conducted by Patrick Marco, Bach’s Saint John Passion (arias) conducted by Paul Dombrecht, Don Basilio and Don Curzio in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro conducted by Jean-Claude Malgoire, as well as many first performances of contemporary music by composers such as Gérard Pesson, Philippe Mion, Jean-Louis Gand et Monique de Cecconi.

In 2009 he recorded his first solo recital, "A Laddie's Sang", with Florence Boissolle accompanying, for Passavant label.

Studies

Born in Perth, Scotland, Stuart Patterson studied singing in Glasgow, London, Florence and Paris. With a French government scholarship he moved to France and became a member of the Groupe Vocal de France. As a member of the troupe in Pisa, Italy, he sang Mozart, Rossini and Monteverdi. Since 2000, he has become a leading specialist in character tenor parts with more than 120 roles to his credit, singing in the most prestigeous opera houses including Covent Garden, where he made his début in 2011 in Werther with Rolando Villazon and Sophie Koch. He created the Festival Lyrique de Montperreux in 2008, of which he is artistic director and he has recently been appointed to the post of Professeur de Chant at the Haute Ecole de Musique de Neuchâtel (Switzerland).