Described by Hugh Canning as "clearly a name to watch", James McOran-Campbell is an exceptionally promising young baritone, regularly acclaimed in the press both for his vocal quality and his attractive and compelling stage presence.

Biography

James made his national debut in the title role of Don Giovanni for Opera North, for whom he has also sung Count Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro, a role he first performed at the Royal Festival Hall for British Youth Opera.

London-born, he read French and Russian at Exeter before working as a financial analyst at British Airways. He began his operatic training in Milan, then at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and at the National Opera Studio. He studies with Robert Dean and is represented by Athole Still International.

His career already includes engagements with many of the principal national companies. His work with Grange Park Young Artists, including Belcore in The Elixir of Love and his critically-acclaimed performance of the title role in The Barber of Seville, led to engagements with Grange Park Festival Opera as Bello in La Fanciulla del West and Hajny /Lovec in Rusalka. He will reprise the latter role for the company in 2011.

For Welsh National Opera he has sung Dandini Cenerentola under Carlo Rizzi, and for English National Opera he understudied in Death in Venice. He took the central baritone role in the world premiere of The Ground beneath her Feet with the Hallé Orchestra under Mark Elder. Recently he sang Dr. Falke at Castleward Opera and at Wexford, roles in The Coronation of Poppea for the Early Opera Company at Iford and Nardo in La Finta Giardiniera for Opéra de Baugé. He has worked several times both for English Touring Opera and Garsington Opera, and for touring company Garden Opera he has sung Dr. Malatesta Don Pasquale, Marcello La Bohème and Guglielmo Cosí fan Tutte. Further recent successes include Gallanthus in The Poisoned Kiss for New Sussex Opera and title role Hamlet for English Pocket Opera. He also understudied Pelléas for Independent Opera at Sadler’s Wells.

Professional collaborations have included film and stage directors such as Mike Figgis, Christopher Alden, Olivia Fuchs, John Copley, Anthony McDonald, Martin Lloyd Evans, Tom Hawkes and Martin Constantine, and conductors such as Stephen Barlow, Sir David Willcocks, Rory MacDonald, Christian Curnyn, David Angus, Christian Gansch, Christopher Moulds, Richard Balcombe, and Dominic Wheeler.

In the field of contemporary opera, he has created roles in world premières by Keith Burstein and Peter Wiegold. His operatic repertoire also includes Prince Tarquinius The Rape of Lucretia, the Four Villains The Tales of Hoffmann, Achillas Julius Caesar, Argante Rinaldo, Proteo/Marte Il Parnasso in Festa and Marco Gianni Schicchi at St. John's, Smith Square.

In recital, he most recently appeared at the newly-opened King's Place alongside Iain Burnside, performing world premieres of Tarik O'Regan's settings of texts by Andrew Motion, the Poet Laureate. He has sung Finzi's Earth and Air and Rain, Jake Heggie's Thoughts Unspoken and Poulenc's Le Travail du Peintre at the Crush Room, Royal Opera House. Concert appearances in the UK and abroad also include Mozart Requiem (Royal Albert Hall), Rossini Petite Messe Solennelle (Complesso Cameristico Internazionale in Milan and Savona, Little Venice Festival and Philharmonia Chorus in London), Michael Tippett's Child of Our Time and Brahms’ Ein Deutches Requiem (Chiesa San Carlo, Milan). Further recitals include Fauré’s La Bonne Chanson (Edinburgh Quartet), Schubert's Winterreise and Schumann's Liederkreis op.39 (both for the Schubert Society), Zarzuela (televised concert, Spain), Stanford's Songs of the Sea at Snape Maltings and a fund-raising gala at the Linbury, Covent Garden.

Together with tenor Alexander Anderson-Hall, he regularly performs a selection of eclectic recital programmes which they have devised under the name of Opera Galleria.

Plans include Rolf in The Sound of Music at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, Elijah at Arundel Cathedral, Papageno for Opéra de Baugé and Prince Yamadori in Madame Butterfly at the Royal Albert Hall.

Recordings include Songs of the Phoenix, a programme of Italian arias, songs and duets for baritone and tenor recorded at Champs Hill, Surrey, with Alexander Anderson-Hall. Also settings of English songs by Harold Craxton.

CDs can also be made available of the Crush Room recital Le Travail du Peintre with Mark Packwood and the Opera and Song concert given in June with Alexander Anderson-Hall (tenor) and Gareth Owen (piano).

James McOran-Campbell

Baritone

Biography