Opera

Highlights of the 2024/25 season include reprising the role of Joey in The Time of Our Singing at La Monnaie, Brussels, Paul in The Little Lives at New Opera Days Ostrava, and Gbatokai in the world premiere of Festen by Mark-Anthony Turnage, at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. He will be a resident Distinguished Visitor at the University of Oxford.

Recent roles include returns to the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, to co-create and perform in Insurrection: A Work in Progress, and to reprise the role of Narrator in the Little Bulb's Olivier Award-winning Wolf Witch Giant Fairy, which will be broadcast in cinemas from October 2024. He made his debut at the Philharmonie de Paris as Stubb in Olga Neuwirth’s The Outcast with Ensemble intercontemporain/Matthias Pintscher/Netia Jones, and sang Melot in a new Tiago Rodrigues production of Tristan und Isolde conducted by Leo Hussain at Opéra national de Lorraine and Théâtre de Caen.

In addition to appearances at Snape Maltings, Aldeburgh, Cheltenham Festivals, the V&A Museum, Historic Royal Palaces, and the British Library, he sang recitals across the UK, including Britten’s song cycle Tit for Tat with Malcolm Martineau at Snape Maltings, Aldeburgh.

A sought-after interpreter of contemporary music, Peter has given many world premieres. He made his Royal Opera House Covent Garden company debut in the world premiere of Jules Maxwell’s The Lost Thing, a co-production with Candoco Dance Company. He made his critically acclaimed Royal Opera House Covent Garden main stage debut as Martin Carter in Hannah Kendall’s one-person opera The Knife of Dawn in 2020 and returned the following season to create the role of Narrator in Wolf Witch Giant Fairy (winner of an Olivier Award 2022). He made his debut at Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, Brussels, creating the role of Joey in Kris Defoort’s The Time of Our Singing (winner of an International Opera Award 2023), and his debut at the Munich Biennale with Ensemble Musikfabrik as Paul in Ann Cleare’s The Little Lives. Peter created the role of Feldspar in Sam Glazer's Fogonogo, touring to the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Philharmonie Luxembourg, Danish National Opera and the Spitalfields Festival in London. He created various roles in the world premiere of Song of the Child, a new opera produced by Operaen i Midten Denmark and Riotous Company (performances at Kulturmødet Mors). Other world premieres include Billy Bone in Lynne Plowman's Captain Blood’s Revenge for Glyndebourne on Tour, Luis in Randal Corsen’s Katibu di Shon with the Nederlandse Reisopera at the Stadsschouwburg Amsterdam, Mimoun in Emily Howard's Zatopek! for Second Movement at Queen Elizabeth Hall with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic (recorded on the NMC label). Peter made his English National Opera debut in the world premiere of Effigies of Wickedness: Songs banned by the Nazis, a co-production conceived by Peter with the Gate Theatre, London.

Peter is a versatile performer across all periods. His roles for English Touring Opera include Elviro Xerxes, Silvano La Calisto, Kaidama Il furioso all’isola di San Domingo, L’incognito L’assedio di Calais, Schaunard La boheme and Christus in a semi staged St John Passion. Peter sang Papageno The Magic Flute for Opera North (reduction). Other roles include L’incognito L’assedio di Calais for Armel Opera Festival, Budapest, Yamadori Madama Butterfly and Marcello La boheme for the Nederlandse Reisopera, Sid La Fanciulla del West for Opera Holland Park and Nelson Porgy & Bess for Opera de Lyon. He sang the title role in Viktor Ullmann’s Der Kaiser von Atlantis with Loud Crowd/CHROMA Ensemble at Bold Tendencies, and Jean in Philippe Boesmans' Julie at Operastudio Vlaanderen, Ghent.

In recent concert work, Peter performed Schubert’s Winterreise at London’s St John’s Smith Square with Roderick Williams (part of Barbara Hannigan’s Momentum), and Britten’s The Five Canticles at Leeds Lieder with Mark Padmore, Iestyn Davies and Joseph Middleton. He premiered Na’ama Zisser’s Beloved Visitors and co-curated a new song cycle based on migrant experiences as Artist-in-Residence of Manchester Jewish Museum. He performed Copland’s Old American Songs with Chineke! Orchestra at the Bath, Bury St Edmunds and Brighton festivals, conducted by Wayne Marshall. He has performed Mozart arias in televised concerts with the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Tonu Kaljuste, and appeared as a soloist with the London Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra and BBC Concert, in venues such as the Royal Albert Hall, Royal Festival Hall, Barbican, Birmingham Symphony Hall and deSingel, Antwerp. Festival appearances include Aldeburgh, Edinburgh International, Brighton, London Handel and Britten100 at BAM, New York. He has performed in recital at London Song Festival, Bridgewater Hall, the Elgar Room (Royal Albert Hall) and the Opera Vlaanderen with pianists including Nigel Foster, Graham Johnson and Alisdair Hogarth. He has appeared at Shakespeare's Globe as a principal vocalist in Mark Rylance's What You Will and Sonnet Walks; and returned to premiere music by Orlando Gough in Othello at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse.

To bring attention to lesser-known works of composers silenced by the Nazi regime, Peter created the multimedia recital Degenerate Music: Music Banned by the Nazis (London Song Festival/Studio Niculescu Berlin/JW3/Manchester Jewish Museum/Schubert Society of Great Britain/BBC Radio 3). Peter is a Trustee of Leeds Lieder, Second Movement Opera and CHROMA Ensemble.

Peter holds a Master’s with distinction from the Royal College of Music, where he won various prizes and studied as a Scholar at the Royal College of Music International Opera School. His roles at the International Opera School included Nardo La finta giardiniera, Papageno Die Zauberfloete and Demetrius A Midsummer Night’s Dream. He continued his training at the Operastudio Vlaanderen, Ghent. Peter was born in Manchester and graduated with a First Class degree in Philosophy & Fine Art from Newcastle University.

His awards include a Peter Moores Foundation Major Award, an Independent Opera at Sadler's Wells Fellowship, The Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Award, a Winston Churchill Fellowship, and the International Opera Awards Foundation Bursary. In 2015, he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA). He is the recipient of a Genesis Foundation Kickstart Award (2021). In 2021 he was shortlisted for a Royal Philharmonic Society award. He was admitted to the degree of Doctor of Music (DMus) honoris causa of Newcastle University in 2023. In 2024 he joined the Church of England’s Contested Heritage Committee and was elected as a Fellow Commoner at The Queen's College, University of Oxford. He is currently a visiting artist at the University of Oxford developing a performance project with the Humanities Cultural Programme/TORCH and the Bodleian Centre for the Study of the Book.